The Nightingale (Book Review)

Review

I’m not really sure where to start talking about this book or what to say. One thing is for sure, this wasn’t the book for me. While there were things that I did like, they were quickly overshadowed by all of the things that I didn’t like. It’s quite unfortunate, really, because I was definitely looking forward to reading this book and had had it on my radar for ages. I’m somewhat disappointed to say that my personal rating for this book is 2 out of 5 ⭐. That’s largely because of how the novel changes in direction, tone, and feel (in my mind) as it goes. The Nightingale starts as lived-in wartime realism, then slowly it begins to shift into a chain of melodramatic set pieces where plot convenience replaces consequence.

Let me start by writing about the things that I did enjoy. First, I really loved the initial moments of world-building. The way in which the author described the characters’ lives and surroundings was something that caught my attention right away. In particular, I really liked how some locations had additional backstory to them. This information was done in such a way that it didn’t distract from the development of the story, nor did it overwhelm readers with information. It was just some type of lore, so to speak, that made the world feel more real and alive.

Closely related to this, I also really enjoyed how the routine and habits for some of the characters were established. It was easy to see and understand what they did in their daily lives, their concerns, and just their overall lifestyle pace. It also served as a fantastic contrast in showing how the mundane repetition of their day-to-day was broken and transformed by the war and how this was normalized or further changed as the conflict progressed.

There is something else that I enjoyed, but it didn’t affect the overall novel per se. As I was reading, I noticed that I kept wondering if certain things had really happened or if something had been done in certain ways. I constantly asked myself “huh, that’s interesting, I wonder if that’s true?”. In the end, the answer didn’t matter too much. While I admit that I haven’t  done any research myself to see the veracity of these aspects, the book comes across as being well researched. These instances seemed plausible enough, and in some cases, I was aware that similar events had happened, albeit in different locations or contexts. That added to the realness and overall liveliness of the world created.

A couple of final things that I enjoyed are the parallels and differences between the type of resistance and routines that were experienced by each sister. The contrast and similarities between the two was interesting to see develop. I also liked that the novel centers on women and their roles during the war. However, I felt that this focus sometimes stayed at the surface level, rather than being explored as a stronger thematic pillar throughout the book.

Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed the above, they were not enough for me to fully like this book. It was okay, overall, but they were heavily outweighed by the things that I didn’t like. I’ll try not to be too ranty or complain too much about the negatives.

My first issue with the novel is that it essentially began to resemble some type of soap opera set in WWII. There were points in which I wasn’t sure on what the novel was trying to do. This resemblance to soap opera-like plotting started to bring in familiar tropes, convenient twists and turns, and repetitive emotional loops (more on some of this below). In the end, it seems like this amalgamation was a mostly digestible WWII story. It was safe while having some graphic and tense moments (though it is never overly graphic or gruesome).  

Another thing I had an issue with was with the character development. This in particular was somewhat surprising given my initial enjoyment of the world-building and establishing of the story. In short, I felt that the characters kept doing the same things over and over, even though they claimed to have learned their lesson or indicated a change in their thinking.

This in particular was worsened by the fact that the story had pretty uneven pacing, and it didn’t do the book any favors. While the book starts by describing early life, there comes a moment where months pass between one chapter and another. Sometimes these big jumps happen from the section of one chapter to another. While these jumps in time can work, I don’t think they did this book any favors. After all, when we have a character claim to have learned something, only to find them repeating the same things they had done before months later is kind of disappointing. It gives a false sense of maturity and growth. In the end, trying to cover the full extent of the war might have been overly ambitious and affected the overall pacing, in my view.

Anyway, briefly circling back to the characters, I wasn’t really a big fan of how so many of the main characters are described as attractive. Not only that, but we’re constantly reminded of their beauty. This is particularly true for some characters, where their attractiveness is mentioned every time they show up on the page again. Conveniently, they were able to mask their beauty when they needed to.

Which leads me to the next thing I didn’t enjoy. One other element that I had an issue with is how convenient the plot is throughout the whole book. I had a constant reaction while I was reading this book, which was to think “of course that happened”. No matter how unlikely and predictable something was, it would likely happen. There were several cases of near misses, actions taken just at the right time, characters showing up exactly at the right moment, or simply information being obtained just when it was needed. It happened enough times that, at some point, I was even speculating on how far the author would take things to have this finished nicely. To be fair, some of those ideas didn’t happen and there was tragedy in the end, but still, the fact that I was expecting that to some degree says something about how I felt about this book.

There were also some plot points that felt a bit forced and weren’t really consistent with previous events. This was a minor issue though, but I did notice it happening here and there. It was mostly evident towards the end of the book.

Speaking of the end, another minor issue I had was the predictability of some of the twists in the end. While there were good attempts to obscure the final reveal, they relied heavily on some of these inconsistencies and convenient occurrences for it to work.

For someone who didn’t know where to start talking about this book or what to say, I sure had a lot to say… But hey, at least now you know why I didn’t like this book, which is the goal of an entry like this, right?

So, in short, here’s what I thought about the book:

• What I liked: World-building, transition from normal life to war-torn life, the contrast between paths, use of historical elements.
• What I didn’t like: Pacing, character development, predictability, full of cliches, too many convenient events
• I am actually not sure who this might be for. Maybe readers looking for WWII story that isn’t too traumatizing? I don’t know who I’d recommend this to, to be honest.
• My rating: 2/5

Based on a quick look at the ratings on Goodreads and The StoryGraph, I’m definitely in the minority though, so your experience might be very different from mine if you read this book. If you’ve already read this book, then feel free to let me know what you think!

Why did I even read this?

First off, if you’re still reading, thank you! Second, that’s a very fair question to ask. Like I said before, I’ve actually been meaning to read this book for a long time. In fact, I’ve had it in my Kindle library since 2016. I’ve added it to reading challenges and yearly lists a couple of times. But for some reason or another, I had never gotten to it until now. One of this year’s prompts for Booklist’s Queen Reading Challenge was to read a book I meant to read last year. I did mean to read The Nightingale last year, so I figured why not get to it now? So that’s pretty much why I ended up reading it. I was looking forward to it, but in the end it wasn’t worth the wait.

Now you might be wondering, what made me want to buy the book in the first place? That’s also an excellent question and something I’ll have to think about. Maybe I’ll update this post once I remember.

Anyway, this was my first time reading something by Kristin Hannah, and it might be my last. She has other books that sound potentially interesting. But I’d be hesitant to give them a shot, the style might just not be for me in the end.

Dark Matter (Book Review)

Review

Overall, the book was pretty fast paced and fun, but ultimately not particularly unique or memorable. While there are some central science aspects, they’re not complicated nor leaned into too much. I ended up rating it 3 ⭐. Can’t complain about starting the year with this book. Want to know why? Keep reading!

My 2026 reading journey started with Dark Matter. As I already mentioned, I think that the novel was entertaining and a pretty fast read. I don’t regret reading it, but will I remember it in the future? Probably not. Unfortunately, I found some of the plot points to be a bit predictable and formulaic. And that’s fine, there’s a place for that in literature and entertainment as a whole. There were points in which plot twists were very evident and easy to guess, which might lessen the enjoyment factor for some readers.

Some readers might also end up being frustrated by the main character, his thinking and his decisions. He sometimes takes a long time to figure things out or not consider things that might be quite apparent to readers. The possible frustration can stem from the fact that the character is supposed to be quite smart. This will vary from one person to another though, some might feel good about figuring things out faster than the character, others might be frustrated by it. I fell on the latter category for the most part.

It’s not all bad though! The book incorporates some theories on multiple universes and quantum mechanics in a simple and sensical way. Given the implications of this, it also opens a lot of room for possibilities and reader imagination. It also leaves us wondering about what else might be out there.  While I personally enjoyed all of these ‘what if’ moments and scenarios, I realize that this might not be for everyone.

I believe that the author’s books have been adapted over the years. Part of me wonders if some of the plots, scenes, and overall pacing that he chose were influenced by a possible adaptation. I believe there is one, but I haven’t watched it yet.  In my opinion, this is a pretty neutral thing though. On one hand, it made some of the scenes and sequences quite easy to visualize. On the other hand, it might have sacrificed depth and complexity in favor of simplicity and straightforwardness (which might influence the predictability and lack of uniqueness).

Readers looking for a quick sci-fi book will probably enjoy it. However, those that are looking for something unique and/or a hard sci-fi narrative should probably look elsewhere. Personally, this book hovers around 3 out 5 ⭐ mark for me. It was a good book to start the year with, but I imagine that it might quickly get forgotten by the end of the year.

To summarize:

• What worked for me: simple and grounded quantum/multiverse concepts, fast pacing, ‘what if?’ moments
• What didn’t work: predictability/formulaic moments, slightly frustrating character
• Who I think this is for: readers looking for quick, easy to read sci-fi.
• My rating: 3/5

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the book, if you’ve read it. Feel free to share!

So, why did I choose this?

This section won’t really talk about the book any further. It’ll mostly be a bonus to show some of my decision-making process when it comes to choosing books and how they relate to my reading challenges. I totally understand if you’re not interested in reading further. Thanks for reading this far!

This was my first book for 2026 and it was mostly chosen because it fit one of my reading challenges. Perhaps not the best way to choose a book, especially since the prompt was to look for a book that starts with the letter D, but hey, at least I didn’t judge it by its cover, right? I do like the cover though.*

While I bought this book a long time ago (around 2016 or so), I hadn’t gotten around to reading until now. I bought it shortly after reading the author’s Wayward Pines trilogy and seeing that this book was being talked about on Goodreads. It might have been nominated during their choice awards. However, I bought it blindly without knowing that the book was about. I did it mostly out of my enjoyment of Wayward Pines.  I must admit that I don’t fully remember that trilogy now, but I do remember having a lot of fun with it!

Since this book was pretty fun too, I might look for other works by the author as options for whenever I want to read something fun, engaging, and easy to digest.

_{*Small note on the cover: between reading this and writing the review I realized that the original cover had changed to the movie or TV show version. I read this on Kindle and hadn’t noticed book covers changing like that before. Slightly frustrating considering that I usually avoid adaptation covers. The one I like is the original cover.}

Reading Challenges I’m Doing in 2026

I like doing reading challenges and will likely incorporate them into my blog in some capacity. I like the variety of books I’ve read and discovered because of the challenges. I also really enjoy the research aspect. Finding the right books for them is very satisfying!

Anyway, I’ve checked out and tried to do different challenges throughout the years, though I must admit that I don’t always finish them. The ones I’ve chosen for 2026, besides those quantity based on Goodreads and Storygraph, will be the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge (Regular and Advanced) and Booklist Queen’s Reading Challenge.

My prompts are not fully locked in, once I have a better idea on what I’ll be reading, I might make a shareable tracker. I’ll link it here once I do. Let me know if you’d be interested in seeing it though! That would definitely motivate me to work on it.

Hello, welcome to my blog

Hello world! … That’s how these things start, right?

Anyway, if you’re reading this, congrats! You’ve made it to the bottom. There are no posts older than this.

If this, however, is the only post online, then what are you doing here? How did you even find this?

Either way, thanks for being here! I hope you stick around.

I don’t want to make this too long, but I’ve been meaning to start a book blog for quite a while now. I never had the time or ideas for it. But hey, everyone has ambitions during a new year right, so I figure why not give it a shot?

I’m excited to get started on this book journey with you all. Feel free to join me on this ride! Also, let me know if you have any suggestions! I’m always on the lookout for a good book (although I should probably work on my TBR and current backlog…).