BOOK REVIEWThe Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Hello friends! My name is Sarah and today we are
talking about The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. This is an adult WWII historical fiction novel
that follows two sisters living in Nazi-occupied France. One sister goes to
join the French Resistance and the other decides to stay in her home and live in
a Nazi-occupied town, and then when a Nazi is billeted at her home, she has to
choose to live with the enemy or lose everything that she's ever known. I have
long been a fan of historical fiction.
It has been one of my favorite genres for
the vast majority of my reading life and I really been enjoying WWII fiction
over the last couple of years. And this is probably my favorite one
that I've read, second maybe only to The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, because
this story was just absolutely exquisite every possible way. If you cannot guess,
Igave it 5/5 stars. One of the things that is so wonderful about this book is the fact that this is really about the women's war that was fought.
Obviously, there are a lot of historical fiction stories that are written about
the things that men did in fighting for the freedom of their countries and
things like that, but a lot of times we forget forget in reading those stories that the
women that were staying at home waiting for their husbands and their brothers
and their sons to return, were fighting a completely different kind of war that,
in some respects, was even more difficult than the things that the men
that they loved were experiencing.
And this book really just shines a light on that.
It shines a light on both just the general things that women had to do to
survive as their towns were overrun by Nazis and things like that, but also
shines a light on the efforts that the women made to help their causes
throughout the war, and one of the things that was mentioned repeatedly throughout
the story is that the Nazis won't expect a woman to be doing the things that some
of the characters in this book are doing, that they won't expect a woman to be
making such strides to help the resistance and things like that. And it
really shows how the Nazis underestimated the women that were in
France and the women that were in the different countries that they were occupying,
and it shows the resiliency that women have and the ways that they are able to
adapt and change and shift in order to protect the ones that they love. As you
guys know, I'm a character-driven reader, and this book had so many different
things going for it including really excellent pacing, a really excellent plot,
things like that, but what absolutely made it for me it was the characters.
Like I mentioned, we follow two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle who are living in
Nazi-occupied France. Vianne, the older sister decides to stay in her home with
her daughter Sophie and try to live life as normally as possible as she can while
her town is being occupied by Nazis and Vianne is a much more demure, sort of
calm, quiet, submissive person, whereas Isabelle, the younger sister, the one who
goes to join the French Resistance, is this almost hothead, sort of outspoken,
very rebellious kind of character, and so in a lot of respects the two sisters are
just complete opposites, and so they come at the war and the positions that
they're in from very different perspectives.
They clash on a lot of their different thoughts
on what should be done about the Nazi occupation and how friends should be responding to the
situation and what they as individuals should be doing to help the French
Resistance. And I loved how though these characters are very, very different from
each other, they are both so well-rounded, and how their relationship grew from
this sort of clashing that they have at the very beginning, this intense fight
about the different ways that they should approach the war, and how, as the
two sisters go through the war, as they both experience different things and
witness different atrocities, how they in many respects come to see the other's
perspective, how they begin to see that there are more sides to this war than
just the thing that they're experiencing, and not everything about the situation
is this black-and-white thing. And the book starts off with a quote that really
just sums up the whole story, which is, "In love we find out who we want to be, and
in war we find out who we are." And you see that being repeated throughout
the story, you see how different loving relationships change the characters and
how they are able to be the person that they want to be but then as they're put
in these different situations with the war, they have to make these choices
about the kind of person that they are. And it poses a lot of different
questions for the reader to sort of consider.
Like, if you were in that situation,
how far would you be willing to go to protect yourself? How far would you be
willing to go to protect your family and the ones that you love? What kind of
moral stances are you going to sort of put a stake in the ground and say, "No, I
won't go this far"? What kind of emotional and physical pain are you willing to put
yourself through in order to protect your children and your spouse and your
friends and your family? And just so many different questions that I don't know
that I've ever really considered for myself. I've never really thought about
what I would do if I was put in that situation where an enemy was living
under my roof and my every move was watched, and if I did or said the wrong
thing myself or my children or my neighbors could be killed. And it's just...
It causes you to think about so many different things and I just...I was...I ugly
cried through a lot of this book. I stayed up until 2am to finish the story because
everything about it was so completely compelling and when you hear the story
initially, when you think, "Okay, one sister joins the resistance and one stays at
home," you would think that by default the story of the sister that joins the
resistance would just be far more compelling, but that was not the case at all.
They were both individually really, really compelling stories and I just
really, really loved both of the sisters and the stories that they had to tell
and how everything weaved together, The pacing of the story was really fantastic.
I started the book a little bit slowly, but that wasn't because the pacing was
slow, it was just because life was a little bit crazy for me and I was only able to
read, you know, 30 or 40 pages at a time or whatever and couldn't really get into
the story until a few days into it, but once I hit like, page 150 or so, I was
100% hooked, had a hard time putting it down and ultimately wound
up staying up until 2am to finish the book and ugly crying and it was just...It
was a beautiful, beautiful story with so many wonderful themes and questions to
think about, incredible, wonderful characters, beautiful stories.
And I found
out after the fact, that the character of Isabelle is actually based on a real
person who did work for the resistance in the war and I love with stories are
based on the true actions of other people and I just, I love...I love this book and I
will, without a doubt, be reading it, I'm sure many, many times in the years to
come, and if you are a historical fiction fan, particularly if you are a WWII
historical fiction fan, and if you have not read many books that sort of
address this issue of like, the women's war and sort of come at it from this
perspective, I would HIGHLY, highly recommend you check this out.
Once again, gave it 5/5 stars. Loved everything about it.
Well, there you have it, friends. Those are my thoughts on The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah. If you have read the book, I would love to hear your thoughts
as well, so please let me know in the comments.
If you want to follow me elsewhere online,
you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads all @sarahannehayes. The
links for those profiles will be in the description below. Thank you so much for watching. I hope
you enjoyed this video.
Don't forget to subscribe, and I will see you next time. Bye!!.
talking about The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. This is an adult WWII historical fiction novel
that follows two sisters living in Nazi-occupied France. One sister goes to
join the French Resistance and the other decides to stay in her home and live in
a Nazi-occupied town, and then when a Nazi is billeted at her home, she has to
choose to live with the enemy or lose everything that she's ever known. I have
long been a fan of historical fiction.
It has been one of my favorite genres for
the vast majority of my reading life and I really been enjoying WWII fiction
over the last couple of years. And this is probably my favorite one
that I've read, second maybe only to The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, because
this story was just absolutely exquisite every possible way. If you cannot guess,
Igave it 5/5 stars. One of the things that is so wonderful about this book is the fact that this is really about the women's war that was fought.
Obviously, there are a lot of historical fiction stories that are written about
the things that men did in fighting for the freedom of their countries and
things like that, but a lot of times we forget forget in reading those stories that the
women that were staying at home waiting for their husbands and their brothers
and their sons to return, were fighting a completely different kind of war that,
in some respects, was even more difficult than the things that the men
that they loved were experiencing.
And this book really just shines a light on that.
It shines a light on both just the general things that women had to do to
survive as their towns were overrun by Nazis and things like that, but also
shines a light on the efforts that the women made to help their causes
throughout the war, and one of the things that was mentioned repeatedly throughout
the story is that the Nazis won't expect a woman to be doing the things that some
of the characters in this book are doing, that they won't expect a woman to be
making such strides to help the resistance and things like that. And it
really shows how the Nazis underestimated the women that were in
France and the women that were in the different countries that they were occupying,
and it shows the resiliency that women have and the ways that they are able to
adapt and change and shift in order to protect the ones that they love. As you
guys know, I'm a character-driven reader, and this book had so many different
things going for it including really excellent pacing, a really excellent plot,
things like that, but what absolutely made it for me it was the characters.
Like I mentioned, we follow two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle who are living in
Nazi-occupied France. Vianne, the older sister decides to stay in her home with
her daughter Sophie and try to live life as normally as possible as she can while
her town is being occupied by Nazis and Vianne is a much more demure, sort of
calm, quiet, submissive person, whereas Isabelle, the younger sister, the one who
goes to join the French Resistance, is this almost hothead, sort of outspoken,
very rebellious kind of character, and so in a lot of respects the two sisters are
just complete opposites, and so they come at the war and the positions that
they're in from very different perspectives.
They clash on a lot of their different thoughts
on what should be done about the Nazi occupation and how friends should be responding to the
situation and what they as individuals should be doing to help the French
Resistance. And I loved how though these characters are very, very different from
each other, they are both so well-rounded, and how their relationship grew from
this sort of clashing that they have at the very beginning, this intense fight
about the different ways that they should approach the war, and how, as the
two sisters go through the war, as they both experience different things and
witness different atrocities, how they in many respects come to see the other's
perspective, how they begin to see that there are more sides to this war than
just the thing that they're experiencing, and not everything about the situation
is this black-and-white thing. And the book starts off with a quote that really
just sums up the whole story, which is, "In love we find out who we want to be, and
in war we find out who we are." And you see that being repeated throughout
the story, you see how different loving relationships change the characters and
how they are able to be the person that they want to be but then as they're put
in these different situations with the war, they have to make these choices
about the kind of person that they are. And it poses a lot of different
questions for the reader to sort of consider.
Like, if you were in that situation,
how far would you be willing to go to protect yourself? How far would you be
willing to go to protect your family and the ones that you love? What kind of
moral stances are you going to sort of put a stake in the ground and say, "No, I
won't go this far"? What kind of emotional and physical pain are you willing to put
yourself through in order to protect your children and your spouse and your
friends and your family? And just so many different questions that I don't know
that I've ever really considered for myself. I've never really thought about
what I would do if I was put in that situation where an enemy was living
under my roof and my every move was watched, and if I did or said the wrong
thing myself or my children or my neighbors could be killed. And it's just...
It causes you to think about so many different things and I just...I was...I ugly
cried through a lot of this book. I stayed up until 2am to finish the story because
everything about it was so completely compelling and when you hear the story
initially, when you think, "Okay, one sister joins the resistance and one stays at
home," you would think that by default the story of the sister that joins the
resistance would just be far more compelling, but that was not the case at all.
They were both individually really, really compelling stories and I just
really, really loved both of the sisters and the stories that they had to tell
and how everything weaved together, The pacing of the story was really fantastic.
I started the book a little bit slowly, but that wasn't because the pacing was
slow, it was just because life was a little bit crazy for me and I was only able to
read, you know, 30 or 40 pages at a time or whatever and couldn't really get into
the story until a few days into it, but once I hit like, page 150 or so, I was
100% hooked, had a hard time putting it down and ultimately wound
up staying up until 2am to finish the book and ugly crying and it was just...It
was a beautiful, beautiful story with so many wonderful themes and questions to
think about, incredible, wonderful characters, beautiful stories.
And I found
out after the fact, that the character of Isabelle is actually based on a real
person who did work for the resistance in the war and I love with stories are
based on the true actions of other people and I just, I love...I love this book and I
will, without a doubt, be reading it, I'm sure many, many times in the years to
come, and if you are a historical fiction fan, particularly if you are a WWII
historical fiction fan, and if you have not read many books that sort of
address this issue of like, the women's war and sort of come at it from this
perspective, I would HIGHLY, highly recommend you check this out.
Once again, gave it 5/5 stars. Loved everything about it.
Well, there you have it, friends. Those are my thoughts on The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah. If you have read the book, I would love to hear your thoughts
as well, so please let me know in the comments.
If you want to follow me elsewhere online,
you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads all @sarahannehayes. The
links for those profiles will be in the description below. Thank you so much for watching. I hope
you enjoyed this video.
Don't forget to subscribe, and I will see you next time. Bye!!.
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