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Born at the Gates of Hell: A Doctor's Frontline Story of Delivering Babies in al-Hol Camp in Syria
An OB-GYN at the center of the Syrian refugee crisis recounts 9 grueling months at the al-Hol refugee camp—a place of violence and murder, love and survival
Imagine what it’s like to be pregnant and give birth—or to try to care for and protect a family in the middle of hopelessness?
This book is not about politics. It is about individual human beings in a dry, barren landscape. Up to 75,000 people at a time—mostly women, babies, and children—live for years in tents and have no prospect of leaving because no country will have them.
Maria Milland takes readers on a powerful, documentary journey to meet the pregnant and laboring women facing the difficult, harsh, and violent living conditions of al-Hol camp in northeast Syria. Her firsthand account provides vivid, unique, and honest insight into life inside the camp, which has never before been described to the outside world.
Amidst the brutal everyday realities of the camp, the maternity ward is a safe space, where health problems, as well as existential challenges, are displayed and embraced—and children are born. Behind towering fences, sprawling in the desert’s nothingness, they spend their childhood deprived of fundamental human rights, and with the looming risk of growing into a new generation of Islamic fundamentalists.
Beautifully written and carefully observed, this is not only a story of resilience and hope in the face of hopelessness, but also serves as a powerful reminder of our shared humanity.
Imagine what it’s like to be pregnant and give birth—or to try to care for and protect a family in the middle of hopelessness?
This book is not about politics. It is about individual human beings in a dry, barren landscape. Up to 75,000 people at a time—mostly women, babies, and children—live for years in tents and have no prospect of leaving because no country will have them.
Maria Milland takes readers on a powerful, documentary journey to meet the pregnant and laboring women facing the difficult, harsh, and violent living conditions of al-Hol camp in northeast Syria. Her firsthand account provides vivid, unique, and honest insight into life inside the camp, which has never before been described to the outside world.
Amidst the brutal everyday realities of the camp, the maternity ward is a safe space, where health problems, as well as existential challenges, are displayed and embraced—and children are born. Behind towering fences, sprawling in the desert’s nothingness, they spend their childhood deprived of fundamental human rights, and with the looming risk of growing into a new generation of Islamic fundamentalists.
Beautifully written and carefully observed, this is not only a story of resilience and hope in the face of hopelessness, but also serves as a powerful reminder of our shared humanity.
224 pages, Paperback
Published March 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 8, 2025
I wasn’t expecting to get pulled into this story as much as I did!
OB-GYN Maria Milland recounts nine grueling months at the al-Hol camp in northeast Syria.
This camp is the largest one in Syria. It’s located in the NE corner, not far from the Turkish border and only 15km from the Iraqi border. It was established in 1991 as a refugee camp for fleeing Iraqis during the Gulf War and originally housed 15,000 refugees.
Three decades later, it has swollen to 57,000 people and has become a detention camp surrounded by fences and towers with armed guards. It holds mostly Syrians and Iraqis; 90% are women and children, most with links to ISIS fighters.
Can you imagine having a baby who begins life with detention, has no prospect of when, if ever, they’d ever be allowed to leave a barbed wire camp or see outside a city of tents?
Can you imagine being given an Oxytocin drip to speed up your delivery because the medical team has to leave the encampment by 4pm? Because it’s too dangerous for you and the team to be outside walking in the dark in the tent city?
Can you imagine your nine-year-old having her womb removed because a bullet had pierced her pelvis?
Can you imagine going to the supermarket on your day off and seeing various weapons for sale?
I can’t imagine ANY of it. I’m heartbroken that so many live in so much uncertainty, not having any prospect that things will get better or that things could be different.
We have so much to be thankful for…sometimes it’s good to be reminded of the blessings we take for granted. Yes, this was a necessary read during this festive season. Life isn’t holly and bells the world over. This reads like a conversation over coffee with a friend. It’s presented without much emotion or politics, just the bare facts of the experience. I’d read another book written by this author about any of the other 10 assignments she’s worked.
I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
OB-GYN Maria Milland recounts nine grueling months at the al-Hol camp in northeast Syria.
This camp is the largest one in Syria. It’s located in the NE corner, not far from the Turkish border and only 15km from the Iraqi border. It was established in 1991 as a refugee camp for fleeing Iraqis during the Gulf War and originally housed 15,000 refugees.
Three decades later, it has swollen to 57,000 people and has become a detention camp surrounded by fences and towers with armed guards. It holds mostly Syrians and Iraqis; 90% are women and children, most with links to ISIS fighters.
Can you imagine having a baby who begins life with detention, has no prospect of when, if ever, they’d ever be allowed to leave a barbed wire camp or see outside a city of tents?
Can you imagine being given an Oxytocin drip to speed up your delivery because the medical team has to leave the encampment by 4pm? Because it’s too dangerous for you and the team to be outside walking in the dark in the tent city?
Can you imagine your nine-year-old having her womb removed because a bullet had pierced her pelvis?
Can you imagine going to the supermarket on your day off and seeing various weapons for sale?
I can’t imagine ANY of it. I’m heartbroken that so many live in so much uncertainty, not having any prospect that things will get better or that things could be different.
We have so much to be thankful for…sometimes it’s good to be reminded of the blessings we take for granted. Yes, this was a necessary read during this festive season. Life isn’t holly and bells the world over. This reads like a conversation over coffee with a friend. It’s presented without much emotion or politics, just the bare facts of the experience. I’d read another book written by this author about any of the other 10 assignments she’s worked.
I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
March 18, 2026
Born at the Gates of Hell by Danish obstetrician Maria Milland is an unflinching account of her time in the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria.
As someone who works in maternal and child health, I read this with a particular kind of attention. The clinical realities are there, birth in crisis, limited resources, impossible conditions, but they never feel distant or abstract. They become real in the lived experiences of the women and children at the center of this work.
Milland writes with clarity and restraint, allowing the weight of what she witnesses to speak for itself. There is loss here, and there is suffering, but there is also resilience, care, and an insistence on dignity even in the most extreme circumstances.
This is not an easy read, but it is an important one. It offers a perspective that feels both necessary and rarely centered, particularly in conversations about global health and humanitarian care.
Thank you to Dr. Milland, Steerforth and Pushkin, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy.
As someone who works in maternal and child health, I read this with a particular kind of attention. The clinical realities are there, birth in crisis, limited resources, impossible conditions, but they never feel distant or abstract. They become real in the lived experiences of the women and children at the center of this work.
Milland writes with clarity and restraint, allowing the weight of what she witnesses to speak for itself. There is loss here, and there is suffering, but there is also resilience, care, and an insistence on dignity even in the most extreme circumstances.
This is not an easy read, but it is an important one. It offers a perspective that feels both necessary and rarely centered, particularly in conversations about global health and humanitarian care.
Thank you to Dr. Milland, Steerforth and Pushkin, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy.
February 9, 2026
This memoir was an interesting look at life in the Al Hol Camp in Syria, told through the eyes of a Danish OB-Gyn on mission with the Red Cross. Eye opening.
3.5 stars.
Thanks to Libro FM for my complimentary listening copy.
3.5 stars.
Thanks to Libro FM for my complimentary listening copy.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Born at the Gates of Hell
is Danish obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Maria Milland’s account of her nine months providing medical care for women in northeastern Syria. From March to December 2022, she served at the Red Cross hospital in the al-Hol detention camp near the country’s border with Turkey and Iraq. The author describes it as the worst place on Earth she’s ever been—which is something, as she’s seen more than a few troubled spots over the years.
Surrounded by razor wire and guard towers, this tent city in the desert had 57,000 inhabitants during Milland’s time there. (At an earlier point, it had seen as many as 75,000.) Originally created to accommodate Gulf and Iraq War refugees, it was transformed into a camp where those with links to ISIS fighters were trapped for years. No one knew what to do with these people, 90 percent of whom were women and children. At the time of Milland’s mission, almost two thirds of the population consisted of kids under 18, with 50 percent being under twelve. Most were Syrian or Iraqi, but around a sixth were of other nationalities; they were the families of foreigners who came to the region to fight for one faction or another. These “other nationalities” were considered a particular security threat and consequently confined to the “annex”, a separate part of the camp. They also had their own admission area and ward in the hospital where Milland worked.
Not anchored by family commitments and being of a restless, curious, and adventurous nature, the author had participated in 11 previous humanitarian missions for various international organizations before going to Syria. She served in Africa, the Middle and Far East, as well as the Caribbean. When she was considering the post, the Red Cross, in answer to her questions about security, informed her that a 26-year-old Red Crescent healthcare worker had been fatally shot and a Red Cross surgeon stabbed at the camp. In spite of being forewarned, she says that nothing prepared her for what she experienced there.
Although relatively brief, her book provides a wealth of general information on the northeastern Levant and her placement. First, Milland notes the region’s refugee problem. Lebanon has been particularly hard hit: over a quarter of that country’s population are refugees. She also describes the desolate landscape where al-Hol is located. It’s a place almost completely devoid of vegetation where summer temperatures are nearly intolerable, reaching 50° Celsius (120° F). The wind and dust are unrelenting.
Practical matters are also covered: the visas and other documentation Milland had to present, the modes and routes of travel, currency, and living arrangements. One of the doctor’s tasks before leaving for Syria was to purchase a hijab at a shop in Copenhagen. Later, upon her arrival in Lebanon, Milland was briefed, then required to fill out a “proof of life” form. This involved responding to a series of security questions that would help identify her should she be abducted.
The major challenge was, of course, the threat to safety. For this reason, medical staff working with international humanitarian organizations did not live near the camp but an hour’s drive away, in the city of al-Hasakah. They were brought into the camp in the morning and transported away in the late afternoon of each workday, as it was too dangerous to remain there after nightfall. Checkpoints were a feature of daily life.
As one can imagine, this kind of work arrangement posed particular problems for those working in the maternity department. One of the first lessons Milland learned was related to the way births were managed. Labour needed to be well on the way by 2 pm. “To navigate a scarcity of time,” midwives induced labour by administering oxytocin. Milland had never before witnessed induction of labour for reasons other than medical ones. However, this strategy allowed mothers and babies to make their way back to their tents before dark. When necessary, patients with certain gynaecological or pregnancy-related problems could be left overnight in the care of the local night nurse. And sometimes a woman’s medical condition demanded that she be transferred to the only 24-hour medical facility in the camp or even to a hospital in al-Hasakah, but such arrangements were very difficult to make. Communication between the various clinics and field hospitals was minimal to nonexistent.
Throughout her time, Milland had to rely on patients’ muddled self-reports—processed through an excellent interpreter. Many of the women did not know their birthdates, nor could they reliably describe what had happened to them in the past. Some spoke of surgeries and procedures which physical exams did not corroborate.
On her approach to the camp for the first time, Milland observed women in their black abayas (wide-sleeved robes) going about “like moving tents.” In her early days at the hospital, it was impossible for her to distinguish one waiting woman from another, as their faces were entirely covered but for a slit for the eyes. No skin or hair was visible, and black stockings concealed their ankles. However, once they entered the consultation room with the doctor, the interpreter, and possibly a midwife present, the women removed the obscuring garments to reveal ordinary clothing underneath.
As one would expect, a significant portion of this book is concerned with the medical cases Milland encountered. The first patient she saw was a girl of nine who’d been caught in the crossfire between rival groups within the camp. She’d been shot in the abdomen and had to have her uterus removed, as the damage and internal bleeding were so severe. The child was traumatized and would not allow Milland to approach. Needless to say, the odds were against this poor girl, born into a culture where women’s primary role is to bear children.
The author goes on to describe several cases of preeclampsia, a serious blood-pressure pregnancy complication, which causes severe headaches, protein in the urine, abdominal pain, and sudden swelling. She also encountered many women who’d undergone caesarean sections, which elevate risks in subsequent pregnancies. Cases involving placental abruption (when the placenta separates from the uterine wall before birth), severe fetal abnormality, and fetuses that have died in utero are reported on. Unsurprisingly, there’s also an advanced case of TB. Almost every patient Dr. Milland saw already had many children. Some women began childbearing before the age of 18. (The author presents an excellent overview of early marriage and childbearing in the Muslim culture of the Levant. Some of the gains made for girls and young women were lost in the time of ISIS and the Syrian Civil War.) Numerous patients had also miscarried one or more times. Several had seen their children die, sometimes in violent ways.
It was known that many mothers gave birth “at home” in their tents, never seeking care—but just how many did so was unclear. At one point, the author wonders about the pregnancies she sees: how could there be so many? Most women lived alone with their children. Their husbands were dead or missing, and, relatively speaking, there were very few men in al-Hol. Milland does not raise the matter of rape, but it is hard to believe it would not have been occurring given the general level of violence there. In fact, there were several weeks in which Kurdish security forces performed a large-scale operation “to protect the al-Hol camp and its residents from infiltration by the Islamic State.” The forces systematically searched tents and residents, confiscating huge numbers of weapons—guns and blades—and arresting 125 people with ties to ISIS.
Milland did not just care for her patients’ bodies, she also bore witness to the women’s suffering and trauma. Towards the end of her time at al-Hol, when she was hanging on by the skin of her teeth, she received virtual counselling and was sent resources to understand the “vicarious trauma” she was suffering from. This occurs when a person is “indirectly exposed to trauma by repeatedly listening to others’ distressing experiences.” Earlier in her mission, she’d also had to return home to Denmark to seek medical care for conditions which Syrian specialists were apparently neither inclined nor equipped to diagnose and treat.
When the author did return to Denmark for good, just before Christmas 2022, her cousin asked her: “Do you think you have helped bring the next generation of ISIS fighters into the world?”
Before answering, she reflected on the sad lives of the young who are trapped there:
In the end, the most troubling fact for the author is “that the al-Hol camp exists at all — that there is such a place on this Earth.”
Based on her notes and diary entries, Milland’s book was originally written in Danish before the author herself translated it into English. It concludes with an extensive bibliography. My copy was a pre-publication one and there were a couple of places where transitions from one scene to another were abrupt. I hope these will be smoothed out in the final version.
I learned a great deal from this informative and compelling book. Milland’s style is clear, direct, and unpretentious. I am grateful to Steerforth Press and Net Galley for providing me with an advance reader copy, as well as to the author herself for writing this book.
Surrounded by razor wire and guard towers, this tent city in the desert had 57,000 inhabitants during Milland’s time there. (At an earlier point, it had seen as many as 75,000.) Originally created to accommodate Gulf and Iraq War refugees, it was transformed into a camp where those with links to ISIS fighters were trapped for years. No one knew what to do with these people, 90 percent of whom were women and children. At the time of Milland’s mission, almost two thirds of the population consisted of kids under 18, with 50 percent being under twelve. Most were Syrian or Iraqi, but around a sixth were of other nationalities; they were the families of foreigners who came to the region to fight for one faction or another. These “other nationalities” were considered a particular security threat and consequently confined to the “annex”, a separate part of the camp. They also had their own admission area and ward in the hospital where Milland worked.
Not anchored by family commitments and being of a restless, curious, and adventurous nature, the author had participated in 11 previous humanitarian missions for various international organizations before going to Syria. She served in Africa, the Middle and Far East, as well as the Caribbean. When she was considering the post, the Red Cross, in answer to her questions about security, informed her that a 26-year-old Red Crescent healthcare worker had been fatally shot and a Red Cross surgeon stabbed at the camp. In spite of being forewarned, she says that nothing prepared her for what she experienced there.
Although relatively brief, her book provides a wealth of general information on the northeastern Levant and her placement. First, Milland notes the region’s refugee problem. Lebanon has been particularly hard hit: over a quarter of that country’s population are refugees. She also describes the desolate landscape where al-Hol is located. It’s a place almost completely devoid of vegetation where summer temperatures are nearly intolerable, reaching 50° Celsius (120° F). The wind and dust are unrelenting.
Practical matters are also covered: the visas and other documentation Milland had to present, the modes and routes of travel, currency, and living arrangements. One of the doctor’s tasks before leaving for Syria was to purchase a hijab at a shop in Copenhagen. Later, upon her arrival in Lebanon, Milland was briefed, then required to fill out a “proof of life” form. This involved responding to a series of security questions that would help identify her should she be abducted.
The major challenge was, of course, the threat to safety. For this reason, medical staff working with international humanitarian organizations did not live near the camp but an hour’s drive away, in the city of al-Hasakah. They were brought into the camp in the morning and transported away in the late afternoon of each workday, as it was too dangerous to remain there after nightfall. Checkpoints were a feature of daily life.
As one can imagine, this kind of work arrangement posed particular problems for those working in the maternity department. One of the first lessons Milland learned was related to the way births were managed. Labour needed to be well on the way by 2 pm. “To navigate a scarcity of time,” midwives induced labour by administering oxytocin. Milland had never before witnessed induction of labour for reasons other than medical ones. However, this strategy allowed mothers and babies to make their way back to their tents before dark. When necessary, patients with certain gynaecological or pregnancy-related problems could be left overnight in the care of the local night nurse. And sometimes a woman’s medical condition demanded that she be transferred to the only 24-hour medical facility in the camp or even to a hospital in al-Hasakah, but such arrangements were very difficult to make. Communication between the various clinics and field hospitals was minimal to nonexistent.
Throughout her time, Milland had to rely on patients’ muddled self-reports—processed through an excellent interpreter. Many of the women did not know their birthdates, nor could they reliably describe what had happened to them in the past. Some spoke of surgeries and procedures which physical exams did not corroborate.
On her approach to the camp for the first time, Milland observed women in their black abayas (wide-sleeved robes) going about “like moving tents.” In her early days at the hospital, it was impossible for her to distinguish one waiting woman from another, as their faces were entirely covered but for a slit for the eyes. No skin or hair was visible, and black stockings concealed their ankles. However, once they entered the consultation room with the doctor, the interpreter, and possibly a midwife present, the women removed the obscuring garments to reveal ordinary clothing underneath.
As one would expect, a significant portion of this book is concerned with the medical cases Milland encountered. The first patient she saw was a girl of nine who’d been caught in the crossfire between rival groups within the camp. She’d been shot in the abdomen and had to have her uterus removed, as the damage and internal bleeding were so severe. The child was traumatized and would not allow Milland to approach. Needless to say, the odds were against this poor girl, born into a culture where women’s primary role is to bear children.
The author goes on to describe several cases of preeclampsia, a serious blood-pressure pregnancy complication, which causes severe headaches, protein in the urine, abdominal pain, and sudden swelling. She also encountered many women who’d undergone caesarean sections, which elevate risks in subsequent pregnancies. Cases involving placental abruption (when the placenta separates from the uterine wall before birth), severe fetal abnormality, and fetuses that have died in utero are reported on. Unsurprisingly, there’s also an advanced case of TB. Almost every patient Dr. Milland saw already had many children. Some women began childbearing before the age of 18. (The author presents an excellent overview of early marriage and childbearing in the Muslim culture of the Levant. Some of the gains made for girls and young women were lost in the time of ISIS and the Syrian Civil War.) Numerous patients had also miscarried one or more times. Several had seen their children die, sometimes in violent ways.
It was known that many mothers gave birth “at home” in their tents, never seeking care—but just how many did so was unclear. At one point, the author wonders about the pregnancies she sees: how could there be so many? Most women lived alone with their children. Their husbands were dead or missing, and, relatively speaking, there were very few men in al-Hol. Milland does not raise the matter of rape, but it is hard to believe it would not have been occurring given the general level of violence there. In fact, there were several weeks in which Kurdish security forces performed a large-scale operation “to protect the al-Hol camp and its residents from infiltration by the Islamic State.” The forces systematically searched tents and residents, confiscating huge numbers of weapons—guns and blades—and arresting 125 people with ties to ISIS.
Milland did not just care for her patients’ bodies, she also bore witness to the women’s suffering and trauma. Towards the end of her time at al-Hol, when she was hanging on by the skin of her teeth, she received virtual counselling and was sent resources to understand the “vicarious trauma” she was suffering from. This occurs when a person is “indirectly exposed to trauma by repeatedly listening to others’ distressing experiences.” Earlier in her mission, she’d also had to return home to Denmark to seek medical care for conditions which Syrian specialists were apparently neither inclined nor equipped to diagnose and treat.
When the author did return to Denmark for good, just before Christmas 2022, her cousin asked her: “Do you think you have helped bring the next generation of ISIS fighters into the world?”
Before answering, she reflected on the sad lives of the young who are trapped there:
The al-Hol camp is not a place for children to be born and grow up. They are confined — surrounded by a towering, unfriendly fence that unmistakably marks the boundary of their freedom of movement, exploration, and discovery of the world. The camp’s own environment is grim. The children have a limited range of experiences that can mold their perception of the world as a positive place to live in.Then she spoke. Even though there was a higher likelihood for those who’d grown up in such a place to become radicalized, she said, she could only hope for the best for those children. “Their fate is not yet decided.”
In the end, the most troubling fact for the author is “that the al-Hol camp exists at all — that there is such a place on this Earth.”
Based on her notes and diary entries, Milland’s book was originally written in Danish before the author herself translated it into English. It concludes with an extensive bibliography. My copy was a pre-publication one and there were a couple of places where transitions from one scene to another were abrupt. I hope these will be smoothed out in the final version.
I learned a great deal from this informative and compelling book. Milland’s style is clear, direct, and unpretentious. I am grateful to Steerforth Press and Net Galley for providing me with an advance reader copy, as well as to the author herself for writing this book.
Review of advance copy
I'm always looking to learn more about the world we live in, and books offer an unbeatable way to learn and immerse myself in places and cultures without having to leave the comfort of my own home.
The refugee camps in Syria have been on my radar for a while now, and it's a topic that I always find interesting, not least because my father spent some time in a refugee camp and I would like to know more about these experiences overall.
Maria Milland is an OB/GYN from Denmark who has traveled to other countries to provide humanitarian care to the women and children of the al-Hol camp in Syria. I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author. Typically, I love when an audiobook is narrated by the author since they are able to add the emphasis and tend to speak more naturally. However, in this book, the author has a very heavy accent, which makes it difficult to understand a lot of what she says until I got used to her accent - the audiobook mentions 'waled women' and I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to realize that she can't pronounce the "V" sound and substituted it for a "W" sound. Unfortunately, listening to the audiobook made a lot of this book more confusing for me since it was difficult to understand the author. She also had a way of speaking that sounded like a tour guide, rather than speaking naturally. Instead, her voice would rise and fall in pitch and tone while she spoke, making the audiobook experience a less pleasant one than I'm used to.
Aside from that, I was really excited to get into the content of the story and find out what it is like to spend most of a year in an overcrowded refugee camp. Milland's story doesn't follow a coherent, linear pattern, instead jumping back and forth between being in the camp, being back in Europe, returning to the camp, and getting to know the people she works with as well as her patients.
Milland's lack of Arabic skills impeded her progress with the pregnant women of al-Hol, although she did work closely with an Arabic translator. I liked how she treated all the patients the same, even though her forward and direct style of questioning didn't go over well with the different social setting in Syria. She had to get used to being a bit more circular in her questioning, especially since the women of the camp aren't used to speaking directly about private, personal matters.
Unfortunately, I didn't leave this with a great understanding of the circumstances and experiences of the women in this camp. She does share a few stories, but the majority of the book was about herself. It's an amazing feat for any human to pick up their life and spend time in a war-torn country and provide medical care to the underserved, but I was more interested in the work she was doing than how it impacted her own health as she fought against parasitic infection and preventable disease.
I felt as though this book had the potential to become a really powerful read but it never quite lived up to that potential.
The refugee camps in Syria have been on my radar for a while now, and it's a topic that I always find interesting, not least because my father spent some time in a refugee camp and I would like to know more about these experiences overall.
Maria Milland is an OB/GYN from Denmark who has traveled to other countries to provide humanitarian care to the women and children of the al-Hol camp in Syria. I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author. Typically, I love when an audiobook is narrated by the author since they are able to add the emphasis and tend to speak more naturally. However, in this book, the author has a very heavy accent, which makes it difficult to understand a lot of what she says until I got used to her accent - the audiobook mentions 'waled women' and I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to realize that she can't pronounce the "V" sound and substituted it for a "W" sound. Unfortunately, listening to the audiobook made a lot of this book more confusing for me since it was difficult to understand the author. She also had a way of speaking that sounded like a tour guide, rather than speaking naturally. Instead, her voice would rise and fall in pitch and tone while she spoke, making the audiobook experience a less pleasant one than I'm used to.
Aside from that, I was really excited to get into the content of the story and find out what it is like to spend most of a year in an overcrowded refugee camp. Milland's story doesn't follow a coherent, linear pattern, instead jumping back and forth between being in the camp, being back in Europe, returning to the camp, and getting to know the people she works with as well as her patients.
Milland's lack of Arabic skills impeded her progress with the pregnant women of al-Hol, although she did work closely with an Arabic translator. I liked how she treated all the patients the same, even though her forward and direct style of questioning didn't go over well with the different social setting in Syria. She had to get used to being a bit more circular in her questioning, especially since the women of the camp aren't used to speaking directly about private, personal matters.
Unfortunately, I didn't leave this with a great understanding of the circumstances and experiences of the women in this camp. She does share a few stories, but the majority of the book was about herself. It's an amazing feat for any human to pick up their life and spend time in a war-torn country and provide medical care to the underserved, but I was more interested in the work she was doing than how it impacted her own health as she fought against parasitic infection and preventable disease.
I felt as though this book had the potential to become a really powerful read but it never quite lived up to that potential.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A fascinating account by a Danish ob-gyn of the 9 months she spent working for the International Red Cross/Red Crescent in the al-Hol camp in Syria.
The tone is very clinical and journalistic. At first, I was a little frustrated by the author’s apparent detachment, but as the book unfolded I realized that this made sense, coming from a physician who has been trained to collect and process information in this manner. As I read, I came to see this tone as a real asset. Milland was there in 2022, not long after the Islamic State lost its last territory, and many of the inhabitants of the camp had connections to ISIS fighters. There seems to be a dearth of concrete information about the camp—who was there, why they were there, and what was happening inside the camp. Milland refers constantly to the stringent security restrictions imposed on her and her team. She herself could not get a comprehensive look into the circumstances within the camp, but her style lets the reader look over her shoulder and get some of the same glimpses she got into life there. These glimpses add up to a meaningful sense of what life was like for the women and children in the camp, and of the difficulties of trying to provide good ob/gyn care for the thousands of women who live there. We also see the toll that the accumulating stress takes on Milland herself.
There were several abrupt jumps in the narrative thread that I found disruptive. The opening episode, for instance, just hangs over the whole first half, before we get more insight into how it relates to Milland’s clinical practice, but as a whole the book is coherent, and the writing flows. According to the author’s notes at the end, she did her own translation, which is impressive.
Definitely worth reading. This is not a book to turn to if you want an overt, critical engagement with the geopolitical context. Milland is not interested in explaining that here, nor in critiquing the decisions of various nations that led to this situation. I don’t think it’s because she doesn’t have thoughts on the geopolitics; it’s rather that that is outside the scope of her book. This book focuses on what it is like to exist, even for a short time, in such an unstable and unsafe space.
My thanks to Steerforth & Pushkin and NetGalley for a digital ARC.
The tone is very clinical and journalistic. At first, I was a little frustrated by the author’s apparent detachment, but as the book unfolded I realized that this made sense, coming from a physician who has been trained to collect and process information in this manner. As I read, I came to see this tone as a real asset. Milland was there in 2022, not long after the Islamic State lost its last territory, and many of the inhabitants of the camp had connections to ISIS fighters. There seems to be a dearth of concrete information about the camp—who was there, why they were there, and what was happening inside the camp. Milland refers constantly to the stringent security restrictions imposed on her and her team. She herself could not get a comprehensive look into the circumstances within the camp, but her style lets the reader look over her shoulder and get some of the same glimpses she got into life there. These glimpses add up to a meaningful sense of what life was like for the women and children in the camp, and of the difficulties of trying to provide good ob/gyn care for the thousands of women who live there. We also see the toll that the accumulating stress takes on Milland herself.
There were several abrupt jumps in the narrative thread that I found disruptive. The opening episode, for instance, just hangs over the whole first half, before we get more insight into how it relates to Milland’s clinical practice, but as a whole the book is coherent, and the writing flows. According to the author’s notes at the end, she did her own translation, which is impressive.
Definitely worth reading. This is not a book to turn to if you want an overt, critical engagement with the geopolitical context. Milland is not interested in explaining that here, nor in critiquing the decisions of various nations that led to this situation. I don’t think it’s because she doesn’t have thoughts on the geopolitics; it’s rather that that is outside the scope of her book. This book focuses on what it is like to exist, even for a short time, in such an unstable and unsafe space.
My thanks to Steerforth & Pushkin and NetGalley for a digital ARC.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book is based on Maria Milland’s firsthand experiences during her short stint as an OB/GYN in al-Hol camp, a large displacement camp in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border. Originally set up in 1991 and later expanded, its population surged after ISIS’s defeat in 2019 when families of fighters, mostly women and children, were moved there. At its peak, it held tens of thousands, and even today around 25,000–40,000 people remain, living in harsh conditions with limited access to healthcare, education, and basic services.
Through Maria’s account, we get a deeply human look at the challenges the women and children face: the lack of safety (so much so that people have to return to their tents by a certain time every day), the scarcity of proper medical care, and the absence of education around childbirth and postpartum health. I was especially struck by how some women keep giving birth to the point of physical harm, often because their husbands want many children. It made me sad to think about how easily their own wellbeing seems to be erased in the process.
One detail that stayed with me was the idea that women were expected to be married before they could be pregnant and seen by an OB/GYN. It made me wonder about those who became pregnant outside of that expectation — what kind of treatment did they receive? How much more vulnerable were they?
I felt the most for the children born into the camp. They have no choice and no easy way out. It’s chilling to know such a place still exists today. When Maria returned home, people told her she had helped bring the next generation of ISIS fighters into the world. While that comment is cruel, it also highlights a painful reality: children raised in al-Hol are at a higher risk of radicalisation simply because of the environment they’re growing up in. That thought alone broke my heart.
This may not be the most comprehensive account of al-Hol, but it offers powerful, personal insight into a reality most of us will never witness. It’s unsettling, emotional, and necessary reading if you want to understand the human cost behind headlines about war, displacement, and extremism.
Through Maria’s account, we get a deeply human look at the challenges the women and children face: the lack of safety (so much so that people have to return to their tents by a certain time every day), the scarcity of proper medical care, and the absence of education around childbirth and postpartum health. I was especially struck by how some women keep giving birth to the point of physical harm, often because their husbands want many children. It made me sad to think about how easily their own wellbeing seems to be erased in the process.
One detail that stayed with me was the idea that women were expected to be married before they could be pregnant and seen by an OB/GYN. It made me wonder about those who became pregnant outside of that expectation — what kind of treatment did they receive? How much more vulnerable were they?
I felt the most for the children born into the camp. They have no choice and no easy way out. It’s chilling to know such a place still exists today. When Maria returned home, people told her she had helped bring the next generation of ISIS fighters into the world. While that comment is cruel, it also highlights a painful reality: children raised in al-Hol are at a higher risk of radicalisation simply because of the environment they’re growing up in. That thought alone broke my heart.
This may not be the most comprehensive account of al-Hol, but it offers powerful, personal insight into a reality most of us will never witness. It’s unsettling, emotional, and necessary reading if you want to understand the human cost behind headlines about war, displacement, and extremism.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Maria Milland’s account of her nine months as an OB-GYN in the al-Hol refugee camp is an extremely important and necessary book. At a time when global attention shifts quickly and entire humanitarian crises fade from public consciousness, this work insists that we look directly at lives that are too often forgotten. The stories of pregnant women, mothers, and children living in prolonged uncertainty and danger deserve to be told — and heard.
What makes this book particularly powerful is its firsthand perspective. Milland does not write from a distance. She writes from inside the maternity ward, from the dust and heat of the camp, from moments of exhaustion, fear, and fragile hope. Her willingness to share not only medical realities but also her own emotional responses adds authenticity and moral weight to the narrative. The book succeeds in reminding readers that behind statistics are individual human beings navigating impossible circumstances.
At the same time, the text sometimes feels raw in structure. The diary-like format gives immediacy, but it can also lead to repetition and over-explanation. Certain cultural or contextual details are explained in ways that interrupt the narrative flow — for example, repeatedly translating temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit, or pausing to define clothing terms that readers could easily understand from context. These moments slightly dilute the emotional intensity and suggest that the manuscript could benefit from tighter editing and greater trust in the reader.
Despite these structural issues, the book’s significance cannot be overstated. It sheds light on a place many would prefer not to think about, and it challenges readers to confront uncomfortable realities about displacement, motherhood, and survival in extreme conditions. Most importantly, it restores individuality and dignity to people too often reduced to headlines.
This is a deeply meaningful and timely work — one that deserves careful editing, wide readership, and serious reflection.
What makes this book particularly powerful is its firsthand perspective. Milland does not write from a distance. She writes from inside the maternity ward, from the dust and heat of the camp, from moments of exhaustion, fear, and fragile hope. Her willingness to share not only medical realities but also her own emotional responses adds authenticity and moral weight to the narrative. The book succeeds in reminding readers that behind statistics are individual human beings navigating impossible circumstances.
At the same time, the text sometimes feels raw in structure. The diary-like format gives immediacy, but it can also lead to repetition and over-explanation. Certain cultural or contextual details are explained in ways that interrupt the narrative flow — for example, repeatedly translating temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit, or pausing to define clothing terms that readers could easily understand from context. These moments slightly dilute the emotional intensity and suggest that the manuscript could benefit from tighter editing and greater trust in the reader.
Despite these structural issues, the book’s significance cannot be overstated. It sheds light on a place many would prefer not to think about, and it challenges readers to confront uncomfortable realities about displacement, motherhood, and survival in extreme conditions. Most importantly, it restores individuality and dignity to people too often reduced to headlines.
This is a deeply meaningful and timely work — one that deserves careful editing, wide readership, and serious reflection.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I simply can't say that I enjoyed this book, because you can't enjoy anything written about hell itself - the title is spot on.
This book was an eye opener. Or rather a brick in the face.
When you hear or think about war, you can comprehend and understand the complexity of it, you empathise and sympathise with the horrific nature of it, you feel sorry for the victims, but the you switch channels and move on with your cushioned Western life. Reading this book will not allow you that. You are there. You see it. You smell it. You touch it. The mass of nameless people becomes faces as you get closer. It becomes names. Families. Stories. Lives that were ruined before they even had the chance to really start. These are people who were born at the wrong place at the wrong time, had no control over what was happening to them and fell victim to global power politics, to religion, to geopolitical tension. Amd then you realise that they are just like you and me, and yet, they couldn't be more different.
To my taste, there was a little to much medical detail but it is understandable, considering that the author is a medical doctor after all.
Please read this book. You will not have a good time, but your underatanding about the world we live in, about people, about politics will have a massive shake-up.
Thank you for the author and NetGalley for the ARC.
This book was an eye opener. Or rather a brick in the face.
When you hear or think about war, you can comprehend and understand the complexity of it, you empathise and sympathise with the horrific nature of it, you feel sorry for the victims, but the you switch channels and move on with your cushioned Western life. Reading this book will not allow you that. You are there. You see it. You smell it. You touch it. The mass of nameless people becomes faces as you get closer. It becomes names. Families. Stories. Lives that were ruined before they even had the chance to really start. These are people who were born at the wrong place at the wrong time, had no control over what was happening to them and fell victim to global power politics, to religion, to geopolitical tension. Amd then you realise that they are just like you and me, and yet, they couldn't be more different.
To my taste, there was a little to much medical detail but it is understandable, considering that the author is a medical doctor after all.
Please read this book. You will not have a good time, but your underatanding about the world we live in, about people, about politics will have a massive shake-up.
Thank you for the author and NetGalley for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Emotional
Dr Maria Milland has been deployed to the Al-Hol camp in Syria as an obstetrician and gynaecologist as part of the Red Cross relief effort and this is her story
This book was an emotional rollercoaster as a reader, it takes you through so many difficult times and you really connect with Maria, what she is going through and what some of the women in the camp are subjected to
I will admit that there were times that I struggled with time jumps but I think that’s mostly because the review copy I have doesn’t really include chapter splits and that it would read and flow much better in a normal copy of the book
Most of the time, camps in war torn areas are just things that you seen on the news and this is very different to that and exposes the reader to at least some of the realities of day to day life
Because of Maria’s medical specialty, there is a lot of focus on women’s health and births, including some of the darker sides which I did struggle with a bit as a result of the emotions coming through on the page
I would recommend this book to those who are interested in a medical account of part of a humanitarian mission unlike anything else you will read
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley who granted me access to this book
Dr Maria Milland has been deployed to the Al-Hol camp in Syria as an obstetrician and gynaecologist as part of the Red Cross relief effort and this is her story
This book was an emotional rollercoaster as a reader, it takes you through so many difficult times and you really connect with Maria, what she is going through and what some of the women in the camp are subjected to
I will admit that there were times that I struggled with time jumps but I think that’s mostly because the review copy I have doesn’t really include chapter splits and that it would read and flow much better in a normal copy of the book
Most of the time, camps in war torn areas are just things that you seen on the news and this is very different to that and exposes the reader to at least some of the realities of day to day life
Because of Maria’s medical specialty, there is a lot of focus on women’s health and births, including some of the darker sides which I did struggle with a bit as a result of the emotions coming through on the page
I would recommend this book to those who are interested in a medical account of part of a humanitarian mission unlike anything else you will read
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley who granted me access to this book
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
What an emotional and impactful memoir. Maria Milland traveled from her home in Denmark to the refugee camp al-Hol in Syria as an OB-GYN provider to the nearly 75,000 refugees of which 90% are women, children and babies. The memoir gives a day to day look at the toll that is taken not only on those who volunteer to work in situations like these but also those whose lives are lived in these “temporary” refugee camps. This camp in particular was opened in 1991 for Iraqi refugees due to the Gulf War and then expanded for individuals fleeing ISIS and those who were ISIS supporters and became know as an “open air prison”. As Milland describes in the novel, al-Hol is a crowded tent camp with violence, unsafe living conditions, limited water, poor healthcare and severe malnutrition. Women are raising families alone while their husbands are missing, dead, or in prison. But still women are needing OB/GYN care. It is an upsetting read but also a hopeful read. The courage it takes for these medical providers to go into an area like this to bring good is inspirational. I’m so glad Milland has shared her experiences with the world.
Thank you NetGalley, Maria Milland, and Steerforth&Pushkin for providing me a copy of this memoir for an honest review.
Thank you NetGalley, Maria Milland, and Steerforth&Pushkin for providing me a copy of this memoir for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
💬 “The people living in Al-Hol camp do not become better people by living there. Neither do we.”
Maria shares her own personal accounts from her 9 months spent at Al-Hol camp, delivering babies and caring for expectant mothers.
Al-Hol is a detention camp in Syria where up to 75,000 women, babies and children live in tents in the hot desert, surrounded by barbed wire fences and armed guards.
I was shocked by the brutal, harsh and violent environment that these women and children have to live in, deprived of basic human rights.. babies are born into a life of detention, some women are forced to continue having babies and there’s shortages on both blood and medication and the women give birth in a high risk environment.
Maria shares raw and shocking pregnancy and birth stories, but there are also stories of resilience and hope.
I appreciated Maria’s honesty surrounding how working in such a place affected her - the heaviness of the job touched her physically and mentally, dealing with vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue.
Release Date - March 10, 2026.
Thank-you Maria, @steerforthpress and @netgalley for an advanced readers copy, in exchange for an honest review.
Maria shares her own personal accounts from her 9 months spent at Al-Hol camp, delivering babies and caring for expectant mothers.
Al-Hol is a detention camp in Syria where up to 75,000 women, babies and children live in tents in the hot desert, surrounded by barbed wire fences and armed guards.
I was shocked by the brutal, harsh and violent environment that these women and children have to live in, deprived of basic human rights.. babies are born into a life of detention, some women are forced to continue having babies and there’s shortages on both blood and medication and the women give birth in a high risk environment.
Maria shares raw and shocking pregnancy and birth stories, but there are also stories of resilience and hope.
I appreciated Maria’s honesty surrounding how working in such a place affected her - the heaviness of the job touched her physically and mentally, dealing with vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue.
Release Date - March 10, 2026.
Thank-you Maria, @steerforthpress and @netgalley for an advanced readers copy, in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy.
This was a difficult and deeply reflective read for me. I don’t know as much about Syria’s history as I would like, and this book made me more aware of that gap in my understanding. Much of what I’ve previously encountered has been through social media, which feels limited and insufficient compared to engaging with a full narrative like this.
Reading this forced me to slow down and sit with stories that are often overlooked or simplified. It’s not an easy book to read, but it’s one that invites reflection, empathy, and a deeper awareness of lives shaped by circumstances far beyond their control. This is a book that lingers, asking the reader to look more closely and listen more carefully.
This was a difficult and deeply reflective read for me. I don’t know as much about Syria’s history as I would like, and this book made me more aware of that gap in my understanding. Much of what I’ve previously encountered has been through social media, which feels limited and insufficient compared to engaging with a full narrative like this.
Reading this forced me to slow down and sit with stories that are often overlooked or simplified. It’s not an easy book to read, but it’s one that invites reflection, empathy, and a deeper awareness of lives shaped by circumstances far beyond their control. This is a book that lingers, asking the reader to look more closely and listen more carefully.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The title of the book is very apt since the author's account of working at a Syrian refugee camp really shows the reader just how impossible life is in the camp and how medical treatment is severely compromised by the conditions of the camp and the setting itself. It is a vital read in order to understand some of the issues that most of us would not imagine. I only wish the book was longer. I hope that the publication of this work will impact someone somewhere to help change the lives of the people at this camp and all refugee camps.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It reads very smoothly and I hope many readers find it.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It reads very smoothly and I hope many readers find it.
Read
February 14, 2026*no ratings for memoirs*
This memoir was an absolute eye opening experience. I knew next to nothing about this camp in Syria, or the conflict in Syria to be honest. To hear from the perspective of an OBGYN working in one of the world’s largest refugee camps was sobering and so educational.
The tenacity and perseverance of the medical professionals, working under these conditions, was nothing short of extraordinary and inspiring. I learned a lot, and that’s always a successful read in my eyes.
This memoir was an absolute eye opening experience. I knew next to nothing about this camp in Syria, or the conflict in Syria to be honest. To hear from the perspective of an OBGYN working in one of the world’s largest refugee camps was sobering and so educational.
The tenacity and perseverance of the medical professionals, working under these conditions, was nothing short of extraordinary and inspiring. I learned a lot, and that’s always a successful read in my eyes.
May 20, 2026
I definitely wish I had switched from the audiobook to a digital or hard copy version of this one. The author reads it on audio and she was sometimes hard to understand and it created a disconnect for me.
I'm glad there are people like her in the world who, as she said, are fascinated by women giving birth around the world and are therefore willing and able to go to a place like al-Hol. I can't imagine what those women have gone through and still go through in these refugee camps.
I'm glad there are people like her in the world who, as she said, are fascinated by women giving birth around the world and are therefore willing and able to go to a place like al-Hol. I can't imagine what those women have gone through and still go through in these refugee camps.
Read
April 12, 2026(I do not rate memoirs.)
Unfortunately, far too much time and far too many books have passed to make a detailed or even less than detailed review possible. Rather than endlessly trying to catch up, this review plus the rating will take the place of a review.
Unfortunately, far too much time and far too many books have passed to make a detailed or even less than detailed review possible. Rather than endlessly trying to catch up, this review plus the rating will take the place of a review.
April 21, 2026
2.5 stars. Did audiobook. Struggled w narration. Also not quite what i thought it would be about. I did gain an insight into what a refugee camp in Syria was like, something I’ve not read anything about. And that kept me listening.
May 3, 2026
This is the exact kind of book I loooove to read, but I took off a star and a half bc I found so much of it to be repetitive. Like,,, how many times did I need to be told that a c section can cause complications?
May 7, 2026
3.5 rounded up
A very eye opening look at the life in Syrian refugee camp al-Hol. Told through the eyes and heart of OB-GYN Maria Milland (and narrated by her) this is a powerful and moving book.
Thank you to libro.fm for the audiobook.
A very eye opening look at the life in Syrian refugee camp al-Hol. Told through the eyes and heart of OB-GYN Maria Milland (and narrated by her) this is a powerful and moving book.
Thank you to libro.fm for the audiobook.
January 2, 2026
Fantastisk
Review of advance copy
This book was a three star read for me. It was an educational read. I will be over on my social channels discussing this book and all the others! Thank you to Libro.fm for this ALC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I have been to other refugee camps before. But right away I can tell that this camp, with its residents, its army of aid workers, and the massive presence of guards, is like nothing else I have ever experienced. This is a detention camp storing people. (loc. 388*)
The al-Hol refugee camp in Syria was not Milland's first foray into humanitarian work, but it was unlike anything she'd seen before. There as an OB/GYN with the Red Cross, her work was constantly complicated by security concerns and cultural mores and just plain uncertainty. At al-Hol, again unlike anything Milland had seen before, oxytocin was routinely used to speed delivery—not for medical reasons but because both patients and staff had to be out of the hospital before dark, because it was too dangerous to leave later. Or: Milland learned early on that before she asked if a woman could be pregnant, she had to ascertain whether the woman was married, because it wasn't possible for an unmarried woman to be pregnant. (And if an unmarried woman were pregnant, she'd have to give birth in secret and quietly give the baby up.)
The statistics are striking. Milland describes a camp that had been open and closed, open and closed again; established for 15,000 people but holding around 57,000 when she worked there. That's roughly the population of Chapel Hill, NC, or Casper, Wyoming, but where Chapel Hill might see one or two murders per year, al-Hol saw 85 deaths to violent crime in 2021 (loc. 1459).
It's a thoughtful book. In addition to an overall view of what it was like working at the camp, Milland discusses individual patients she saw, the people she worked with (and learned from, since the context is so specific and unlike medicine performed in wealthier contexts), and just the sheer exhaustion of providing care in such a harsh environment. I appreciate the way she talks about the value her interpreter brought to the process—interpreting not just language but also cultural meanings and the like. This is a kind of memoir that I love (telling hard stories about things I am unlikely to experience firsthand but that are so important for more people to know more about), and does not disappoint.
One thing of note: Milland wrote the original in her native Danish, and then she did her own translation for this English edition. I can't speak to the exact translation, of course, because I speak precisely zero Danish, but I am so impressed with the outcome nonetheless; translation is an art rather than a science, and if it hadn't been noted in the book I would not have known that this was not a professional job.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
The al-Hol refugee camp in Syria was not Milland's first foray into humanitarian work, but it was unlike anything she'd seen before. There as an OB/GYN with the Red Cross, her work was constantly complicated by security concerns and cultural mores and just plain uncertainty. At al-Hol, again unlike anything Milland had seen before, oxytocin was routinely used to speed delivery—not for medical reasons but because both patients and staff had to be out of the hospital before dark, because it was too dangerous to leave later. Or: Milland learned early on that before she asked if a woman could be pregnant, she had to ascertain whether the woman was married, because it wasn't possible for an unmarried woman to be pregnant. (And if an unmarried woman were pregnant, she'd have to give birth in secret and quietly give the baby up.)
The statistics are striking. Milland describes a camp that had been open and closed, open and closed again; established for 15,000 people but holding around 57,000 when she worked there. That's roughly the population of Chapel Hill, NC, or Casper, Wyoming, but where Chapel Hill might see one or two murders per year, al-Hol saw 85 deaths to violent crime in 2021 (loc. 1459).
It's a thoughtful book. In addition to an overall view of what it was like working at the camp, Milland discusses individual patients she saw, the people she worked with (and learned from, since the context is so specific and unlike medicine performed in wealthier contexts), and just the sheer exhaustion of providing care in such a harsh environment. I appreciate the way she talks about the value her interpreter brought to the process—interpreting not just language but also cultural meanings and the like. This is a kind of memoir that I love (telling hard stories about things I am unlikely to experience firsthand but that are so important for more people to know more about), and does not disappoint.
One thing of note: Milland wrote the original in her native Danish, and then she did her own translation for this English edition. I can't speak to the exact translation, of course, because I speak precisely zero Danish, but I am so impressed with the outcome nonetheless; translation is an art rather than a science, and if it hadn't been noted in the book I would not have known that this was not a professional job.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
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