Review by pomoevareads - The Women

pomoevareads 's review for:

The Women by Kristin Hannah

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

My first book of 2024 and it’s a winner!

I can always count on Kristin Hannah for emotionally resonant historical fiction. I am slowly making my way through her books, many I have collected on my shelves to read.

In The Women, Frankie McGrath decides in haste to follow her brother who has been shipped off to serve in Vietnam. She hopes to serve with him in the capacity of a nurse. Newly finished her degree, Frankie is eager to be added to her father’s wall of heroes in his home office. But she could never have imagined what was waiting for her on the other end of her flight. Her letters with her brother had been jovial and light hearted and what she is quickly thrown into is anything but that. Frankie learns to swim quickly in Vietnam, under the guidance of some experienced doctors and with some formidable women nurses who master both the blood and guts of it all but also the compassion the men who come before her require.

Told in two parts, we see Frankie in Vietnam coming into herself and learning to live life as it comes and then travel with her home to California where anti-war protests are ongoing and she is spat at while wearing her uniform. The trauma of serving in war catches up to Frankie and she struggles to get the much needed help as the veterans’ administration services are for men who were in combat. She is told to talk to her girlfriends and to not take up the space needed for men.

Hannah has done a tremendous job of sharing the experience of many women who acted in various occupations in Vietnam. Added in is a little romance, some heartbreak, friendship, personal and societal challenges, and a heartwarming but a little unbelievable ending.

I really enjoyed all of this story and fell into the easy flow of the language. My only quirk, as said, was a plot point that I didn’t feel was necessary or believable at the very end of the tale. The author has kept this novel as historically accurate as she was able to minus small adjustments to time and place to forward the narrative.

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netglley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. The Women publishes February 6, 2024.

Content Warnings