Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Made it to page 50. I believe my mistake is reading "All The Light We Cannot See" right before starting this novel. Doerr's writing style is lush and flowing, which starkly contrasts with Hannah's jerky, daresay sophomoric writing style. "Show, don't tell" is not followed in the Nightingale. The best example I can give from the first 50 pages is Isabelle's exodus from Paris is formulaic and repetitive; broken down cars and people are referred to multiple times to little effect. There are several pages of set up for the exodus, she is hungry and alone, only to have her (in 2 paragraphs!) wander off into the woods and encounter Gaet who has food (upon his acquaintance, we get into a bizarre description of her arrogance regarding her sexuality when she meets Gaet. If she's that hungry and tired, I find it hard to believe that her thoughts at the time were, "how men gazed at her with unabashed desire". Really?). It felt very contrived and I felt the author was pushing Isabelle through a checklist of wartime elements (suicidal soldier - check, lost children - check, freshly dug grave - check, Nazi bombers - check). Little do we find out about Isabelle's feelings or thoughts are towards any of this as the author furiously crams all this into a few pages - the plot does not have room to breathe.