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A review by readsrandiread
The Women by Kristin Hannah
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
4.5 stars ✨
Kristin Hannah, my absolute go-to favorite for when I want to cry all the tears and have my heart gutted and put back together again. She really did that again here with, THE WOMEN. I was crying within the first 20 pages and then just kept that up throughout.
“It is a strange world we are all in. Volatile and uncertain. We—Americans, I mean—can’t seem to talk to each other anymore, our disagreements seem insurmountable.”
I read a non-fiction book earlier this year that gave me my first teeny bit of information about the Vietnam War, but this book took that and more than doubled it. It’s not a piece of history I knew a lot about. And this telling of the war and the aftermath for those that lived through it was hard to read at times. This book made me sick to my stomach, it made me sad, it made me angry, it made me cry, and cry, and it made me learn. I didn’t walk away a Vietnam expert, that isn’t the book’s point, but I did walk away having learned a lot and having more of an idea where to start with my own learning. Napalm, for example, is one thing I found myself researching… sickening and heartbreaking.
“She’d made some of the most momentous choices in her life before she had any idea of consequences. Some had been thrust on her, some had been expected, some had been impetuous.”
My only complaint is that I wish the main character wasn’t quite so privileged, though it does go to show how even money and all the privilege couldn’t save her from the effects of her experience in Vietnam and after.
Kristin Hannah, my absolute go-to favorite for when I want to cry all the tears and have my heart gutted and put back together again. She really did that again here with, THE WOMEN. I was crying within the first 20 pages and then just kept that up throughout.
“It is a strange world we are all in. Volatile and uncertain. We—Americans, I mean—can’t seem to talk to each other anymore, our disagreements seem insurmountable.”
I read a non-fiction book earlier this year that gave me my first teeny bit of information about the Vietnam War, but this book took that and more than doubled it. It’s not a piece of history I knew a lot about. And this telling of the war and the aftermath for those that lived through it was hard to read at times. This book made me sick to my stomach, it made me sad, it made me angry, it made me cry, and cry, and it made me learn. I didn’t walk away a Vietnam expert, that isn’t the book’s point, but I did walk away having learned a lot and having more of an idea where to start with my own learning. Napalm, for example, is one thing I found myself researching… sickening and heartbreaking.
“She’d made some of the most momentous choices in her life before she had any idea of consequences. Some had been thrust on her, some had been expected, some had been impetuous.”
My only complaint is that I wish the main character wasn’t quite so privileged, though it does go to show how even money and all the privilege couldn’t save her from the effects of her experience in Vietnam and after.