Lisa of Troy's Reviews > The Women
The Women
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Hot Take: This book would never end
The Women details Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s experience serving in the Vietnam War as a nurse. And her transition into civilian life.
This book had no plot—it is based on one character. The problem is….Frankie isn’t likeable. She is an entitled, spoiled rich girl. She has everything handed to her, and her reason for going to war was to be on the hero’s wall and not wanting to work her way up at the hospital. Although she constantly pulls on her veteran roommates, she couldn’t be bothered to provide support to nurses that arrived after her. Apparently, she hasn’t heard of paying it forward.
Hannah also never gets into what makes Frankie so unique, what makes her special, what drives her. What about her would the world miss if she was gone?
My favorite author says it best: “Every sentence I write is surrounded by the ghosts of the sentences I could have written at that point but chose not to.” In The Women, I wanted to hear about the other servicewomen. After Part 1, it was time to transition to someone else. How did Major Goldstein, the chief nurse, get to her position and how did she cope with placing the nurses, determining their fates? Why didn’t we shift to Ethel and Barb and what happened before Frankie?
Additionally, Hannah is far too verbose, leaving the reader to wade through needless paragraphs, inserting uninteresting details. Sorry, I just don’t care about the cheap motel especially at the end of the book. Not sorry.
The foreshadowing is so heavy that the book becomes predictable, and there are far too many characters—all of them are undeveloped. The author did far too much telling instead of showing. Show us memories of Finley and Frances. Give us the backstory on Ethel and Barb. Don’t tell us. Show us.
Although I greatly enjoyed learning more about the brave women who valiantly served our country, this book was a chore to read.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.
How much I spent:
Electronic text – Free/Nada/Zilch through NetGalley provided by publisher
2025 Reading Schedule
Jan A Town Like Alice
Feb Birdsong
Mar Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
Apr War and Peace
May The Woman in White
Jun Atonement
Jul The Shadow of the Wind
Aug Jude the Obscure
Sep Ulysses
Oct Vanity Fair
Nov A Fine Balance
Dec Germinal
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
The Women details Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s experience serving in the Vietnam War as a nurse. And her transition into civilian life.
This book had no plot—it is based on one character. The problem is….Frankie isn’t likeable. She is an entitled, spoiled rich girl. She has everything handed to her, and her reason for going to war was to be on the hero’s wall and not wanting to work her way up at the hospital. Although she constantly pulls on her veteran roommates, she couldn’t be bothered to provide support to nurses that arrived after her. Apparently, she hasn’t heard of paying it forward.
Hannah also never gets into what makes Frankie so unique, what makes her special, what drives her. What about her would the world miss if she was gone?
My favorite author says it best: “Every sentence I write is surrounded by the ghosts of the sentences I could have written at that point but chose not to.” In The Women, I wanted to hear about the other servicewomen. After Part 1, it was time to transition to someone else. How did Major Goldstein, the chief nurse, get to her position and how did she cope with placing the nurses, determining their fates? Why didn’t we shift to Ethel and Barb and what happened before Frankie?
Additionally, Hannah is far too verbose, leaving the reader to wade through needless paragraphs, inserting uninteresting details. Sorry, I just don’t care about the cheap motel especially at the end of the book. Not sorry.
The foreshadowing is so heavy that the book becomes predictable, and there are far too many characters—all of them are undeveloped. The author did far too much telling instead of showing. Show us memories of Finley and Frances. Give us the backstory on Ethel and Barb. Don’t tell us. Show us.
Although I greatly enjoyed learning more about the brave women who valiantly served our country, this book was a chore to read.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.
How much I spent:
Electronic text – Free/Nada/Zilch through NetGalley provided by publisher
2025 Reading Schedule
Jan A Town Like Alice
Feb Birdsong
Mar Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
Apr War and Peace
May The Woman in White
Jun Atonement
Jul The Shadow of the Wind
Aug Jude the Obscure
Sep Ulysses
Oct Vanity Fair
Nov A Fine Balance
Dec Germinal
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
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Reading Progress
October 3, 2023
– Shelved
January 7, 2024
–
Started Reading
January 14, 2024
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 232 (232 new)
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Greta
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rated it 5 stars
Jan 13, 2024 11:23AM
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message 19:
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Tara ((semi-hiatus currently on Vacation☀️🏝️June 19 thru Sept 7))
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*If a book keeps my solid interest & I can't stop listening, I usually give it a five. But that doesn't mean there aren't better books I've read. (I can't go back and redo almost a thousand books.)
I feel silly asking, but would like to know what you mean by "show us, don't tell us". I think I know what you're saying but can't think of an example.
The more I read the following book, right after finishing The Women, the more frustrated I got with the latter. I do think that reading The Women MUST be immediately followed up with "Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse’s 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C." by Diane Carlson Evans. I'm amazed at how many quotes and occurrences Hannah took directly from that Evans, down to her roommate names. Yet, it was historical fiction, so ... I don't know.
(*I only can read via audio do to my health, and it's often to distract me from symptoms.)
The real deal-nonfiction-Stories of 26 American women who served in Vietnam.
Everything you wrote I felt. A romance???? This is how she portrait Frankie to start her duty in Vietnam?
No no no. I removed the Galley from my e-reader.
There are history books about woman in war, their courage, their worth.