Spoilers in this review. This book made me tired. I confess, I do not get what everyone sees in The Nightingale. I feel like because it is set in WWII/the Holocaust, and we know that terrible things happened, this book had ALL OF THE TERRIBLE THINGS and we just accept that EVERY TERRIBLE THING happened to the characters because, of course, it was a time of terrible things. But it was too much; it was simply not believable to me after a point. But I’m […]
A story of untold heroes
For the most part, you know what you’re getting when you read a book that takes place during World War II and is set in a location that was occupied by Germany. Even if you find a book or movie that tells an inspirational or uplifting story within that backdrop, it’s always delivered with the requisite edge of horror. How could it not? There is no story to tell from that period in human history that isn’t tainted by the atrocity. I’m not sure if […]
“In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are”
I received several recommendations for The Nightingale and it was a great novel. Unfortunately I spent the entire time thinking it read like the first half of The Girl You Left Behind was fleshed out and made a bit more violent. It’s 1940s France- you have two sisters, a husband at war, German soldiers billeting at the pretty French girl’s home etc. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, Isabelle and Vianne, during Germany’s occupancy of France. Vianne married young and adores her husband; […]
Didn’t quite live up to the hype
I have heard a lot about Kristen Hannah’s The Nightingale, and I have read a lot of World War II historical fiction lately (plus I’m almost done with with book #2 in the Chaos Walking series, which is basically “Nazis on another planet”), and I think a combination of those factors led me to enjoy this less than I could have otherwise. “Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals […]
The Nightingale
Longtime Cannonballers who pay attention to such things probably know that there are a few things a writer can do to ensure I read their work. Kristin Hannah, in writing The Nightingale hit almost all of these! World War II? Check. European setting? Check. Sisters doing it for themselves? Check. Impossible love? Check and check! There was no way I wasn’t going to at least like this book a little bit, and I really enjoyed it. The Nightingale is the story of two French sisters, […]