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meghan's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
hollyshackzalez's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
brookey8888's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-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
3.5
This was so interesting! I just love learning about things that I didn’t really learn about in school. The hello girls was such an important part of history and inspiring. The story was honestly whatever, the writing was very easy to read and super fast. This is not Christmasy at all except like a page, which makes sense because this is about World War One.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, War, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Classism, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
huncamuncamouse's review
3.0
Well, we've officially made it to Book 30 in the series.
This one was . . . fine? This deep into the series, the less exciting books start to really show the Dear America repetitive formula--it's actually why I think author of the previous book in the series, a 16-year-old girl did such a good job: she recognized and reproduced that formula perfectly. Unfortunately, that repetitive formula is on display here, especially in the book's underwhelming second half.
I thought the material set in New York had a lot more energy, which comes as no surprise since the author said her love of New York inspired the book. Maman is a really interesting character. While it is a little annoying that Simone is a 1%-er, I appreciated that there was some commentary on class as an undercurrent throughout the book, which includes how the upper-class New York Simone lived in had clear expectations for young women . . . none of which sounds appealing to Simone. At 19 when the book ends, it was nice to see a more mature narrator.
The problem, for me, is that the broader global history--the history of the war-- seems like a total afterthought compared the characters' relationships. In other books this wouldn't have bothered me, and in fact, I've made the opposite complaints that the big historic events felt shoehorned in unnecessarily. But with both Will and Simone literally going into the action, I felt like more needed to be done to explain the circumstances and the stakes more generally. The historic note in the back did a good job of giving context, but it needed to be embedded more in the narrative.
As a whole, Simone seems more concerned about socializing than her work, and somehow it takes the death of a friend to really get her to focus, which is at odds with her attitude when she decided to volunteer. I hoped for excitement when Simone arrived in France, but once she gets there, she's mostly she's just obsessing over a boy, and the descriptions of her work are surprisingly dull and lean (big stretches of time pass with no entries). Then, the war ends abruptly with minimal reflection. Instead, Simone is bereaved because she thinks her love interest has been killed. It's tedious because I can't imagine a reader over age 10 honestly thinking this would be true in a book meant to be all Christmas-y (which no makes me think how ballsy it would have been to commit to killing off the love interest). Anyway, the last 30 pages are predictable and corny. I can handle both of those things--just don't bore me.
A lot of people are ragging on the "love at first sight" thing with Sam, but I'll let it go because I'm imagining how lonely and scary it would have been to be in their positions, and I can see how their experiences bonded them after the initial honeymoon phase wore off. In the grand scheme of irritating Dear America relationships, this one isn't even in the top 10.
This book reads like the author wanted to write a story set in New York during the war but was given the editorial note to have Simone volunteer to go overseas. She just doesn't pull off that material, and I would have preferred to read a diary where Simone stays in America, perhaps doing the nurse work we see her doing in the first half?
There are six books left in the OG series. Hoping at least a couple of them will be more memorable than this one.
This one was . . . fine? This deep into the series, the less exciting books start to really show the Dear America repetitive formula--it's actually why I think author of the previous book in the series, a 16-year-old girl did such a good job: she recognized and reproduced that formula perfectly. Unfortunately, that repetitive formula is on display here, especially in the book's underwhelming second half.
I thought the material set in New York had a lot more energy, which comes as no surprise since the author said her love of New York inspired the book. Maman is a really interesting character. While it is a little annoying that Simone is a 1%-er, I appreciated that there was some commentary on class as an undercurrent throughout the book, which includes how the upper-class New York Simone lived in had clear expectations for young women . . . none of which sounds appealing to Simone. At 19 when the book ends, it was nice to see a more mature narrator.
The problem, for me, is that the broader global history--the history of the war-- seems like a total afterthought compared the characters' relationships. In other books this wouldn't have bothered me, and in fact, I've made the opposite complaints that the big historic events felt shoehorned in unnecessarily. But with both Will and Simone literally going into the action, I felt like more needed to be done to explain the circumstances and the stakes more generally. The historic note in the back did a good job of giving context, but it needed to be embedded more in the narrative.
As a whole, Simone seems more concerned about socializing than her work, and somehow it takes the death of a friend to really get her to focus, which is at odds with her attitude when she decided to volunteer. I hoped for excitement when Simone arrived in France, but once she gets there, she's mostly she's just obsessing over a boy, and the descriptions of her work are surprisingly dull and lean (big stretches of time pass with no entries). Then, the war ends abruptly with minimal reflection. Instead, Simone is bereaved because she thinks her love interest has been killed. It's tedious because I can't imagine a reader over age 10 honestly thinking this would be true in a book meant to be all Christmas-y (which no makes me think how ballsy it would have been to commit to killing off the love interest). Anyway, the last 30 pages are predictable and corny. I can handle both of those things--just don't bore me.
A lot of people are ragging on the "love at first sight" thing with Sam, but I'll let it go because I'm imagining how lonely and scary it would have been to be in their positions, and I can see how their experiences bonded them after the initial honeymoon phase wore off. In the grand scheme of irritating Dear America relationships, this one isn't even in the top 10.
This book reads like the author wanted to write a story set in New York during the war but was given the editorial note to have Simone volunteer to go overseas. She just doesn't pull off that material, and I would have preferred to read a diary where Simone stays in America, perhaps doing the nurse work we see her doing in the first half?
There are six books left in the OG series. Hoping at least a couple of them will be more memorable than this one.
hunkydory's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and War
beammey's review
4.0
I don't feel like this was the best book in the series, but overall it was interesting and kept my attention enough that I wanted to keep reading. I don't know a lot about WWI and I certainly didn't know about Hello Girls, so it was fun to learn about them and what Simone went through. And the Spanish Influenza was touched on! over all, 4 out of 5 stars. It was a good book. And my last in the Dear America series to read :(.
margaretann84's review
3.0
Okay, so the ending was a little sappy and contrived, but that's fine. The rest of the book...well, it's interesting, but mostly because I didn't realize women went over to Europe during WWI in any other capacity than "nurse." So that part was cool. However, the book itself was just kinda...meh. It didn't seem terribly well-written or anything. In other words, topic = interesting, book = not so much.
3/5 on here, 6/10 for myself.
3/5 on here, 6/10 for myself.
sextance's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
windsinger's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
nataliesboooks's review
3.0
Not as Christmassy as I would have liked, but an interesting historical read nonetheless.