Karen's Reviews > The Women

Okay, where do I begin?

I have to admit first that I am going to be an outlier here. You probably could tell by my 3 star rating, right? But you have a right to know why. So, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to tell you why.

I didn’t include this book in my “currently reading” when I received it several weeks ago. Probably because I wasn’t convinced, I wanted to read it.

I felt some level of excitement about receiving it as a donation to my Little Free Library Shed, because I knew my neighbors would be thrilled about having it available to them because this book is on the “hotlist” at our local public library. Which means if you are interested in reading this book, you are probably #467 on the list before the book will be available for you to check out from our library. That is how popular this book is right now.

Also, every time I receive a donation of a Kristin Hannah book, it comes and goes almost as fast as any Petersen, Connelly, Grisham, Picoult, or Baldacci book.

But I am not always a Kristin Hannah fan. And, the subject matter of this book, is not my favorite, so I wasn’t particularly anxious about reading this book.

So, when it was donated, I wasn’t all happy hooray ready about entering the pages.

Which leads me back to again why it wasn’t on my “currently reading” list of books here.

Thus, it took me awhile to make a decision to read it. Are you still wondering if I am going to offer a review? Thank you, if you are still reading this!

When I finally did begin to read, it wasn’t a nostalgia I was necessarily happy to return home to, as this book is filled with… despair – addiction – war – disrespect to soldiers – inadequate training for them – snipers – PTSD – Agent Orange.

Yes, the author does a somewhat convincing job of creating the historical scenery descriptions by taking us back to Viet Nam.

But her writing wasn’t connecting me to her story. It wasn’t capturing me. It wasn’t holding me. I didn’t feel emotionally vested.

I felt as a reader we were awkwardly stumbling a long trying to keep up. The plot twists seemed so strained. I just didn’t feel as engaged as I would have liked to have been.

The only thing that seemed to feel somewhat genuine was the way Hannah included women in the experience, especially nurses. Through her writing, she tried to show, their conviction and importance to the war story. Women – the real, unsung heroes. And since that was the title of her book, perhaps the author’s passion was met. As she shared in her author’s note, she was honored to tell their story. It just didn’t work for me.