Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Women

To start with: There is no named Vietnamese character, Frankie's whole life is dictated by men and she only just follows men around, the book seems to think Vietnamese women only wear áo dàis and completely ignores the Vietnamese women who fought in the war and even supported Americans (in more ways than just serving them Jack Daniels...).

Frankie is a rich, spoilt brat who's main goal is just to have her father proud of her. Her whole life is dictated and saved by men, and there's no point where she breaks out of that. In fact, even at the end of the book, she's still chasing men. She's really not likeable, and despite the book trying SO hard to *tell* you she's strong, she really doesn't feel like that. Veterans have an incredibly high rate of homelessness and are unable to get medical care in any regard. Frankie has 0 issues with any of that, she never has money problems, she's gifted homes, and easily gets medical care.
The rest of the characters feel really 1 dimensional. And there's no even half-way decent man in the story - except one, who's treated really badly by Frankie honestly.

This book seems to pack in every single tragedy it can, it's kind of impressive and if you played a drinking game where you take a shot for every tragedy your liver absolutely wouldn't exist afterwards. The amount of tragedies is about the same as the amount of wild coincidences. What do you mean Frankie just happens to be in the right place at the right time every single time for every situation? What do you mean that some random-ass person gets news about an event with Frankie's family before Frankie does just a couple days after said event (while halfway across the country??)? Even the ending with the love interests gets fucking insane quickly with the sheer coincidences and also overused tropes.

Every single lazy writing trope you can think of, is used here. It's all telling and not showing, everything works out for the protag without much issue at all, so much padding and overused tropes and it's just a mess honestly. I went into this without reading anything about it, or knowing anything about any of her other books, but it seems like a few of the plot beats in this are repeated in multiple of her other books as well..

There is no subtly, no nuance and no proper consideration done towards the country and culture of Vietnam. There's no actual Vietnamese characters, and from what I can tell no Vietnamese people mentioned in the acknowledgements either. Which is kind of wild because it seems like there was actually a decent amount of research done into what the American life was in the army and such over there and coming back home. The PTSD portrayal was also somewhat decent - even if there was more focus on the spiralling and substance abuse than how she got better...
The book doesn't even try and tackle the issue of America being the one fucking over everyone in the war that hard. Yes it does mention that a bit, but it's more in off-hand comments and doesn't really try and *actually* talk about it - instead it just changes topic to romance more often than not.

I think this really sums up what I feel is wrong with "feminist fiction" honestly. Trying far too hard to try and go "look, women strong!" without really saying.. why? Or even just actually writing men like they're a person and not just a sole personification for the patriarchy.

Maybe if you want to write a petty messy romance, don't use the Vietnam war as just a atmospheric backdrop.

Content Warnings

sweet_coraline's review

Go to review page

dark emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

It was a wild, emotional journey that would've had me throwing the book across the room a few times, had it not been on my phone. But I rushed to keep reading every time, desperate to find out what would happen next. It left me in awe of women and genuinely wanting to learn more about that time in history,and other women who lived it. I absolutely loved the book and would read it again.

Content Warnings

kmatera1's review

Go to review page

dark emotional inspiring sad 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

4.0

I loved the subject and setting, and the writing really made you feel like you were experiencing the war alongside the characters. The characters were complex and overall the book was such an interesting read. Losing a star for plot predictability. I could see the entire resolution coming since about 50% of the way through the book.

Content Warnings

katrinaburch's review

Go to review page

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? It's complicated

5.0

Holy, holy shit. What a book. Like almost all of Hannah's books, I was openly sobbing in parts (both good and bad this time). Her writing continues to be phenomenal and you connect so much with the characters. While, this book won't be my favorite of Hannah's (that's the Nightingale), it's still an absolutely fantastic book and should be read by everyone.

My one tiny tiny gripe is that I wish Frankie and Jamie had more written out story and gotten a happy ending

Content Warnings