Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Die Nachtigall

This was a book that got me out of a reading slump back in 2016. I loved the development of the two sisters. It was packed with beautiful writing and an heart-wrenching plotline that goes back and forth in time. The plot twist was not expected and was a tear-jerker.

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joriekae's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

My cousin has been begging me for years to read this book, but I kept putting it off. The size at almost 600 pages is a little overwhelming, and I've read a lot of WWII books so I wasn't sure I wanted to get into another. But finally, I decided to pick up, resigning myself that it may take me a while to read. Four days later, and I'm done. I had such a hard time putting this book down.

The first part was a little slow to me (but, let's face it, that's often the price we have to pay for a good book). I didn't particularly like either of the main characters: Vianne, the older sister who seemed afraid of everything, and Isabelle, the younger sister who is impetuous and brave and naive. But I trusted the story would pay off, and it did!

I've read several books set in France during WWII, but The Nightingale made me feel woefully ignorant of a great deal of WWII France. I'd heard of the French Resistance, but I didn't really think through what that looked like. Resistance in an occupied country meant that every action was life-risking. It was humbling and inspiring to hear stories based on real history of people risking their lives and the lives of family to push back on the Germans.

Hannah fully immerses readers in this world. The length helped me feel in a small part of the longevity of the war, the years of deprivation and fear. I was tense and afraid and relieved right along with the characters. I was inspired to help others at cost to myself. So very glad I read this one!

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mattiedancer's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Writing: 4.75⭐️/5

The writing is quite stunning. The prose is beautiful, weighted, and eloquent. There were some truly stunning standalone lines, but it also had a nice cohesion. Beyond that, it wasn’t a challenging writing style to read and was well-woven into the plot.

Characters: 4.5⭐️/5

The characters were highly motivated and flawed, which meant that they felt uniquely human to me. The characterization of the Nazi soldiers was particularly detailed and complicated, leading to moments of pathos for these villains. At times, it felt like certain characters made very weird choices, but it was usually justified later. This just led to a slower understanding of characterization than I might have liked, but it wasn’t too jarring.

Plot: 4⭐️/5

I know that this is kind of a fan-favourite book, so I’m reluctant to say this, but at times it felt like the author used trauma a bit reflexively to address human moments. Too many times did I know that a terrible scene was coming and, when it came, it was witnessed by one too many characters who we had grown to love, no matter how illogical it might be that they would have ended up witnessing it. I appreciate that this is dealing with the reality of war horrors that took place during WWII; however, at times, it just felt a bit too neat in how directly the trauma continuously happened. That being said, the overarching plot was really well done. I loved the story-within-a-story format that the grandmother at the beginning set up. Overall a solid plot with just a lot of trauma at the end.

Post-Reading Rating: 4⭐️/5

The ending felt fine: necessary and complete.

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