Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

17 reviews

mattiedancer's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

Writing: 4.75⭐️/5 

The writing is quite stunning. The prose is beautiful, weighted, and eloquent. There were some truly stunning standalone lines, but it also had a nice cohesion. Beyond that, it wasn’t a challenging writing style to read and was well-woven into the plot. 

Characters: 4.5⭐️/5

The characters were highly motivated and flawed, which meant that they felt uniquely human to me. The characterization of the Nazi soldiers was particularly detailed and complicated, leading to moments of pathos for these villains. At times, it felt like certain characters made very weird choices, but it was usually justified later. This just led to a slower understanding of characterization than I might have liked, but it wasn’t too jarring.

Plot: 4⭐️/5 

I know that this is kind of a fan-favourite book, so I’m reluctant to say this, but at times it felt like the author used trauma a bit reflexively to address human moments. Too many times did I know that a terrible scene was coming and, when it came, it was witnessed by one too many characters who we had grown to love, no matter how illogical it might be that they would have ended up witnessing it. I appreciate that this is dealing with the reality of war horrors that took place during WWII; however, at times, it just felt a bit too neat in how directly the trauma continuously happened. That being said, the overarching plot was really well done. I loved the story-within-a-story format that the grandmother at the beginning set up. Overall a solid plot with just a lot of trauma at the end. 

Post-Reading Rating:  4⭐️/5

The ending felt fine: necessary and complete. 

Who Should Read This? 

• Fans of WWII novels
• Fans of historical fiction
• Fans of Kristin Hannah
• Fans of real-life trauma books or books focusing on horrific moments

Final Rating: 4⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racism, Antisemitism, Death, Violence, Sexual violence, War, Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Grief, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, and Cancer

Minor: Alcohol, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Addiction, Infertility, and Abandonment

shibaunited's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Death, Genocide, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment, Vomit, Trafficking, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Infidelity, Infertility, Gun violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Chronic illness, Child death, and Cancer

mel_s_bookshelf's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and War

alishakohn's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, War, Violence, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Infertility, Infidelity, Hate crime, Gun violence, Grief, Genocide, and Gaslighting

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

mandalacb19's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Wow. This book did not disappoint. I blew through this in two days and couldn't put it down. The settings were vivid and I loved how the food that Vianne cooked was so colorful and so informative. I loved these characters and this ending felt so perfect. I adored the plot, and I loved the true feminist nature of Isabelle. Her suffering throughout this novel was breathtakingly written, as well as the whole casts. I loved this book and would read again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Antisemitism, Torture, War, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer and Sexual content

Minor: Miscarriage and Sexual harassment

remy_licked_my_book's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a 4.5 star read for me. Kristin Hannah has historically not been my favourite author so I tried to go into this story with low expectations. It started out and I remember saying to my friend, "I'm not connecting to either main character, I just don't like them". Oh man, was I wrong. This story blossoms into beautiful character development. Vianne, Isabelle, and Sophie all mature and use their resilience to transform into women who take care of themselves. Their bravery and strength are a shadow of the true bravery and strength displayed by any one and everyone affected by WWII. I really enjoyed the ending, I fell in love with the characters all over again and things were tied up very nicely. The back of the book where Kristin Hannah talks about what inspired the book was very interesting, I will definitely be checking out some of the memoirs that this story was based on! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit