Reviews - The Eights | The StoryGraph

376 reviews for:

The Eights

Joanna Miller

3.92 AVERAGE

sarahjacksonbuckley's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I really enjoyed the pace and writing style in this book. I also really felt attached to all of the main characters, and their friendship at the centre was great. However, I found myself a bit disappointed by the end though as I thought it would be more about educational experiences but it turned into a lot of relationship drama with men!

lorab649's review against another edition

Just couldn’t get into the story

lindajyyc's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Being able to learn about the characters at a special time in history made this a great story.

elinordavies's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional inspiring relaxing medium-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

eleanorfranzen's review against another edition

charming literary-commercial historical fiction about the first cohort of women to be allowed to matriculate, and receive degrees from, Oxford. This was in 1920 and the aftermath of WWI is everywhere, in the odd combination of male undergraduates—boys who never fought alongside traumatised, slightly older survivors—and in the memories of the women themselves, all of whom did some form of war work. I found two of the four main characters hard to distinguish from one another, and although their support and love is outlined in a way that will certainly make a reader feel warm and positive towards them, the most beautiful moment in the book for me came in a lecture when two male undergraduates show unexpected solidarity and kindness. Miller captured magic in that scene that the rest of The Eights, although it’s charming, mostly doesn’t achieve—writing in the present tense, again, might be partly responsible for this, since a lot of events seem flattened out by it, even the flashbacks to the war and earlier. It hardly matters, though; it’s competently written and thoroughly researched and book clubs will definitely get a lot out of it. It certainly made me think, with gratitude, on my student days, less than a century after 1920, when no one cared what we wore or whether we were chaperoned to lectures.