Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

374 reviews

sarahannmac21's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

OUCH!!!! You know when you’re little and your mom tells you not to touch the stove because it’s hot? And you do it anyway because you just want to know? And then it burns you and hurts like the devil? Yeah……. Reading this book was like that. All my friends told me how much it was going to break my heart and I was like ok sign me up. 

Seriously though… what a good story. Listened to it on audio and even my husband enjoyed it- he’s not a reader. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War, and Deportation

gimmer05's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and War

Moderate: Rape

madis0ny's review against another edition

inspiring reflective 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

5.0

The way I immediately had to finish this book once I hit chapter 11. The pace is great, the characters experience so much growth, the sadness of the war is captured so perfectly. There is an element of mystery annd hope around the narrator that kept a historical fiction fresh. I spent the last 100 pages bawling my eyes out and just in love with all of the characters and story line. One of the best books I have read with such a beautiful ending, I will think of these characters for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, and War

missemmacrabtree's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Deportation

wardenred's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

We are all fragile, Isabelle. It’s the thing we learn in war.

I’m still not sure if it’s a good idea for me to be reading war novels at the time, but yeah, I’ve picked up another one. While these stories make me angry-sad at the humanity for repeating the same horrors over and over, there’s something almost calming about how they acknowledge those horrors and their evil. Yes, this happened. Yes, this is what people did to each other. Yes, somehow, life went on.

This book is shaped by the intertwining stories of two sisters living through the Nazi occupation/World War 2 in France. The two of them start off as practically polar opposites in how they handle their circumstances. Vianne, the eldest, is already a mother and a responsible member of her community, and her focus is on perseverance. She wants to keep her head low and wait the worst out. Isabelle, on the contrary, is all about defiance. She’s not afraid, she’s angry, and she’s only ever cautious in the sense that she does her best not to betray the resistance she is a part of.

I admit that while Isabelle’s ideals resonated with me deeply, her storyline was hard for me to get into for a large chunk of the book. The way it was written almost clashed with the heavy, real historical backdrop—as if amidst all the regular people suffering, Isabelle was this one special heroine for whom it was all about daring adventure and romance. But as the book progressed, it became clear this was a feature and not a bug, so to speak. The narrative doesn’t specifically frame Isabelle as this YAish heroine; Isabelle does. This is her defense mechanism: reframing horrors as a grand adventure. It helps her for quite a while, and it doesn’t save her at the end, but she sure saves everyone she can reach and is just an amazingly strong character. 

Vianne has her defense mechanisms too, ones initially rooted in conformism and almost-denial. She understands what’s going on, but she needs to survive long enough to reunite with her husband. She has a daughter to take care of. She has her sister with her for a while. She has her charges at school and her friends to look out for, so she tries to play by the new rules. But the rules twist, the game gets darker and darker, and eventually she makes a journey from reluctantly adding the name of her Jewish friend to a list of bad elements to saving Jewish children. Her strength is different from Isabelle’s, quieter and slower to unfold, but evident all the same.

Both of these characters are so vivid, it’s like they were in the room with me as I read, and the same can be said for a lot of others on these pages. I don’t know if I can say I’m glad I’ve read this book; I cried a lot and I’m very angry. But it’s a good one for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Rape, Torture, and War

eroseperry's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book made me love reading again. Kristin Hannah’s writing is so intricate and beautiful and I can picture the plot so clearly in my head. I sobbed, everything hurt reading this book but god I wish I could read it for the first time again

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, War, and Classism

Minor: Infertility and Injury/Injury detail

rachelsb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

elisa_atkins's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It’s hard to put into words the emotional journey this book takes you through. It is beautifully written and gives a new perspective to the horrors that happened in ww2. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Torture, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Deportation

Minor: Alcoholism, Infertility, and Rape

emily_britton's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This is not exactly an enjoyable book.  War is never pleasant.  We know about what happened in WW2, but the day-to-day of the people behind those lines is shocking to be immersed in.  I will say that the twists were good and I got pretty choked up at the end.  But I will enjoy not having Nazis literally occupy my dreams at night any more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, Violence, and War

caitlinemccann's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer, Homophobia, and Vomit