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makayla_radford's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
cindy_ped's review against another edition
5.0
A-Mazing. I don't cry much while reading books, but this one got me more than once.
haydek's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.25
letyreadsbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-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
5/5
This epic story was beautiful written, it's a masterpiece!
While reading Kristin Hannah's work, you are immersed into the story; as emotional and difficult it can be to read about war, heartbreak, parent's sacrifice, death, you won't regret reading this book.
This epic story was beautiful written, it's a masterpiece!
While reading Kristin Hannah's work, you are immersed into the story; as emotional and difficult it can be to read about war, heartbreak, parent's sacrifice, death, you won't regret reading this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and War
Moderate: Rape
ouch_myhead's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
docb's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-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
4.0
donnawr1's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting book that uses a riddle about two sisters in WWII France to help carry some suspense along during its execution. I learned a bit about France during the war and generally enjoyed the story. It felt a little to melodramatic at times, but was a generally enjoyable read.
emckenzie1045's review against another edition
1.0
Update: edited a few things and added some thoughts as well. Also to clarify this is a 1.5 rating.
Spoilers ahead.
Okay.
So I have mixed feelings about this book. We'll start off with some good things here:
1. Isabelle. I loved her by the end of ends book. I disliked her at first, because she was extremely annoying and very self righteous. I thought she was selfish and disliked her treatment of Vianne and how she didn't seem to care for her or her child's safety. But she grew to be a great character. Despite her flaws, she had lots of good motives and did some very heroic things to help the war effort. I liked the way her character was developed and dealt with, though I do feel like the author did her a disservice by having a lot of her character focused on the man she liked.
2. Vianne. I identified with her desire to protect those she loved, and I loved the way her character was developed as well, from being a hide-in-the-background kind of girl to a strong, courageous, brave helper of those poor children.
3. The friendship between Vianne and Rachel was beautiful and heartbreaking. The trust they had between each other was wonderful and sincere. Vianne growing to love Ariel as her own was great.
4. Nice setting. I think that the author did a good job describing the horrors of World War II and so forth. The consequences were real and awful.
5. The writing style was great. It flowed well and was quick to read, though it was very flowery and overdramatic at times. There were a lot of weird similies that baffled me.
Okay. So now let's take a look at the bad elements here:
1. The last *looks back at the book* ah yes, sixteen chapters.
About 2/3 in there was a major tonal shift. And look, I get it. I just mentioned above that the author did well showing the horrors they all went through, but it just felt like Hannah decided that the characters hadn't suffered enough, or that they had gotten away with too many of their previous actions, and then decided "oh well now seems like the perfect time to make everything unnecessarily worse."
It just felt like lazy writing to get us to be sad and to create shock value. It was trauma for Trauma's sake.
2. The relationship between Isabelle and her boyfriend (? Was he actually? He certainly didn't act like it.) felt super weird. I dislike instalove, and it felt very instalovey and shallow to me. We're told again and again that Isabelle loves him, but we don't really see it in her actions. And again, towards the end, her character was intensely focused on this man. It felt detrimental to the character and her actions, boiling her personality to how much she wants to see this guy. (Who had absolutely no personality, let's be real here.)
3. I'm still salty about that scene with Vianne and the Nazi officer when he sexually assaultd her. It was a pointless and stupid scene. It goes back to my previous point where I stated that Hannah put trauma there for trauma's sake.
I've made it no secret that I hate smut in books, especially THAT kind of smut. I'm biased. That scene made me sick, and I found it hard to enjoy the book after that. I was struggling to like it beforehand, and that scene was the nail in the coffin. It essentially killed my liking for the book as a whole.
4. The ending. It felt really rushed. After sixteen chapters worth of intense suffering, everything is wrapped up in about two chapters of needless fluff. It was as if Hannah crammed in an entire books worth of suffering into said sixteen chapters and tries to fix everything in a chapter and an epilogue. It almost felt like she didn't want to deal with the reprocussions of all the trauma and suffering we just slogged through.
It was a good concept that was executed poorly. It left a sour taste in my mouth, and I would not recommend reading. Save your time and money.
Spoilers ahead.
Okay.
So I have mixed feelings about this book. We'll start off with some good things here:
1. Isabelle. I loved her by the end of ends book. I disliked her at first, because she was extremely annoying and very self righteous. I thought she was selfish and disliked her treatment of Vianne and how she didn't seem to care for her or her child's safety. But she grew to be a great character. Despite her flaws, she had lots of good motives and did some very heroic things to help the war effort. I liked the way her character was developed and dealt with, though I do feel like the author did her a disservice by having a lot of her character focused on the man she liked.
2. Vianne. I identified with her desire to protect those she loved, and I loved the way her character was developed as well, from being a hide-in-the-background kind of girl to a strong, courageous, brave helper of those poor children.
3. The friendship between Vianne and Rachel was beautiful and heartbreaking. The trust they had between each other was wonderful and sincere. Vianne growing to love Ariel as her own was great.
4. Nice setting. I think that the author did a good job describing the horrors of World War II and so forth. The consequences were real and awful.
5. The writing style was great. It flowed well and was quick to read, though it was very flowery and overdramatic at times. There were a lot of weird similies that baffled me.
Okay. So now let's take a look at the bad elements here:
1. The last *looks back at the book* ah yes, sixteen chapters.
About 2/3 in there was a major tonal shift. And look, I get it. I just mentioned above that the author did well showing the horrors they all went through, but it just felt like Hannah decided that the characters hadn't suffered enough, or that they had gotten away with too many of their previous actions, and then decided "oh well now seems like the perfect time to make everything unnecessarily worse."
It just felt like lazy writing to get us to be sad and to create shock value. It was trauma for Trauma's sake.
2. The relationship between Isabelle and her boyfriend (? Was he actually? He certainly didn't act like it.) felt super weird. I dislike instalove, and it felt very instalovey and shallow to me. We're told again and again that Isabelle loves him, but we don't really see it in her actions. And again, towards the end, her character was intensely focused on this man. It felt detrimental to the character and her actions, boiling her personality to how much she wants to see this guy. (Who had absolutely no personality, let's be real here.)
3. I'm still salty about that scene with Vianne and the Nazi officer when he sexually assaultd her. It was a pointless and stupid scene. It goes back to my previous point where I stated that Hannah put trauma there for trauma's sake.
I've made it no secret that I hate smut in books, especially THAT kind of smut. I'm biased. That scene made me sick, and I found it hard to enjoy the book after that. I was struggling to like it beforehand, and that scene was the nail in the coffin. It essentially killed my liking for the book as a whole.
4. The ending. It felt really rushed. After sixteen chapters worth of intense suffering, everything is wrapped up in about two chapters of needless fluff. It was as if Hannah crammed in an entire books worth of suffering into said sixteen chapters and tries to fix everything in a chapter and an epilogue. It almost felt like she didn't want to deal with the reprocussions of all the trauma and suffering we just slogged through.
It was a good concept that was executed poorly. It left a sour taste in my mouth, and I would not recommend reading. Save your time and money.
nicolabh's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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? Yes
4.0