The author's name caught my eye, which is the only reason I gave Nineteen Steps a second look. Millie Bobby Brown, while not ranking among my all-time favorite actors, had impressed me with her talent at an early age -- I saw her first in Enola Holmes, long before seeing her layered performance in Stranger Things as well as Enola Holmes 2 and Damsel. Since both the era and the setting of the story are of interest to me, I decided to give it a try.

Set during the London bombings of World War II, the book begins with protagonist Nellie Morris returning to her home of Bethnal Green in East London for a memorial a half-century after the war. She struggles with emotions in the London Underground station, where she had suffered great losses during the war. Then, after a three-page introduction, the story returns to the 1940s, when Nellie and her family and friends must brave the constant danger of German air raids while trying to maintain some level of normality in their live.

Nellie, her younger brother and much younger sister live with their parents in an area where air raid sirens are a common fact of life. Their daily routines can be interrupted at any moment by the piercing sound, which means they must drop whatever they're doing and head to the closest bomb shelter, which for the Morris family is the unfinished tube station near their home.

Life for them is as ordinary as it can be, given the circumstances. Nellie works as an aide in the mayor's office. Then the young woman meets a man, much to the dismay of the besotted boy next door.

What begins as a simple romantic triangle -- with Nellie torn between Ray Fleming, a handsome American airman, and Billy Waters, a loyal neighbor and lifelong friend -- becomes something much more as the tragedies of war tear the Morris family apart. The first calamity, late in 1942, occurs during an air raid and was a direct result of German bombing. That's bad enough, but something far worse occurs in the spring of 1943 that threatens to destroy everything that Nellie loves. Then, in 1945, the war comes to a end but Nellie's personal life is once more thrown into turmoil.

Some historical context. Bethnal Green was a prime target for German pilots, and officials have estimated that 80 tons of bombs fell in that community during the war. More than 550 people died in the bombing and 400 were seriously injured. More than 2,200 homes were destroyed entirely by the bombing and nearly 900 more left uninhabitable.

However, things took a tragic turn on the evening of March 3, 1943, when an air raid warning sounded and sent a stream of people down a narrow, wet and dimly lit staircase into the station. A woman carrying a baby tripped, causing more people to fall into a crush on the stairs. According to reports, about 300 people were crushed on the stairs, of whom 173 people -- including 62 children -- died.

That incident, which Brown's grandmother survived, forms the heart of this novel. The details of the incident itself are factual -- and are dramatically presented -- as is the general character of the Bethnal Green community. Otherwise, the story is a work of fiction; Nellie and her family and friends weren't real, nor is the hard-pressed mayor who works so hard to improve safety at the station.

While Brown researched much of the event to flush out the oral history as told by her grandmother, she didn't actually write the book. Its publication has triggered a new discussion on the merits of ghostwriters, since the actual author, Kathleen McGurl, is not named on the cover. (McGurl does get credit inside.) McGurl is a somewhat prolific author of books including The Girl from Ballymor, The Lost Child and The Daughters of Red Hill Hall, most if not all of which appear to be dramatic historical fiction.

If you ask me, Brown and McGurl should have at least gotten equal credit on the cover.

Even so, the story itself is solid, a personal and deeply emotional perspective on the toll the constant bombings had on the residents of London. However, the execution of the tale is a little weak -- characters are not well developed, the narrative and dialogue are awkward, and the text is overly wordy and repetitive. The cumbersome writing style makes the book more appropriate for a young-adult audience, although to my knowledge it wasn't marketed as such.

Oh, and apparently Brown is developing the story into a movie for Netflix.

So how's the book? Well, I didn't love the writing itself -- which I suppose is more of a criticism of McGurl than Brown -- but the story itself is very good. The wartime experiences of Nellie's community feel very real, and one can't help but admire the fortitude of the real people who lived through it. There is light-hearted romance, peril, pain and heartbreak, and until the end the reader probably won't guess for sure what's going to happen (although, to be honest, a few major plot twists could be seen coming a mile away). I think the book could have gone through another draft before publication, smoothing out the dialogue and reducing the repetitive prose, but I enjoyed the tale and am glad I read it.