Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Women by Kristin Hannah

12 reviews

haley49's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.75

I want to start by saying this was a story that needed to be told. There is not enough literature on Vietnam and this book really explores the erasure of female vets, the treatment of vets, ptsd, addiction and the futility of the war. I appreciated it all. 

However, for some reason I went into the book expecting multiple povs and instead got one, very limited pov. I would’ve wished we could’ve had the perspective of a Vietnamese woman and/or a black woman nurse. We see some of this through Frankie’s friend Barb but we are always told not shown things and it made any commentary about racism or classism feel shoehorned in. Plus, the fact that there were no named asian characters is a miss in my opinion. The only perspective about the war is shaped by people tired of the deaths of American soldiers with civilian casualties largely ignored. The author tried but it was a matter of needing more perspectives. 

Connected to the problem of needing more perspectives is the fact that Frankie always has a love interest. It was like whack a mole. For a book called the women and only telling one’s story she spent a lot of time centering her story on men. It was not super interesting or new and took valuable page time away from women and the war-related themes. There are multiple points where romantic love is used as a fix-all for main character’s problems. It became melodramatic for a book that is not a drama or a romance. 

All of the above issues didn’t make me hate the book but I would have made some changes. Again I did appreciate the themes, mention of historical movements, Barb’s character, the main friend group, and how much Frankie earned her future happiness. The author made her regress before her progress and I appreciate that in a character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Minor: Ableism, Vomit, and Colonisation

dkamada's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-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

5.0

TW: PTSD

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Classism

bookscatcoffee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Another great book from this author!  She captures what her main character’s life was like and uses that to reflect on what so many other women must have gone through.  Its crazy to me that there is no official statistic about the number of American military women stationed in Vietnam.  Everyone tried so hard to erase them and their service.  

As always, the writing is great!  “Maybe that was why people built walls: to look away, to ignore anything they didn’t want to see.”  Definitely worth reading!  5 stars

Historical fiction with diverse characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Genocide

Minor: Cancer and Infertility

chanatova's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Forced institutionalization

madlads's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Idk wtf Kristin Hannah put in this book but golly gee do I want more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, Vomit, and Police brutality

brichambo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

kdailyreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infertility

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture

jvantland's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a hard read. I felt so beat down by the middle I had to put it down for while. The end helped weave together a lot of the loose ends and questions, but the jump 7 years into the future was a little disorienting after being SO in each moment up until then. 

It was really powerful to read this, especially the second half about the student and veteran protests, while watching a similar state violence unfold against student protests against Palestinian genocide in the US this week.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

jesstaurant's review

emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

fkshg8465's review

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

It never occurred to me that women would be erased from the Vietnam War because my mother was a nurse there. She was the head of her MASH unit and collected a pension for her service until she died. I guess the difference for her was that she served in the South Korean army. So this book evoked in me pride for her service, questions about her, sadness that we never really talked about, and sadness and shock over how the US nurses were treated (who did they think were doing all the nursing duties at a time when male nurses were so rare?????). A full circle story. A couple of loose ends tied too nearly for me but otherwise, an excellent telling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail