A review by pranjuli
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Made me stay up all night to read the entire second half of the book in one sitting. Loved Vianne's character arc. From the beginning, she was a fully formed person with a past, present, a future. She had reasons for acting like she did. She actually felt like doing the representation of women's stories in the war that has been talked about the book itself. And still, she had so much space for growth, to change. From the first page when she is introduced, I was constantly engaged in her story, I kept wanting to go back to what was happening with her. 

Not a big fan of Isabelle - only liked in her in the last leg of the book. Her dialogues and scenes were almost always crassly written. A lot of the things and feelings she had, were only told, not shown.
For example, in one chapter she would be with her father in his apartment, then go on an adventure, then we'll see Vianne's life for some time, and then it will cut to some months later and Isabelle would say she hadn't gone to the apartment in Paris in 18 months. She missed home. Slept in such places, lived likes so, bla bla.
We didn't see any of that. We just listened. 

The tension in the relationship between Isabelle and her father could have been structured much better in the first half of the book. Same goes for Isabelle and Gaetan's relationship. Infact (this might be a controversial opinion), I feel like Gaetan was not needed only in this story. He felt like a plot device and one that could easily have been fulfilled with any other already existing character. In my personal opinion, he brought Isabelle's character down
- she  had needed his 'recommendation' to get in the circle, she needed his care to fill the vacancy of  familial love, she kept waiting for him to even die at the right moment, etc.
Honestly, could have done without him. 

Isabelle, overall in the first half, was too annoying and desperate and stupid. I know the author wanted to show her 'impetuousness', but she was actually very unlikable in the beginning. Beck deserved better </3 Sophie </3 
Also, there were a lot of inconsistencies in the timeline of the girls' early life, their memories of the maman and the first world war. It kept irking me now and again and pulled me out of the scene often. 
The book could have done with quite some editing (i feel atleast 50-60 pages could be edited out). 

Yet I think this was a good book to read about French women's experience in the war, about a country under occupation during a war, about good men like Beck who were enemies but still good men, to help you think of the countless Nightingales that soared in the skies during the heinous wars fought in Europe at that time, and innumerable times in every corner of the world since time immemorial and their brunts that have been borne by women throughout the entirety of human history. 
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