Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

15 reviews

mandi4886's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A must read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Infertility, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racism, Slavery, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Vomit

gracetxgao's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, and War

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment, Blood, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, and Suicidal thoughts

gabrielab's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, and Torture

valeriasshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Cancer

the_literarylinguist's review against another edition

emotional reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Fluid, easy prose that tells an important, little-known story. The role of women in WW2 has been hugely downplayed in history, and the true story behind this book is not one I've heard of. Hannah is a good storyteller and the romanticism of the resistance is always appealing, usually making for compelling reading. I'm in a class of people who believes the resistance shouldn't be glamourised, because less than 5% of France took part in it; there is a danger in rewriting history and erasing the memory of the French collaboration. Hannah certainly highlighted the suffering required by those within the resistance. I appreciated how she navigated the fine line between resistance and collaboration.

However, the writing and the plot were filled with cliches - good cop, bad cop, hiding place, romantic return, a resistance love affair. At times it felt unbelievable. The occasional flashback to US in the 1990s didn't work, was unnecessary and made very jarring interruptions in the story. I forgot they existed as soon as I began the next chapter. Clearly they were written to give a lead-up to the ending, but I feel the ending could have taken place in an epilogue. You do really root for the characters in this story, which is why the ending popularised the book.  

I enjoyed reading The Nightingale and it is important to note how war is women's story, too. Yet there are much better French resistance books out there and this one was sadly overhyped for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexism

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Genocide, and Miscarriage