Book #31: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

I resisted reading this book--I keep wondering, HOW MANY WWII novels can there be out there?? Every time I hear a recommendation for one I groan a little inside and decide I'm not going to bother reading it. But eventually, if I hear enough good review, I can't keep myself away and I usually am glad I did (like with Everyone Brave is Forgiven). I really enjoyed this one, once I got past the first few chapters (which were slow and gave me a sense of foreboding, which meant I didn't get past them for a few days). The book is about two sisters, Isabelle and Vianne, and their experiences living in German-occupied France during WWII. Isabelle gets involved with the French resistance, helping downed Allied airmen to get out of France, and Vianne tries hard to keep her head down and to survive with her young daughter while her husband is at the front while Nazis take over their town. The book is about both of their experiences with the war and how they both end up resisting and surviving.

I really liked how this book gave a look at what it was like living in occupied France during the war. It gave a lot of detail about the difficulty they experienced--lack of food, lots of suspicion and fear, etc--and makes you feel how scary it was. I thought the relationship between Isabelle and Vianne was well written, and I liked how they came together in the end, and I liked how they kind of represented two opposing responses to the war and the occupation: one by fighting back, and one by hiding and surviving. I also liked the character development of both women throughout the war: Vianne started off as weak and incapable of doing anything without her husband, but grows and makes many horrible choices over the war, and Isabelle starts out as an obnoxious, strong-willed teenager and grows to appreciate the true dangers and situations that they are in. I thought they both were interesting and really well done. There were many really heart-breaking things that happened, which kept me totally engaged and feeling all the feelings in the book. This book was definitely not at the same level of All the Light We Cannot See in terms of the skill of writing (but it's a little unfair to compare any book to the writing of that one because it is SO beautiful), but this story was very engaging and definitely worth the read.