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ClareR (5721 KP) rated The Women in Books

May 5, 2024  
The Women
The Women
Kristin Hannah | 2024 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Yet again, Kristin Hannah has ripped my heart out of my chest and jumped all over it. And yet again, I’m just fine with that.

Frankie McGrath volunteers to go to Vietnam as a nurse, in the hope that she’ll be put up on her fathers “Hero’s Wall”. She arrives a naive idealist, and leaves emotionally scarred with no hope of support when she gets home.

In Vietnam, Frankie meets her best friends, who will always be there for her - two equally amazing women. They help her through PTSD, the end of relationships and substance abuse. The three women join the fight for recognition of Vietnam vets - where they are repeatedly told that they couldn’t have been there.

This book is in two parts: Vietnam and its aftermath, and honestly, both halves are equally harrowing.

This is such a powerful story. A story wanting recognition for the female nurses in Vietnam. It certainly puts their experiences out there for everyone to see.

The Women will be a book that I’ll be forcing into friends hands with the promise that they’ll love it, but they’ll be traumatised (I believe I made similar warnings to friends after I read The Nightingale).
  
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    Walter Kirn

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    This eighties-centric, Ritalin-fueled, pitch-perfect comic novel by a writer to watch brings energy...

Silence of the Grave
Silence of the Grave
Arnaldur Indridason | 2018 | Mystery
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Bleak atmosphere, excellent writing and story
Contains spoilers, click to show
***Spoilers you have been warned***

I loved Jar City because of the dark bleak mood setting that’s described in Erlandur’s world. This one proves to be just the same. Coupled with a well written mystery that goes back into the past, this one lived up to the previous.

The book goes back and forth in time. It features on the past of a woman and her family and the horrendous abuse she endures. It leads up to the mystery surrounding the body found in the present. It’s good background storytelling and put in the missing pieces gradually as you progress in the book. Then as it goes forward to present day, you have Erlandur and his crew attempting to figure out the mystery but it also focuses on Erlandur’s past, and his attempt at patching things up with Eva Lind as she’s in a coma at the hospital.

Don’t expect twists and turns or any special revelations in this novel. It’s a subtle mystery but so well written that it’s a quick read and you’re so immersed into the book that the pages do fly by. It’s the writing style that makes it so good. The mood and setting is again, dark as usual. It’s more bleak than the previous one due to the subject matter and with what Erlandur experiences.

Admittedly, this isn’t for everyone. The physical, mental, emotional abuse featured in this book is hard to read. You sympathize with the mother and her children and Grimur is just one awful piece of garbage. Erlandur’s ghosts from the past is also revealed in this book and he’s got quite a lot of baggage on his shoulders (not including his ex wife and Eva Lind) but it gives his character more substance and he’s not just a presence in the novel. You also learn more about his colleagues (although I’d like to learn more about Elinborg) as they have their lives as well. I like this aspect of the novel as it shows what they do out of duty and gives them a more realistic human feel to the book.

Not much of a mystery but makes for really good reading, not only do the characters flesh out more but the writing is so well done. Recommended and I’ll be moving onto the next book after this one.