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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
I absolutely fell in love with this book ❤️ The writing is beautiful, the characters feel like friends, I finished it and I still can’t stop loving those people and thinking about them. What a gem of a book.
3.5 Stars
We Must Be Brave follows on the heels of some powerful WWII fiction that has released in recent years. From [b:All the Light We Cannot See|18143977|All the Light We Cannot See|Anthony Doerr|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451445646s/18143977.jpg|25491300] to [b:The Nightingale|21853621|The Nightingale|Kristin Hannah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451446316s/21853621.jpg|41125521] to the recently released [b:The Huntress|38376046|The Huntress|Kate Quinn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1534172306s/38376046.jpg|60039109] we have seen books capturing the complex relationships and moral ambiguities of the times. We Must Be Brave follows the course of a childless woman taking in a young child who appears to have been abandoned or orphaned and from the opening chapters the reader knows that Ellen Parr, the protagonist, is going to be in for some serious heartbreak when the child she comes to love is inevitably returned to biological relatives.
This is a quiet story but that for me doesn't pack the emotional power of some of the books mentioned above. The evolution of a heart (Ellen never wanted children) is explored but the book's narrow focus on Ellen and the effect Pamela has wrought on her life, an effect that mirrors to some extent the way the world, from her perspective, is changed by war, never affected me the way some of these other recent books have. The slow pacing of the novel was also a challenge for the reader.
I received a Digital Review Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
We Must Be Brave follows on the heels of some powerful WWII fiction that has released in recent years. From [b:All the Light We Cannot See|18143977|All the Light We Cannot See|Anthony Doerr|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451445646s/18143977.jpg|25491300] to [b:The Nightingale|21853621|The Nightingale|Kristin Hannah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451446316s/21853621.jpg|41125521] to the recently released [b:The Huntress|38376046|The Huntress|Kate Quinn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1534172306s/38376046.jpg|60039109] we have seen books capturing the complex relationships and moral ambiguities of the times. We Must Be Brave follows the course of a childless woman taking in a young child who appears to have been abandoned or orphaned and from the opening chapters the reader knows that Ellen Parr, the protagonist, is going to be in for some serious heartbreak when the child she comes to love is inevitably returned to biological relatives.
This is a quiet story but that for me doesn't pack the emotional power of some of the books mentioned above. The evolution of a heart (Ellen never wanted children) is explored but the book's narrow focus on Ellen and the effect Pamela has wrought on her life, an effect that mirrors to some extent the way the world, from her perspective, is changed by war, never affected me the way some of these other recent books have. The slow pacing of the novel was also a challenge for the reader.
I received a Digital Review Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Review coming a week before its release on February 26th.
This was started as an audiobook for me. And I struggled hard to follow the story. The time-line never seemed clear and it moved at a snails pace. I want to finish this book but I'm going to give it a go as a paperback book.
The plot is good, but it seems to deviate so much from it.
The plot is good, but it seems to deviate so much from it.
Putting down at 16%. Nothing happens, cannot care less about anyone.
I love historical fiction books, but this didn’t revolve around the war too much — side story, and more, the book was so slow…I think the story could have been told in 100 pages. The better part of the book was Ellen recounting her youth since the pace kept moving. Otherwise, the other sections were so drawn out and not much excitement. I skimmed the end just to say that I finished it.
emotional
reflective
relaxing
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:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No