The Nightingale Review
When I shop for books, I don’t read the back of the books or the first couple pages… it’s something about just knowing I picked a good book. I keep a running list of books to read from reviews I’ve seen online, that’s how I go about finding books. On this trip to the bookstore, every book I purchased was placed in my hands by a person. We talked about the genres of books that I like; thriller, romance and historical fiction and she recommended a book for every genre! I say all this to say I had no true idea what “The Nightingale” was about but I trusted her because she told me she finished the book in a day. The book is about 550 ish pages so I knew it had to be worth reading! I’m not going to give away any spoilers but I highly recommend this book rating it a 10/10. Just know tears were shed and lessons were learned.
The Review
A broken family, a broken country, and broken hearts. We’re introduced to sisters, Isabella and Vianne, who don’t have the best relationship due to what they experienced during childhood. You have the sister that seems to do all the right things despite what they’ve been through, Vianne, and the sister who’s the rebel, who acts on impulse with nothing to loose, Isabella.
World War II is occurring so Isabella is on a constant journey of fleeing. Feeling like she’s not truly accepted or wanted but safety is the main concern at this point. Isabella wasn’t just going for the okie doke and believing the things their government was telling them during the war. She challenged everything and could be deemed as radical but stood up for what she believed was the right thing to do. Being a woman and beautiful allowed her to get a way with a lot, allowing her to do the unthinkable during a dangerous time. This is a book about love and war but, not your sappy love story. It’s about not feeling worthy of love and doing things that fills that void because no matter how dangerous her actions might be, she feels there’s nobody who cares or loves her enough to care if she’s here or gone.
On the other hand, Vianne experienced a different part of war. The part where she has a family and home to protect, even when a nazi is billeted in her home. She feels if she complies things will just go away with time, life will be back to normal soon. Vianne learns that’s far from the truth, every day gets worse and worse. Even when she feels that her sister’s rebellion is a risk to her family’s safety, Vianne soon changes her outlook on what she needs to do to make it through the war. War changes you, mentally, physically and emotionally no matter the part you play, it’s chips away at you… day by day, season by season, year by year and loss after loss.
I cried reading this book. I cry writing this review because these were real events. Real choices and challenges people had to face, face and will continue to face. The further along I got in the book, the more tears I cried. I had to take breaks but I was determined to finish this story and while the last bit of tears I cried were happy tears, I don’t know if I can tell you it was truly a happy ending.
I want to point out that I believe I read the right books at the right time because I feel when I read certain books, although it’s history, it feels parallel to current situations we are living in or could be.
I want to think I that I learned a lot about WWII/ The Holocaust but I wasn’t aware of these major details and the timeline of these events. I knew what the holocaust was, maybe just the gist… something very surface level. What I didn’t know is where things took place and places being invaded over time, city by city. And we can blame that on not being taught enough information or probably learning about this at a young age not being able to grasp the different layers of this horrific massacre. So after reading this book, historical fiction or not, I know there’s a lot of truth and I’m forever changed.
