I almost never go for WWI fiction, so for Alice Winn to have me hanging on her every word means she truly wrote a shattering novel, daring and full of life, and above all, romantic while remaining unsentimental. In Memoriam is grandiose in scope but plays a very careful hand: Winn's prose is meticulous, never overly-flourished, but fully understands the humanity of her characters and the very real battlefield they find themselves on. I was close to loving In Memoriam but the only thing holding me back was the sheer cast size of the novel and the lack of description to make the characters really stand out. In a lethal environment like this, where death surrounds soldiers, it's uncertain who the key players are and who will soon be on the K.I.A. list, so I was never sure who among the ranks I needed to remember. (And there were a lot of them.) I only wished there had been more character descriptions—even for the novel's two protagonists, I had to create my own mental image early on, since there was very little to go on. With a little more grounding in character and scenic details, this could've been a perfect novel. As it stands, it's still blistering and a novel I see myself coming back to. Instant classic, Gaunt + Ellwood 4ever!!!