I really struggled with and didn't care for this book, something about Kristin Hannah's writing style is very cinematic, dramatic and over the top, it feels like I'm reading an over-acted movie? I felt that it leaned into a comedic range or I was constantly eye rolling. There was too much telling and not enough showing and it all just felt melodramatic.

I did not feel that Frankie had much personality, she was an upper class white girl who tripped her way through the book. Yes we got to see how she survived her time in Vietnam and got a lot of important nursing skills and learned a lot, but other than 'she liked nursing', what else did we know about this character? We are told she misses her brother and wishes she had a better relationship with her parents, but a couple flashback or memory scenes could have demonstrated this clearly. I never felt invested in her, and the fact that she was absolutely desperate for her father's approval became real old and never got satisfactorily resolved. I don't understand why any of the men fell for her (and they ALL fell for her), and I didn't really understand why she fell for any of them either, they were cardboard cutouts. For a book titled 'The Women' there was a lot of forced time spent on poorly-developed romance...

The biggest take-home messages of the book were strong: the USA treated vets terribly once they got home and so many of the civilians and other veterans were completely dismissive of the women who served in Vietnam as nurses. Also because mental health and PTSD were not prioritized or even recognized yet that was a huge issue. Obviously Frankie's story explores these topics but in a slow paced 'tell not show' boring way. She supposedly loved nursing but I never got that impression, the romances were poorly drawn, this book spent almost 500 pages focusing on a single woman instead of a wide variety of potential perspectives that could have really driven home the intent of the novel. Frankie conveniently had two great best friends who came to her rescue multiple times, I think a book written from all three of their perspectives could have been absolutely stunning in exploring both relationships between women and how they support each other but also the different responses of individuals to war/ similar experiences.

The book pulled a twist midway through that was then repeated and I just tossed up my hands in exasperation because this was such a cheap ploy and a dramatic stunt that lost any impact on the final pages.

Overall this was too long, boring, repetitive, and I never felt invested in Frankie. We gloss over years of her life in the last 50 pages that could have really been impactful and interesting as she recovers and gains a meaningful life. After reading other reviews, it seems like most of the people who gave it five stars are just completely gushing about the heartbreak and the emotions and these 'untold stories', but I quite like this quote from another reviewer: "Kristin Hannah likes to pile on the tragedy and trauma... It's her formula and it gets tiresome". I also agree with another reviewer who points out that there were no Vietnamese characters of any importance in this book about the Vietnam War.

For me 'The Unmaking of June Farrow' was kind of a mixed bag of an experience. I went into it knowing that there was some magical realism element, but not knowing that it was time travel- but honestly that was okay, I like a good time travel story. I felt that the first few chapters were not boring, but they were unfurling slowly. Honestly I felt like one of the main elements that was missing from this book that I wanted more of was more tension and intensity and drive. I never quite felt like the stakes were very high, I felt like the whole thing was kind of an even keel for me. I was surprised when giving a summary of this book to my husband at just how much plot there is, because I frequently felt like I wanted the book to hurry up and get to the next part already (not exactly a great sign especially when your book is not even 350 pages long).

Another huge problem I had with this book is the amount of withholding of information that happens from our main character. I understand that some element of withholding of information is required to have the plot exist and that it would be very difficult to have any sort of interesting plot when the main character knows absolutely everything already, and I do understand to some extent part of the actual reveal and plot points did depend on certain characters with holding information from June. However it was extremely frustrating as the reader to be in June's perspective when she had so little information for most of the book. Especially when June is requesting answers (demanding answers!) from people who are the only ones that she knows and who ostensibly should have her back because they care about her and are related to her -- it drove me absolutely bonkers to have both Esther and Eamon be characters who told June over and over to be careful and not cause problems, but they refused to answer her questions or barely gave her a drip and dribble of any true answers that could be helpful. And obviously the jumping around in timelines and the sporadic gaining of memories are both already confusing and would be a clear natural easy way to make it so that the reader and June don't have all the information. If June was learning more and gaining more and more answers as her memories came back to her, I would have been much more okay with that structurally as opposed to multiple scenes where June tries to get help from her loved ones only to have them rebuff her! When Esther sits her down and gives her some initial information about the time travel, she presents June with parameters and rules about how the time travel works, which I was immediately confused about because they contradicted some of the plot that we had already seen happen? I just felt way too frustrated for way too long in this story, because people did not trust June and refused to really help her in my opinion .

I thought it was very interesting to read about how memory and time travel were linked in this story, I thought it felt organic to have there be confusion over whether or not these visions / episodes were hallucinations or some sort of mental disorder versus actual memories that were due to the time travel and crossing into different timelines. I was frustrated though when June starts having 'memories' of Mason? Like these were not events that had already happened to her, so they were "potential timeline" memories? That didn't really make sense to me either... and with June's choice to stay in 1951 and close the loop/break the curse whatever, did that mean she lost all her memories of her own life and childhood? So her only memories only a couple years later would have been from 1946-then?? How could that not inherently change who she is as a person? The "romance" subplots here were weak too. Mason was a figure we barely get to know, and though there was a little something potentially there between Mason and June, she insists and is adamant that he's her best friend and she was never open to a romantic relationship with him. So when she then later realizes she could choose 2023 and fall for Mason, that felt like it was out of left field? Why did she assume the false memories of Mason were because she'd very suddenly started falling for him in 2023ish? And if that had been the case, why would 2024 June have ever time traveled back to 1946?? With Eamon: I was very intrigued by a potential situation where 34 year old June shows up in 1951 and Eamon struggles (partly still feeling betrayed by 1950's June's choice to leave) because this version of June isn't the version of his wife that he knew and loved. So I expected some of the romantic development of this book would be Eamon falling in love with this new version of June, which to me would be so romantic: he's destined to love her no matter the timeline, they're so great for each other that he falls for her again. Instead he holds her at arm's length and seems uninterested in a relationship until she has enough memories to be the familiar version that he knows - aka he doesn't love her again until she's changed, a reversion backward in a way. I saw some other people who were praising the descriptions and word choices, calling this book atmospheric and evocative of North Carolina and had a strong setting... For me I didn't really feel that way. Yes it felt very farmland and small town, country, and the audiobook narrator had a slight southern accent so I was fine with that as a setting, but honestly I was actually struggling a fair bit with the time setting. Parts of this book take place in 2023 and it just did not feel modern at all, I don't even think there was mention of a cell phone at all? And even in 1951, it felt more like early 1900s? I'm not exactly up on all of the technology that would have been available in 1951, especially in a rural farmland setting where people struggle to make ends meet, but there was still mentions of lighting candles for light and pouring water into separate freestanding bathtubs that have been heated on the stove?

Pretty much every good time travel story inherently has plot holes or paradoxes, I think this one is on the weaker side of the media that I've consumed? I had a lot of unanswered questions about how the time travel worked, why it was this family, what did the locket have to do with anything, when does the door start appearing, why is it different for different women in the family, why does every woman have to go through, why do the women choose the years that they land on, June crossing the timeline in the way that she did-- how could that possibly have been the first time that that ever happened? And why did that function to close the loop? I didn't really understand things even when we did start to get some attempts at explanations, so I'm just going to have to hand wave over most of the details regarding the time travel stuff.

I was also frustrated with the murder mystery element. We know from early in the book that Nathaniel the pastor was murdered in 1950, and when June goes back to 1951, it becomes clear that people think that she has information about his murder, she's definitely a person of interest that the police force are trying to interview. But because we never get to meet Nathaniel on page, we don't really get any sense of his character other than from what other secondary characters are telling June. So I never felt emotionally invested in the fact that he had been murdered, and it didn't feel like there was any reason I should be concerned for June/ there was not any tension there. Yes obviously she is wanted to be questioned and June doesn't have the information because for her timeline it hasn't happened to her yet, so obviously it's a stressful situation because she's going to be interviewed by a police officer and she doesn't have any information to give them, but I didn't care about this murdered guy and I didn't feel that there was building suspense about what had happened to that guy or who had done it. Because people were withholding information from June and we never got a chance to care about Nathaniel, and there weren't really any good hints built into the story with her gaining memories about Nathaniel and the relationship she had with him leading up to his murder, that whole subplot was not packing the punch I wanted it to have. I also wanted to know more about Esther - she obviously had been around Susanna in 1912 to be able to help with delivering baby June to 1980s, and she must have had at least 2 crossings left/available, to be able to deliver baby June and return. But why did she seem so mentally "with it" compared to other family members? And Birdie was on page so shortly that I really didn't get a chance to care about her - I think more time spent emphasizing Birdie being in June's life would have made the reveal that Birdie = Annie have much more weight and impact.

I read this title for the badge, I think I would have not persevered otherwise. Overall this book didn't really land well with me for the following reasons, in no particular order:

• this is a new adult/college demographic, I feel that I am just a smidgen too old to be reading much of this age anymore, Blake felt so terribly young

• this book was way too long, I think it could have still been equally as (in)effective at ~350 pages. There were a lot of secondary characters, and though I understand that this book fits within the author's established universe and that so many of those characters are making cameos in this book as they have their own titles, it was too many characters to try to keep track of and coming into this title as functionally a standalone meant that I didn't care at all about any of those characters and it simply bogged down the story

• the main male character of Wyatt was a misogynistic cardboard cutout of a character. He constantly tells the reader/Blake that he 'has so much chaos in his mind' and 'is not the type of guy who could ever settle down' and he's 'not the kind of guy who's good for anything other than sex'-- but there is no substance or trauma there to back up any of those claims, there's no reason for him to have any real hang-ups at all. He is a total misogynistic asshole who is constantly horny and we don't see him attempt to actually emotionally connect with Blake as a person, he only admires her 'toned body' and 'perky tits' and 'tight pussy'. Multiple times throughout he infantilizes Blake and tries to control her, from where she goes to what she wears and who she attempts to sleep with, he emotionally manipulates/abuses Blake too by ordering her around and deliberately hurting her feelings or dismissing them. (and Blake is inconsistent too, she's angry then two sentences later has talked herself into forgiving him.) His disgusting commentary lasts way too long into their relationship, and his emotional feelings of love toward Blake felt completely unfounded to me, I did not understand how he arrived at that conclusion whatsoever. He may have become slightly less repulsive over the course of the book, but this was never a love interest that came across as even attractive, let alone swoon worthy.

• I find it a little ridiculous that Blake's subplot or hang up is that she feels she's "not special", and therefore this makes her destined for a life of mediocrity and unworthy of anybody's/Wyatt's attention. Because the truth is that we hardly get to see anything that does make Blake special, and by the end of this book she realizes that she would be happy to be a groupie on tour with her boyfriend and record podcasts... with the hopes of potentially making a living from that???

• despite the characters being open about using condoms during sex and despite actively seeking out and taking Plan B after unprotected sex, there is still a surprise pregnancy trope in this book. This is not a trope that makes me automatically hate a book, and I will say I actually was okay with how this plot line went, especially the inclusion of how both main characters have complicated feelings about this pregnancy and what it could mean for their futures. Especially also a little bit of commentary from Wyatt about how he feels that he has had a loss in addition to Blake feeling that she had a loss-- I did actually like that inclusion. However, Blake absolutely refusing to believe that Wyatt could have any feelings for her and her pushing him away because she is assuming how he feels (re: love and re: pregnancy) despite how he is literally telling her to her face how he feels-- this was such an indication of how immature Blake is. I think honestly Wyatt should have had a moment of reconsideration, when someone tells you who they are you should listen, Blake insisted over and over that she didn't want a relationship and that she wasn't good enough for him, that just feels like asking for trouble especially since she is now going to be just following him along on tour and not really have her own thing, it feels like it will just open up resentment and inferiority issues

• overall this book was way too long, the writing was never that engaging to me, both main characters kind of sucked but Wyatt in particular was such an asshole I could never appreciate his character. This felt like a conglomeration of a bunch of different tropes and poorly balanced subplots, far too many secondary characters that didn't serve the plot but were only present as nods to fans or to set up future book characters, and overall it didn't work for me.

(also, thought female narrator did fine but the male voice felt flat to me, more reading over performance some times)