Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Nightingale

This novel has broken me, utterly devastating, raw but powerful; moving but tender. The characters are as real as the history in it, their bravery transcends everything.
It is very easy to forget that there were really people like this. We need to remember, always, never forget.
I was especially impressed with the narrative, it transports you to the time effortlessly and straight to the brutality of war and conflict. The author is a master storyteller of epic proportions. I cannot wait to delve into more of her work.

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dfrye626's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. This book is an absolute masterpiece. It was hard to read at times because of the horrible events that took place during WWII and because of the things the characters had to experience but it was a beautifully written book that was hard to put down.

It taught me so much about WWII and from a perspective you don't typically think or hear of in regards to WWII (women and France).

I would definitely recommend being in a good headspace before reading this book due to the difficult topics covered.

Heartbreaking yet beautifully written. I will likely read this book again and will be thinking of it in the years to come.

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ashdawn's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

This one was really hard to review. I general, it's one of the few books that I think would be better as a movie than the actual book was.

The book was very similar to looking at a pointillism painting. From a distance, it's actually a good story overall. It shares some of the women's work in war resistance and was enjoyable to read. The ending especially was heartbreaking but fantastic. There are much better historical fiction books with more accuracy though.

Also like a pointillism though, when looking at it closer though, details blur to oblivion, and that was part of what really bothered me about this one. Things like:
- Creating a fictional town to set the story in. Yes, it's historical fiction, so details can be made up, but it would have been so much more inspiring and interesting to have it take place during/in real bits of WW2.
- Not all of the characters get aged correctly. There are several scenes where a time frame has been mentioned, but a younger character is still the same age they were in a scene that was timeline wise 3ish years prior to current. This is especially problematic when one of them becomes a major plot point *because* of his age at the time of events.
- Struggles with scenery/time of year. Not only do some of the characters themselves not age, the landscape also struggles to fit into correct timelines. There were some scenes for example, that apples (fall), cucumbers (summer), and snow on the ground in Pairs (winter) were all happening at the same time. In the same vein, another scene made sure to note that there was knee-deep snow, yet a bike was able to be easily stolen, *ridden through the snow*, and not leave tracks.
- Character motivations sometimes made sense, but were sometimes just incredibly dumb choices.
- What happened with the Friedmans? Kinda should have been a *Major plot point* to hiding them, and we just....never hear anything else about hiding them, their survival, close calls, moving them somewhere else. Nothing.

Also, like most of the books I've read by this author, make sure to look up trigger warnings before reading. On top of everything you would expect from a book set in Nazi occupied France during WW2, there are also miscarriages, grief, a very large prejudice against refugees, etc (which seems like a common theme to this author).

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tiffy22's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

Can I give this book 100 stars!
I'm putting this incredible book in my 'favourite books of all time' pile.
This intense story showed me the side of WWII that isn't mentioned as much as it should be, the brave women. What an informative and inspiring story!

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steenmies's review against another edition

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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

5.0

Lovely book. It’s very easy to read through the chapters, even from the beginning I was hooked. Even though you know what the book is about, the rough outline of world war 2, there were many moments where I gasped and was baffled at what was happening. The story is written very well, I loved the characters. Reading the book brought up a wide range of emotions, anger, sadness etc. It was truly a lovely book to read.

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sariereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad 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

4.0

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