Books about WWII have become a recurrent themes in my reading list and The Nightingale is probably one of the weakest I’ve read so far. Unfortunately the plot and storyline resemblance to La Bicyclette Bleue and Gone With The Wind (and I’m not a fan of any of those two books) threw me off a bit but I did give this book a chance and finished it. I appreciate however the mention of women’s place in war, the sister’s bond and the importance of family but I could not care less to be honest since the overall tone was very flat.
What bothers me the most is the characters couldn’t be more dull, I could not feel empathy for the main protagonists and I still remember the scenes where Isabelle’s urge to fight and rebel against her sister and I’m just telling myself “why am I reading such a book?”, that was one of the red flags already and honestly, I should have given up. But I could never DNF a book once I start it (a weird reflex I should probably start to get rid of).
Now for the new comers to the book community, to DNF a book is Do No Finish, which means you would leave as soon as you feel the book is not right for you. In the case of The Nightingale, I should probably do it. But there seems to be a force in me that still has hope that the ending of the book might change my whole opinion and so I keep enduring it.
If I’m being honest, this was meant to be a review of The Nightingale, but I was more interested in knowing you guy’s thoughts about the DNF matter. Do you do it? And if yes, how did you come to the conclusion to give up on a book? How do you know? And if you don’t do it like me, is there a particular reason?
TRANG T.
My Dark Theories 
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