Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Nightingale

This book was too slow at the start. I had to ask my mother if it was worth finishing. She said it picks up and she wasn’t wrong. Great story with heartfelt characters.

Content Warnings

dfrye626's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. This book is an absolute masterpiece. It was hard to read at times because of the horrible events that took place during WWII and because of the things the characters had to experience but it was a beautifully written book that was hard to put down.

It taught me so much about WWII and from a perspective you don't typically think or hear of in regards to WWII (women and France).

I would definitely recommend being in a good headspace before reading this book due to the difficult topics covered.

Heartbreaking yet beautifully written. I will likely read this book again and will be thinking of it in the years to come.

Content Warnings

ashdawn's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

This one was really hard to review. I general, it's one of the few books that I think would be better as a movie than the actual book was.

The book was very similar to looking at a pointillism painting. From a distance, it's actually a good story overall. It shares some of the women's work in war resistance and was enjoyable to read. The ending especially was heartbreaking but fantastic. There are much better historical fiction books with more accuracy though.

Also like a pointillism though, when looking at it closer though, details blur to oblivion, and that was part of what really bothered me about this one. Things like:
- Creating a fictional town to set the story in. Yes, it's historical fiction, so details can be made up, but it would have been so much more inspiring and interesting to have it take place during/in real bits of WW2.
- Not all of the characters get aged correctly. There are several scenes where a time frame has been mentioned, but a younger character is still the same age they were in a scene that was timeline wise 3ish years prior to current. This is especially problematic when one of them becomes a major plot point *because* of his age at the time of events.
- Struggles with scenery/time of year. Not only do some of the characters themselves not age, the landscape also struggles to fit into correct timelines. There were some scenes for example, that apples (fall), cucumbers (summer), and snow on the ground in Pairs (winter) were all happening at the same time. In the same vein, another scene made sure to note that there was knee-deep snow, yet a bike was able to be easily stolen, *ridden through the snow*, and not leave tracks.
- Character motivations sometimes made sense, but were sometimes just incredibly dumb choices.
- What happened with the Friedmans? Kinda should have been a *Major plot point* to hiding them, and we just....never hear anything else about hiding them, their survival, close calls, moving them somewhere else. Nothing.

Also, like most of the books I've read by this author, make sure to look up trigger warnings before reading. On top of everything you would expect from a book set in Nazi occupied France during WW2, there are also miscarriages, grief, a very large prejudice against refugees, etc (which seems like a common theme to this author).

Content Warnings

abeavs's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The character development was *chefs kiss*

Content Warnings

tiffy22's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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

Can I give this book 100 stars!
I'm putting this incredible book in my 'favourite books of all time' pile.
This intense story showed me the side of WWII that isn't mentioned as much as it should be, the brave women. What an informative and inspiring story!

Content Warnings

caitlinhoman's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-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? No

5.0

Content Warnings

More...