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Reviews tagging 'War'
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
16 reviews
junglejelly's review against another edition
4.25
It's incredibly detailed with Hall's years in occupied France, sometimes a little too detailed.
Most of the writing is incredibly captivating and Purnell does well to weave in the emotions. Other times it's quite dry.
Overall, a good read and would definitely recommend.
Graphic: War, Torture, Blood, Violence, Death, and Police brutality
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Suicide, Cancer, Deportation, and Sexism
esthery_rn's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: War
madamenovelist's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Torture, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Sexism, Police brutality, Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Gun violence, Grief, Genocide, Excrement, Drug use, Deportation, Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Classism, Child death, Biphobia, Ableism, Xenophobia, Racism, War, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Chronic illness, Antisemitism, Sexual content, Rape, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Child abuse, Body horror, Blood, Sexual assault, Murder, Medical content, and Gore
Excellent book, but do not read if you’re in a bad headspace. Extremely open and frank about WWII atrocities in France, including critiques of the approach/strategy of Allied forces. It’s very jarring in the last chapter to have a pointedly neutral tone re: CIA & US military activity in the Middle East in more recent years, after no-punches-pulled attitude to all western powers including the US during WWII itself. This inconsistency is the only thing that prevented me from giving it 5 stars.j_hornick's review
3.5
Graphic: Violence, Torture, and War
brittsbooknook's review against another edition
Graphic: Torture, War, and Injury/Injury detail
clarabooksit's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Xenophobia, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Confinement, Murder, Sexism, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and War
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, and Death of parent
mad_is_rad's review
3.75
Graphic: Torture, War, and Violence
istaisa's review against another edition
4.0
I thought the book was, on the whole, well written and well paced, although the long chapters made it a slow read and hard to dip in and out of. I appreciate that the author didn’t try and belittle Virginia’s character by pretending she was flawless or writing her as a more “Hollywood” version of herself.
My main issues with the book were that the (necessary) sheer number of names made it difficult to keep track of who was who, especially given the numbers of nicknames. The other was the way fairly graphic torture descriptions were interspersed with the rest of the writing - these were obviously relevant as they happened but sometimes they took me completely off guard.
Graphic: War
Moderate: Torture
oceanwriter's review against another edition
5.0
The more her reputation grew, the more the Nazis wanted her captured. Despite several warnings and close calls, Virginia was reluctant to leave her post in France where so many people had come to rely on her. When staying was no longer an option, she continued to prove her strength both mentally and physically — achieving things that most people without a prosthetic leg couldn't. She continued to do what she could for the war effort no matter where she had to go.
There seems to be no end to the fascinating figures of WWII. Virginia Hall is now among my favorites. The book flowed wonderfully. Nothing dragged and there was always something interesting going on. I appreciated that it went in a linear timeline. I've noticed a lot of non-fiction books like to jump around even if it's following a chain of events. A must-read for WWII buffs.
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and War
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, and Genocide
Minor: Drug use, Rape, and Racism
henrismum's review against another edition
3.0
Audiobook (All of my entries on The Story Graph are audiobooks.)
Why I added this book to my TBR pile: I seem to read a lot on the subject of women and spies WWII. This book was probably suggested as a result of those books.
Will I read more by the author or about the subject?
I have at least two more books on this subject in my list - Madame Fourcade's Secret War & They Fought Alone: The True Story of the Starr Brothers, British Secret Agents in Nazi-Occupied France.
The narrator was Juliet Stevenson. She has a pleasant voice, but the British take on the American accent is always funny to me; probably as funny as the American take on the British accent is when the British listen to an American audiobook.
Moderate: Antisemitism, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Genocide, War, and Violence