Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Women by Kristin Hannah

159 reviews

bringmybooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

✨Bring✨ | Borrow | Bypass

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, & Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

Review: One of my favorite authors, Kristin Hannah continues to prove that she has an unbelievable way with words. It's unbelievable how quickly she sucks you into a novel and makes you care so much about all of the characters. There are parts of her books (especially her more recent ones) that are a bit melodramatic and require a bit of suspended disbelief, but to be honest I don't know that it bothers me so much. 

While there is a bit of heightened drama on the interpersonal side, the research and care that Hannah provides to the historical aspects of her novels is top tier and so welcomed. I feel like I learned a ton about the Vietnam War that I was not aware of before (mostly the women's experience of it), and I was very grateful for this book so that I could do more of my own research. 

I did really enjoy the characters in this novel, even when they're making the most piss poor decisions - but my favorite part of the novels, and pretty much all of Hannah's novels, is the way she writes relationships between women. I do think this book is her penultimate example of that, and the relationships between the Frankie and her two best friends will stick with me for a long time.
 

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ / 4.63 
 
Rating each element of the book out of 5★ 
Characters ★★★★ 
Atmosphere ★★★★★ 
Writing ★★★★ 
Plot ★★★★ 
Intrigue ★★★★ 
Logic ★★★★ 
Enjoyment ★★★★ 
Pacing ★★★★ 
Dialogue ★★★★ 

★ did not like / ★★ it was okay / ★★★ liked it / ★★★★ really liked it / ★★★★★ loved it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Torture, Miscarriage, Murder, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Pregnancy, War, Alcoholism, Cancer, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Self harm, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

jeggert10's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Toxic relationship, Child death, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pregnancy, Racism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Cursing, and Miscarriage

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Abortion, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Police brutality, and Rape

wellreadjen's review against another edition

dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Review contains spoilers. 

I found the story about the women in Vietnam engaging and very interesting. I thought the way the sun the or crafted that story as well as the story about their treatment and struggles once home was well done. However the romance aspect of the book I found very poorly done and almost made me put down the book in annoyance. 3 love interests and two are married. The other is a trained psychiatrist who deals with vets and he doesn’t help her get help while they are together even though she is obviously struggling? And the guy it is implied she ends up with was one of the married guys. He did get divorced I guess but he still tried to get together with the main character while he was married. Not a stellar character in my opinion. 

It also felt like the author went out of her way to basically say “waiting until marriage to have sex is outdated and stupid” but every time the character had sex with someone people got hurt and things got worse. Ope. Also the random references to abortion even when no character was seeking an abortion was also very odd putting as a prolife woman reader. 

Anyway. I felt this had a lot going for it and was dragged down by a poor attempt at adding romantic drama to the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility and Racism

Minor: Abortion

booklvrkat's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

“The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn't quite yet ready to hear it, and their story began with three simple words. We were there.” 

 

How do you write about a story that is so excellent, one that is jammed in your brain, which was considered a book club read for the #governerdbookclub, and emotionally jolted you into the past? I have been pondering on this for a week now, and I still don’t have the answer, so I will offer you my reasons that you should read it, and my feelings on the story. 

 

·         Historical Fiction that reads like a true account 

·         Vietnam War, behind the scenes of a hospital 

·         Women in the war, particularly the nurses 

·         The absolute profound descriptions of the MCs life before and after 

 

Truly, I will recommend this story to anyone that needs something new in their reading life, to bump you out of a slump, and to remind you that women have come a long way since this war. Women stand for plenty in this country, this book proves it, and we need to stand strong for everything they did for this nation. I could pick up this book, pick a chapter, and fall right back into the story, Kristin Hannah blew it out of the park for me, and I was already a fan. 

 

“Women can be heroes.” 

 

CW/TW: War, Violence, Addictions, Miscarriage, Suicide Attempt, Infidelity 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Infertility, Suicide attempt, and Miscarriage

bearybooky's review

dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

It was difficult to read but im glad i did. Vietnam happened before i was born and i dont know much about it. Now i know more. 

It was very sad. So many bad things happen to the main character i was beginning to lose interest and hope. But there is just enough redemption. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Racial slurs, War, Violence, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Murder, Alcohol, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual content and Pregnancy

oproy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I will say, the last 10% of the book had me crying and questioning life. But the first 50-90% was hard to get through. It was a lot of muck, and I felt that Frances had to go through almost too much hurt. It felt unnecessary.

Like I would have believed her trauma after the first death.  I also did not like how quickly the author tried to characterize her at the end as an old spinster.  It was just such a quick turnaround after 200 pages of war, and 200 pages of Frankie spiraling.

 
Overall, I honestly probably would not recommend this book because it is so heavy and at points a little too preachy for my taste. However, the setting and idea behind it is very interesting and definitely something I want to look into further after reading. Even in school, I don’t feel that I learned much about the Vietnam War let alone the women in the war, so this feels like a jumping board. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, War, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Alcohol, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Gore, Body horror, Car accident, Medical content, Suicide, Blood, and Child death

ckozik1017's review

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Medical content, Gun violence, War, Suicide attempt, Violence, Addiction, Grief, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Racism, Police brutality, and Infertility

music_girl84's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Cursing, Death, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Torture, War, Blood, Deadnaming, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Animal death, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

rkibler24's review

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

0.5

Yet another disappointing read from Kristin Hannah. This book was chosen for a book club or I never would have picked it up after trying to read The Four Winds. No more Kristin Hannah for me, for real this time unlike

the resurrection of not one, but two of Frankie's love interests (insert eye roll here)

The writing is terrible, the main character is unlikeable, and the story too contrived and predictable. I listened to it in the car because at least the narrator was good.

The war scenes were especially graphic, gratuitously so. Despite how long this is, there is no real character development except that you dislike the main character more and more as it goes on. I was disappointed that some of the other women weren't highlighted - from the title it sounded like it was going to be about the women, not the woman. It felt like the book didn't actually have an editor. Either that or the editor was afraid to hurt the author's feelings.

Just as with The Four Winds I am baffled as to how this got published + why there are so many four and five-star reviews. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Blood, and Child death

Moderate: Miscarriage and Infidelity

Minor: Car accident

gellinasreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Drug abuse, Grief, Addiction, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, War, and Suicide attempt