Reply To: Historical Fiction

Oh please don’t slam me, but I really didn’t care for this book, and it probably should have come with a trigger warning.

It’s not that I haven’t read books about difficult subjects, war or genocide, (and as I said in an earlier comment, I am aware of the Armenian genocide) but I thought the book was too graphic, especially in the first half of the book.  The beheading scene gave me nightmares.  I didn’t even care much about the characters until the second half of the book.

But I do have some questions about the backstories:

1.  Why was it titled The Sandcastle Girls?  Yes there were mentions of building sandcastles in the book, but I didn’t see the connections to the story.
2. What was the importance of the lamb chop for breakfast every morning for the grandfather (Armen) when they came to the United States?    Why did they dress the brother up in a costume and the girl had go-go boots?  Why did the aunt belly dance to entertain the group and never do it again?  I thought some of the back stories were disconnected.