Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

137 reviews

scarlettreadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

It took me a while to get into but by the end I adored this story. Not many books have made me cry but I did tear up at the end; it was incredibly emotional and there was so many heartbreaking scenes. My favourite character was definitely Vianne - she felt like the most realistic. I also learnt so much from this book, from the resistance to collaborators, and the treatment of French citizens during the War. 

I’ll definitely be picking up more from Kristin Hannah! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

dandelion27's review against another edition

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

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Grief

Minor: Cancer

booksandmo's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, and Miscarriage

infinitejess's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Death, Genocide, Rape, and Grief

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

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Genocide, and Miscarriage

readwithsuzanna's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Racism, Violence, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, and Torture

Minor: Cancer and Miscarriage

reebsforspace's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I usually steer clear of war novels (solider/veteran perspective isn’t my cup of tea) but this book - one shifting the focus from the tribulations men went through in the war to the more overlooked ones women went through- made me intrigued.  I went into this to see if it could change my mind about war novels and it definitely did. It also helped that the writing (mainly towards the start) was pretty good.

Though the author has claimed to interview women of the resistance and researched further for this novel, she still has taken her fair share of creative liberties- maybe more so- if you’re looking for a historically accurate ww2 novel maybe skip this one. 

Aside from that, the atmosphere was well developed but parts of the plot were rushed (though they were only small details).

What made this book have a higher rating is the emotional drainage it accomplished. I don't ever remember shedding so many tears at a book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism and Rape

Minor: Cancer