Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Kobiety by Kristin Hannah

1014 reviews

reigning_rose's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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

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This book ripped my heart apart and stitched it back together. “No fear McGrath” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Medical content, War

Moderate: Addiction, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt

3vhoff1's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, War

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Kidnapping, Car accident, Pregnancy

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Stalking

drewg's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional inspiring 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: Complicated

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Book club. Honestly, I never would’ve picked this book if not for book club, but damn am I glad I did. Not only do I have a better perspective of women at/after Vietnam, but the story was so compelling. So much tragedy but so much beautiful growth in the end for Frankie. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Violence, War

Moderate: Miscarriage, Violence, War

Minor: Suicide attempt

megsie1991's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

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I absolutely loved reading this book and seeing the life of Frances (Frankie) McGrath unfold. It is perhaps one of the most unique and impactful storylines I’ve had the pleasure of reading. 

The Women is a gripping and emotional book that explores the experiences of the women who served in the Vietnam War, both during war time and their struggles afterwards upon their return to the US.

The writing is immersive, the story compelling, the characters complex and flawed (and yet completely loveable). It’s rare to find a book that has such soul and yet is grounded in fact.

Kristin Hannah has done an incredible job with this one bringing attention and focus to a generation of forgotten war veterans. This is an absolute 5 star read and I would highly recommend it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail

maggieperrien's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I really enjoyed this book. I feel like I learned a lot about the Vietnam War and about what America was going through during that time I can’t help but see parallels of what we’re going through right now in America. Learning so much about how the women were treated for being in Vietnam as nurses and not “in combat“ was really disheartening. The women of the Vietnam War are trauma bonded and experiencing PTSD just as any of the combat soldiers did. There’s a lot of gruesome details of war and injury and medical trauma in this book, but it was actually the relationships between Frankie and her family and most of all Frankie and her friends that really made this book special for me. Everything does wrap up in a neat little bow, but that’s what makes it fiction - it didn’t need that nice ending for me, but it didn’t detract from my experience and enjoyment of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, War

Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail

kmirea's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This was a very well written book. It is such an incredible window into this time. The first 3/4 are fantastic although often very sad. The last 1/4 was wild in a totally different way. Sad in a much more common way? Very self destructive at times. Vietnam.  Ended up inspirationally/heartening 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail

jsmith93's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, War

jude_duarte123's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional inspiring sad 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: Complicated

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THIS BOOK IS AMAZING AND LIFE CHANGING 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Blood, War

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcohol

aoldale's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol

Minor: Car accident

jennifermreads's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Prior to writing this review, I saw a post on Instagram with the title slide “What to read instead of The Women?” Intrigued, I thumbed through the rest of the slides in the post and read the caption. Essentially, the criticism, and reason to not read The Women was that the Vietnam War was once again being objectified by whites and being the Vietnamese were “used as plot devices rather than given names, agency, or full characterizations.” The post’s author then said, “Sure, that may not be the goal of the book” and went on to talk about how we, as readers, should not always read historical fiction from the White perspective. I 100% agree that expanding your reading is wise and that remembering that our history has been white-washed is imperative.

I do want to state emphatically: It was not the intention of The Women to give the Vietnamese perspective nor tell the story from that viewpoint. Kristin Hannah did an incredible job conveying the life, through the war and beyond, of Vietnam nurses and female war veterans. I have always found her characters multi-faceted and so well-formed that they could walk off the page and into my life. Over and over, I made notes to myself like “Did I know that?” or “How could I not remember that?” or “SERIOUSLY! They aren’t veterans because they didn’t hold a gun?!” I cried, I laughed, I raged, I cheered, and I was exhausted because of all that emotion. And I was only reading about the women vets, not living their lives.

Once again, I credit Kristin Hannah for using her incredible historical fiction to make me eager to know more, for growing my TBR as I added books so that I can expand my knowledge of a piece of history I thought I knew. And, yes, I added some books from that Instagram post, too, including Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai about the aftermath of the Vietnam War. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, War

Moderate: Car accident, Suicide attempt

Characters read as primarily white with one of the MC's best friends being Black African-American