First of all. The fact that I finished this book is an accomplishment in itself. Since Christmas this chunker has been sitting on my shelves daunting me with it’s page count. This book is also on one of previous posts, listed as being one of the 30 books I want to read before 30. So kuddos to me for sticking to it and chiseling this list down. Since the time is literally ticking away, I thought what better time than the present? So I did this the way I do all things: Jump in headfirst and fly by the seat of my pants…. And what do ya know? It actually paid off! So IF you are not reading this book bc you are intimidated by it’s size, don’t be. I read this 564 page book it less than a week. This story. These characters. It doesn’t even feel like a book. I was so totally engrossed, I felt like these were real people. I was so invested in the lives of the charcters, I felt as if I were on this journey with them. Kristin Hannah did a magnificent job creating such characters and circumstances, this book is such an emtional and heartening experience.
I think it’s safe to say that most ppl, reader or not, have heard of this book. If not, then I will give you a super short, brief summary.
This is the story of two sisters, living in France durng the invasion of Germany during WWII. The story is told by a narrorator years later and it’s no spoiler, that you learn it is one of the sisters narrorating, however you don’t find out til the end which sister it is. That’s basically the main premise, I feel like telling too much else would give too much away.
Now for starters, there is a lot of hype surrounding this book. It seems everybody and their grandmother is reading it. I tend to steer clear of hyped books, not bc they are all bad, but my prefernce is to find hidden gems. This year though, I have found myself partaking in many, many popular books and so far I found most of them surprisingly living up to that hype for me. This book happens to be one of those books that borders that imaginary hype line I have drawn in my head. I really liked the book, I was very invested in the story and the characters. Just something about it made me not seem to like it quite as much as everyone else. Now on my goodreads, I gave this book a 4 star and I fully stand by that. This book, in every sense deserves those stars. It is written beautfully, the situations where handled quite respectfully, yet still had enough depth to give the reader the full picture. There was a certain atmosphere about this book, that while you knew it was going to be sad, you still help on to this sense of hope and longing.
This where I may get just a tad bit spoilery, this is not going to be a major in depth super analyzing reveiw where I pick out every single like and dislike. I am, however going to tell the major pro’s and con’s for me. If you have not read this and don’t want any potential spoilers, come back after you’ve read this. If not then carry on..
The things I disliked about this book are nothing incredibly major. Like I said before, overall I thought this book was pretty great and it is so hard to come across a fictional book about something non-fiction that is actually decent.
My main complaint, is I needed answers. Now, nothing major, major was left unsaid. All the main points, that were important to the story were taken care of. No loose ends there. Just some minor things that started irritating me. The narrorator, I won’t say who that is bc major spoiler, ended up in a different country, which actually made no sense bc once the war was over this person was excedeingly glad to have their home back. Also, (I am doing my best not to spoil or name drop, but if you’ve read it then you know!) there is a child born, outside of marriage and this child is of German decent, however, the narrorator keeps referring to this child as a decendant of another country! And there was no further explaination on that. Small things that didn’t add up to me. My second complaint is the romance. I know I am usually a romance reader, some stories though, I feel don’t require it. It felt out of place, this is a time of war and strife. While I understand the whole purpose of it being that we never know what lies ahead so we should follow our hearts and be happy even if it’s just for the moment, like I get it. That part of it was great. I think I just didn’t like this particular couple’s romance. I felt the guy (no names, no spoilers) to be somewhat creepy. He made it clear several times he had no interest, yet his actions , which were sometimes creepy said otherwise. I feel that it could have been done better if it had to have been done at all. Thirdly, I know I make it sound like I really hated this book, but I promise I didn’t. There was some major cheese. Ok. I know this a tearjerker. I knew that going into this and I expected to cry. But I want to cry bc I am genuinely saddened, not bc I feel as if the author is just trying to make me cry. Does that make sense? To be more specific, there is obviously some character death. Now one character dies in a very just gut-wrenching way. I’m going to go ahead and say it, it was a child death. I cried like I have never cried before. I didn’t see it coming and it was handled in a way that I felt was more realistic. A second character death happens way closer to the end and it was honestly just too much. This person survived so much, even came home from a concentration camp, and yet when their actual death happened I could not even shed a tear. Y’all this was my favorite character in the book! And I could not even mourn their death bc it was handled in such a cheesy way, it happened abbruptley and honestly I felt that it didn’t make sense. Most people don’t seem to mind this, I however, just wasn’t a fan.
” Men tell stories, I say. It is the truest, simplest answer to his question. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mention in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over.”
So now on to the things that I did like so that I can end this review on a positive note. This book sends a message about WWII that we don’t often get to see in books, and that is the gritty and ugly things that women faced during WWII. Now I am not a war expert, I am no historian by any means. But I can tell you that in my opinion, this story seems to paint a more realistic picture of what it might have been actually like living as a woman in Germany occupied France. The things these women faced. All the turmoil that they had to endure just to keep thier children safe and fed. Oh I can not even imagine, nor do I want to. I think this is done beautifully, Kristin Hannah is a brilliant story teller and like I said before, she told this story with such poise and respect, yet included all the disturbing details. There were times that this book gave me chills, bc all I could think of is no amount of description could ever do justice to those who went through this.
Another aspect that I thoroughly enjoyed is the fact that this book takes plavce in France, the majority of WWII books that I have read have taken place in America and it was so refreshing to see the war from a fresh and much more relatable perspective.
And for the main thing that made me absolutley fall in love with this story, the charactor. As I sit here typing this, I can’t help but tear up. I know these characters are fictional, but they represent so many ppl who are not. I don’t know if I mentioned this previously but the main characters in this book were completely different from one another. Isabelle was carefree and fearless. She wanted to leave behind a legacy and her involvment in the war effort was dangerous and put her in harms way more that once. While Vivianne was a mother and a wife, all she wanted was a quiet life in the counrty with her husband that she loved more than life itself and to raise her children. She lives in constant fear of the war and at times she seems meek and spineless, but more than once she proved herself to have more courage than she ever thought possible. When it came down to protecting those that she loved, she did all she could for them. Obviously the sisters had a rocky relationship with eachother, both operating out of past woundings inflicted by the other. It was just really interesting to see how their relationship would end up, and the inner dialouge of both of the sisters was just heartning.
If I haven’t made it apparent with this long review, I really did enjoy this book. As I write this review I find myself tearing up and missing these characters. I feel like this book is very worth the hype it has recieved and while their were some very minor issues that I had with the story, it was nothing that deterred me from loving it. And I absolutley can not wait to read it again.
Words-Spoken-True 