Frankie McGrath is a rather spoiled young woman from a wealthy family, whose aspirations for her go no further than a good marriage, a place in society and the production of children. Frankie has other ideas and after the death of her beloved brother, she enlists as an army nurse and is shipped off to the Vietnam war. The war stories are a gritty mix of battles, senseless death and horrific injuries. The more personal story is the relationships that develop between the medics and the soldiers. Frankie finishes her stint in Vietnam and arrives home to denial that women were ever in Vietnam, and to a lukewarm reception from her parents who believe she should never have blemished the family name by enlisting in the first place. The two parts of the story are woven together seamlessly and the book is a meditation on the senselessness of war and the devastating effects it has on friends and foes alike.

I absolutely loved this book, I read the first half relatively slowly but raced through the second half.

Really emotional portrayal of the Vietnam war, PTSD and how the role of women in the war was downplayed.

Some predictable romance storylines but loved the story.

Always will love Hannah's ability to make me hyper-fixate on a time in history. I thought that compared to some of her other characters, Frankie was a bit flat and had 'not like other girls' vibes. I also expected some of the plot points. That being said the writing was engaging and I found myself draw in.

This is a gripping and inspiring read! Frankie McGrath is a young woman from a privileged Californian background. When her brother, Fin, follows in the family footsteps of joining the army, Frankie also decides to sign up for the Army Nurse Corps during the brutal Vietnam conflict. At Fin’s leaving party, she stands in her father’s office and looks at the family ‘Heroes Wall’ with one of Fin’s friends, Rye. He tells her that women can be heroes too … but can they really be this in a world that values male honour and expects women to play the passive home-making role?

Set against a backdrop of horrifying war in Vietnam, as well as feminist and anti-racist protests in America, Kristin Hannah explores the grisly reality of war and the political madness that led to the countless deaths of young service-men and women … because of course there were women in Vietnam.

This novel is a rarity in that it provides us with a chronological account of Frankie’s experience before, during and after the war: her struggle for acceptance, her friendships, her romantic relationships, as well her PTSD after the sheer terror of life in combat. The music of the 60s features strongly and cultivates a powerful sense of a world in transition. This is a cracking page-turner!

✨ BOOK REVIEW ✨

The Women - Kristin Hannah
🌟🌟🌟.💫

LIKES
☀️ The first half was absolutely brilliant. Between the fast pace and the heartbreak laced in every word, I could barely put it down. It wasn’t until past the 50% point that my rating dropped down from a 5*.
☀️ The way mental health, trauma and healing are portrayed.
☀️ A realistic representation of PTSD.
☀️ Plenty of character growth.
☀️ Wonderful friendships I couldn’t get enough of.
☀️ Harrowing, immersive descriptions of each and every setting.
☀️ It inspired me to want to read more about women who served in the war, particular the Vietnam war which I knew very little about going into this.
☀️ How women connected to the war were consulted as part of Kristin’s research.
☀️ It sparked all kinds of emotions from sadness to anger to joy.

DISLIKES
🌙 I could’ve done without the romance storylines. They were the least interesting part of the book and so massively underdeveloped that I never understood why Frankie caught feelings for anyone. It caused a real disconnect for me.
🌙 I wanted to hear more about her friends lives beyond the highs and the odd fleeting comment. Given the name of the book, I think including more of their perspectives would’ve helped this to shine even more.
🌙 Too much foreshadowing.

They also served

The first part of the book reads like a gritty MASH and sets the scene for the real meat of the book when Frankie returns state side. The Vietnam veterans receive less than a hero’s welcome and no-one wants to hear their stories. For the women it’s even worse, they face a total denial that they were ever there.

On returning home her parents are less than welcoming. Frankie faces loss, denial, PTSD and the shock of betrayal by the man she loved and thought was dead and spirals into addiction and alcoholism. Her army nurse best pals are always there for her and she ultimately finds positive outlets for all the anger and pain she’s carried with her.

The book vividly shows how shamefully the men and women who served in Vietnam were treated. The way the historic elements of the book are portrayed will stay with me.

I was given this book from the author via netgalley only for the pleasure of reading and leaving an honest review should I choose to.

Absolutely amazing book! Hannah always manages to pull the heartstrings whilst telling the most compelling of stories that we just get lost in! Loved it!

SPOILER FREE REVIEW!
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I’ve previously enjoyed another book by Kristin Hannah and this book did not disappoint. I have already bought a copy for my Mum to enjoy.
The themes in this book are really important. We shouldn’t forget our history. Women can be heroes too.
The story is based around women who apparently were never in the Vietnam war back in the 60’s. The horrors or war and the horrors or coming home after serving their country.
I really loved main female characters, the women, and the bonds they grew. I don’t envy Frankie’s journey but boy was I jealous of where the story took her!
This book is definitely worth reading guys.

A truly unforgettable piece of writing. With characters and settings so vivid and thought provoking this is a book you won’t be able to put down. Kristin Hannah tells a story so poignantly that everyone should read.

Obviously I'm aware of the Vietnam War and the issues faced by veterans on their return to the US with the public not 'liking' it as a war and wanting to ignore the people who fought but this book showed how widespread it was and how utterly soul destroying it was for them. I had also not realised that no one acknowledged women were in country and they also suffered from being ignored by the setups which were there for veterans.

The horrors faced by those in Vietnam can never be truly imagined but this book helped bring it to life and understand what they had to deal with and then how life had changed for them on their return - while still suffering the after effects of being exposed to Agent Orange and the like.

I found it powerful and sad with humour all at the same. A great read.

The Women by Kristin Hannah
Having read and loved books such as The Nightingale and The Four Winds I was really looking forward to this book. It was about the women who served as nurses during the Vietnam War. I am old enough to remember the newsreels containing the images of broken men returning home from the war and also the hostility at home to those who served. I did not however know anything about the lives of the women who worked as nurses and the terrible situations into which they were thrown with very little training.
The novel is set in the mid Sixties and begins with Frankie’s brother enlisting to serve in Vietnam. She leads a cossetted life of the country club etc. but when her brother is killed in action she decides to do more with her life and enlists to serve as a nurse in Vietnam. You are immediately drawn into the horror of the situation in which she finds herself. Overworked doctors helicopters flying in night and day with badly injured soldiers and little that she can do to save them.
She tries to be the friendly face and voice that they will here and see as they breathe their last. She develops a close and lasting friendship with two other nurses Barb and Ethel and they help to support her in her future life. Her journey is a very painful one and the way in which she is treated is terrible but you feel this was the story for too many of those young men and women who tried to serve their country.
We learn of the trauma suffered in Vietnam and also that she continued to endure on her return to America. A devastating story and one which needed to be told. Kristin Hannah has created vivid, unforgettable characters and captured brilliantly the hellhole in which they found themselves. An emotional roller coaster of a novel! I will be recommending it at my various book groups. Many thanks to the author, the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

It's 1966, and Frankie McGrath's beloved older brother is bound for Vietnam - the latest in a long line of McGrath men doing their duty for their country and bringing honour to the family. At her brother's going away party, when someone tells her, 'Women can be heroes,' Frankie is jolted out of the rut she hadn't realised she was in, and joins the United States Army Nurse Corps, determined to play her part and make her family proud.

The first part of the book follows Frankie from naïve, timid new arrival to dauntless combat nurse, while the second part addresses her life after she returns from Vietnam. Frankie's experience holds a mirror to the American public of the 1960s and 1970s: she initially has a sanitised, simplified idea of the conflict, before realising the truth of its horror.

Author Kristin Hannah captures both the brutality of war and the camaraderie and loyalty between those serving; scenes of death and suffering are interspersed with vignettes of Frankie and her friends and colleagues blowing off steam and holding each other together. This balance helps the reader to understand Frankie's complex relationship with her time in Vietnam; she is traumatised by her service but it was also the place and time during which she found herself and felt that she truly belonged. I wasn't initially convinced by the depth of feeling between Frankie and some of the other characters - I think there was just too much to do in terms of world-building and establishing Frankie's character to devote enough time to these relationships, so the reader is told how much Frankie cares about someone rather than being able to infer it for ourselves - but, with more space to breathe in the second part of the story, they were much more convincing. I will say, however, that I was disappointed that a book titled 'The Women' focused solely on one woman, whom is pretty unrelatable for many readers. I would have loved to see the book shift its focus to one of Frankie's friends, or even to a new character entirely, in order to show a range of experiences and perspectives.

As Frankie tries to navigate life 'back in the world', the narrative reflects the changing public attitude to the war by the end of the 1960s, and how this would have added a further layer of pain and trauma for the returning veterans. As Frankie notes, 'She'd gone to war a patriot and come home a pariah,' her efforts in the increasingly unpopular war something to be concealed rather than celebrated, and it was interesting to see how she struggled with this feeling of discombobulation at everyone telling her that she should feel ashamed of her role - if they acknowledged that she had been in Vietnam at all - and her own journey of questioning the morality of the war.

Hannah also covers the changing social landscape of the USA at this point in history, with more women beginning to rebel against rigid gender roles, and the fight for Black civil rights occuring concurrently with the anti-war protests. References are made to women having increasing control over their own fertility, and to a burgeoning recognition of mental illness, including PTSD. At one point, Frankie muses that, 'We were the last believers, my generation. We trusted what our parents taught us about right and wrong, good and evil, the American myth of equality and justice and honor.' Her story, on a broader level, is one of growing up and becoming disillusioned - she realises that her parents aren't infallible and her country doesn't care about her.

The legacy of the war is tackled in Hannah's usual broad strokes: either Frankie or someone in her circle is affected by pretty much every possible long-term consequence of serving in Vietnam, including drug dependency and health problems caused by exposure to Agent Orange. However, I will commend the author for playing with long-time readers' expectations - subverting some of the tropes she is known for in order to the keep the reader guessing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

I must be the only person who just doesn’t get this book but I am so sorry I don’t get it I couldn’t get into this novel at all.. I felt bad because every review was superb about it but I just didn’t get it and can’t help that apologies i am not into it
I will recommend everyone else reads it and makes up their own mind as we are all individuals
So give it a go and a good read

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel which is the The story of Army nurses in the Vietnam war, think Mash but focusing on the female characters.
The story follows a young woman who volunteers to join the American armed forces after her brother is killed fighting in the Vietnam war. The young woman has led a sheltered life and what she faces when she enlists and is sent almost immediately to the front line in Vietnam is shocking and cathartic.
The author has a clear easily read pros, style, and and I read the book quickly, enjoying it very much. I was very quickly drawn in in the first chapter and wanted to know what happened next.

The book is highly visual, and it doesn’t surprise me to see that the rights have been taken up to make this a film, the setting mostly in Vietnam is described so perfectly that you can almost feel there. Sweat running down your back in the tropical heat.
No matter how many times you’ve seen the photographs of the girl in Vietnam and Nepalm doesn’t stick with you as much as reading the little section of the baby in this novel absolutely horrific and memorable
All in all, I think that this novel is a thoroughly fitting memorial to the women who served in the Vietnam war, and those who died there
I had an early copy of the novel on NetGalley UK the book is published in the UK on the 15th of February 2024 by Pam McMillan
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK, Goodreads, and my book blog, bionicSarahsbooks.wordpress.com And, Amazon, UK

Thank you so much to the publisher, the author and Netgalley for a copy of this ARC. I SCREAMED when I saw I had been approved for this. This book was in my top five most anticipated books of the year as Kristin Hannah is a favourite author of mine and WOW I was not let down. This is going on my list of all time favourites.

Before reading this you need to buckle up because it’s a rollercoaster of emotions. I was laughing one page and then crying the next. As an English person I never learnt about the Vietnam war in school so reading this taught me so much. Honestly it makes me sick that men so young were sent to war. I can’t stop thinking about some of the scenes in this book and it’s even spurred me to do research of my own on the subject. The fact that most of these men were drafted and forced to go to war with no choice makes the high death toll even more heartbreaking.

I was appalled at the treatment of Frankie and other veterans when they got home. The fact that so many people didn’t even know that “women were in Vietnam” saving lives and making sure that men came home made me so angry. I was so frustrated with everyone around Frankie, especially her parents who were extremely sexist and old fashioned. Watching Frankie have to deal with undiagnosed PTSD while being told to “forget” about literally holding people’s bodies together in a war zone was heartbreaking. I was really rooting for her to get the help she needed and I adored her “found family” relationship with Barb and Ethel and seeing their lives blossom.

You can tell that a lot of deep research and care went into this novel. The amount of detail and the way the author describes the sights, sounds and smells of any given environment immerses you in the story. I will warn you there are some very graphic scenes in here so please read trigger warnings. If you are up for a book that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking this is for you. It’s a story of heroism, love, loss and finding your place in the world after a great trauma. I can’t recommend this enough.

A powerful book about a shameful period in Americas history. It highlights and celebrates the sacrifice and heroism of the women who were sadly overlooked on their return. The only other book I have ever read about Vietnam was MASH many years ago . This book is a real page turner and is shocking, complex and also warm. Sadly the attitudes of governments hasn’t changed toward service personnel who make the ultimate sacrifice. Excellent book.

This is my third Hannah Kristin book I have read and she has again got me wrapped up completely in a book, the characters and their stories.
The story begins in California 1966 with Frankie and her brother going to war in Vietnam. This makes Frankie realise she wants more and becomes a nurse and joins the army. She soon realises her parents are not as happy about this as she thought. The book takes a real close look at what life was like for many soldiers and nurses during this war, with harrowing injuries and often thrown in at the deep end with it being horrendously worse than they imagined. This is the first book I have read about this war and I was shocked at how women and veterans were treated on their return, if they were lucky to return at all. The writing was great and I especially loved the friendship with Ethel and Barb and solidarity of women and war vets. I am so glad Hannah has given a voice to those most often forgotten! This was a really good book and I will be recommending.

Thank you SO much to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I absolutely loved this!! Such great characters and a great storyline.

My full review is to follow in a few days.....

The Women is a powerful novel about the Vietnam War and the aftermath on the American people who fought there, in particular the forgotten women. Frankie McGrath goes against everything her wealthy family expects of her and enlists in the US Army as a nurse. The experiences she endures in Vietnam change her forever and after returning home to California she encounters hate and abuse from the American people. As time goes on, Frankie struggles to adapt to civilian life and the way she is treated by her family.
This novel isn’t scared to highlight the horrors of war, the killing of innocent civilians and the treatment of veterans after the Vietnam conflict. As a non American my knowledge of this war is limited, but I found the book to be both fascinating and horrifying and it has inspired me to seek out more knowledge around the issues raised.

I love books by Kristin Hannah as they tackle difficult subjects embedded in a detailed fictional story based on historical fact. This one is based in the 1970s during the Vietnam war. I read the book whilst on holiday in Thailand and Vietnam - I didn't visit the places named in the book, but I did find myself looking around at the places we did visit and trying to imagine the changes which must have taken place.

This story is about Frankie who has grown up in a household so proud of the military past that her father has a 'heroes wall' with pictures of those in the family who have served. Frankie trains as a nurse but isn't satisfied working in the local hospital. So she signs up to the military and is sent to Vietnam where she becomes a trauma nurse.

There is a strong feminist theme to this book, as perhaps you would expect from the title. I found the characterisation of Frankie's parents to be really interesting. Their old school and country club views and values were well described. Their attitude to their daughter serving in Vietnam was shocking but probably historically accurate.

The whole book is an emotional rollercoaster. There is enough information in the blurb to guess that there will be sadness and tragic outcomes at times but if anyone gets through the whole book without sobbing at some point, I would be amazed! This is surely waiting to be picked up for film rights or TV serialisation? I thought it was incredible - my book of the year to date.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.