Reviews tagging 'Torture'

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell

21 reviews

kobooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Torture, Deportation, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Ableism and Genocide

junglejelly's review against another edition

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

4.25

After hearing vaguely about Virginia Hall, I was so glad to have found this book.

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, Blood, Violence, Death, and Police brutality

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Suicide, Cancer, Deportation, and Sexism

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

adventurous dark informative tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and War

brittsbooknook's review against another edition

I tried to finish this book but I felt like was slogging through it. Virginia Hall was a fascinating person but the biography read to much like a high school history book - names, dates, events, repeat. I prefer memoirs or biographies written more in a "memoir" style where I feel like I can connect to the person's story. This just wasn't my preferred style of book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, and Injury/Injury detail

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, and Violence

istaisa's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

This was a really interesting read. I didn’t know anything about Virginia Hall going in, or really much about France during WW2. 

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Torture

oceanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

Being a woman in the early 20th century was no picnic, especially when it came to getting a job. Add a disability to the mix and getting someone to hire you was near impossible. Virginia Hall broke down barriers and excelled over her able-bodied male counterparts. At the start of World War II, Virginia was hired as a spy and was deployed to France. As the war carried on, Virginia (under a number of aliases) became a touchstone for people under occupation and fellow resistance workers.

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and War

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, and Genocide

Minor: Drug use, Rape, and Racism

dukeofkel's review

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Violence, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Antisemitism, Confinement, Death, Torture, Deportation, Drug use, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault