The Women by Kristin Hannah

Historical Fiction
Vietnam War
TW: PTSD, Death
Women can be Heroes
Lifelong Friendships
Women on the Front Lines
Women’s Equality
Get the book HERE

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Start Date: August 28, 2024
End Date: September 9, 2024

WOW. Just WOW. My first ever book by Kristin Hannah and it did NOT disappoint! Honestly I’ve been seeing about her books in all my Kindle and reading groups, and I saw this book came up as availale at my library pretty quickly, so figured I would check it out. Won’t lie, I totally went in blind. I didn’t even know what the book was about.

I knew it was going to be good when someone died in the first 20 pages (oops, spoiler alert). Like, go ahead and rip my heart out… We’re just getting started and already someone is dead?

The characters are well written, and I definitely felt a connection with Frankie. Having worked in the medical field, especially a male dominated medical field, I knew how she felt being the underdog. Obviously, with shows like M*A*S*H, we know women were in Vietnam, even if they didn’t technically go into combat. Just as bad, field hospitals were just as bad as the front lines. I was an EMT for 8 years. I can’t imagine being in a combat situation, or in a surgical field hospital, as Frankie was. Let alone being thrown into it, with very little training. Sometimes, that’s the best way to learn though. I still remember my first EMT call - client was dead on arrival. No better way then to get thrown into it.

My favorite part of the book was that Frankie stayed friends with the other nurses, for their whole lives. There’s definitely a sisterhood when you are thrown into the same situations day after day, and back then with travel costs and long distance phone calls, they made no excuses. They dropped everything for each other. Barb and Ethel were definitely her people - especially when her parents were at their wits end with her.

Back then, not much was known about PTSD. Mental Illness was just starting to gain traction, as was treatment for it. In wars after Vietnam, more mental health care was available for soldiers and other persons who worked in any aspect of the military. But during Vietnam, when a lot of people didn’t think America should be in the war anyways, many people looked down on the soldiers that were over there, or anyone that was over there, for that fact. The women in the hospitals over in Vietnam had nowhere to turn for support once they were back stateside.

I will definitely be checking out other books by Kristin Hannah! I already have several on hold at the library.