The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

30 pages in: This isn't literary, so I couldn't enjoy it in that particular way.

250ish pages in: I enjoy genre fiction, but as genre fiction, it wasn't sufficiently enjoyable. I don't even grasp the concept of painful genre fiction really. The characters were insufficiently developed for me to care about very deeply, which is surprising considering how long this book was. Likewise, important relationships like Vianne and Rachel weren't sufficiently developed even though they're important lifelong friends. Isabelle falls in love with a guy she barely knows and I couldn't care less. Okay so maybe it's like an action book? With action and nothing else?

About 300 pages in: But the thing that bothered me the most was the concept of the "Nazi with the heart of gold." We're not even talking about Hitler youth, we're talking about a grown man who seems fully cognizant of the Nazi plans. Who does in fact personally send Jewish people off to concentration camps. But he "doesn't like it" so somehow that's okay? But Vianne still thinks he's a really nice guy. Maybe that sort of thing seemed cute in 2015 before the 2016 election? Well, it wasn't, and F that. Evil nonsense like that is why the planet is burning right now. I get that people that are initially good can be corralled into doing evil things. That's part of the horror of the Third Reich! However, once a person gets to a certain point and doesn't turn back in any way-- let's not pretend that person is "good" anymore. If an active Nazi - no matter how he got to that point- isn't evil, then evil has no meaning.

301 pages in: Oh no, seriously, there's another 140 pages to go? Then the really bad stuff happens... I have other complaints about this section that I will skip because they're spoilers.

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