Set in 1918 Dublin during the flu pandemic, a maternity ward nurse struggles with death, fear, love, and survival. Great story line and very fitting for the current pandemic. I found that I wasn’t quite able to connect with the characters enough.
Recommended for those who love historical fiction especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic.

First of all thank you Netgalley and Libro.fm for making giving me a chance to review an early copy of this book.
Pull of the Stars is set in Ireland in 1918, in the middle of a pandemic amidst a world war. The whole book spans just a few days, following our protagonist, Nurse Julia Powers who works in a maternity ward and most of the story takes place within these four walls where she works.
This story immediately took me back to my days as an intern in the labour room. The tension, the frantic rushing, the deep sorrow of losing a life especially a baby as well as the pure joy of delivering a new life was all captured perfectly in the writings of Emma Donoghue.
For a story that span only a few days, the emotional roller coaster this book took me through is suprising. Bridie was one of my favourite characters in the book and she just brought the book to life! The similarities of the situation then and of the situation that’s gripping the world now is uncanny but the fact that the world survived that also brings hope.
The book also delves into the abuse of power across various areas was also illuminating and showed how little the world as a whole has changed even with all the advancements human race has gone through over the years.
All in all I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it!!
Rating: 4 stars

Talk about timely. It's 1918 and Julia is a maternity nurse in Dublin. Because she has already gotten the flu, she is assigned to mothers who have come down with the new and deadly influenza. I love Donoghue's Ireland books (The Wonder was one of my favorites) and this was excellent. The pain felt by Julia as she watched the suffering of her patients was palpable. It took a turn at the end that felt a little forced, but still a truly moving account of tragedy and pandemic.

Donoghue never ceases to disappoint, and The Pull of the Stars is just another example of her amazing writing and story-telling abilities. The book centers on a nurse who spends just a few days in a maternity ward during the earlier part of the century (1900 to be more exact). It's hard to imagine that the book only covers a few days when so much happens - don't worry, that's not a spoiler for anything. There's also influence scares happening, and well, if that ain't pertinent for 2020, then I don't know what is.

Donoghue has this insane ability to make seemingly mundane things into urgency and even to the point of putting one on edge. Several times, I found myself wrapped up in the story's patients and I was desperate to make sure they, and their babies would be okay. For a work of fiction, that's really damn awesome.

Like Room, and Wonder, The Pull of the Stars is beautifully written with dynamic characters. I find myself drawn to her stories more and more, and can't wait to see what the future has for her.

The Pull of the Stars releases 7.21.2020.

5/5 Stars

Author Emma Donoghue decided to revisit the 1918 Flu on its Centennial, and well, you know how that turned out; she had a topical prescience that is mind-boggling. THE PULL OF THE STARS draws readers into the 1918 Flu in Ireland with a fearsome accuracy. We can enter a street scene or a hospital and feel the fear, smell the illness and frankly, want to turn around and run the other way. While the world building and scene setting is amazing and all-encompassing, the story itself is slow and labored, very much like the work of the nurse protagonist. My mind wandered while reading and I put the book down several times, only to start over again at the beginning. I needed more from the plot than Donoghue offered but the book is worth reading. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I’m a sucker for stories about midwives and women at the beginning of the century - it’s a rabbit hole of research for me. Loved all the historical data and graphic details!!! Relevant, to some extent, life right now - i think this will resonant with a lot of people.

This book takes place in Ireland around 1918 during the time of the Spanish flu - a huge pandemic that killed many following the war. We are introduced to a young nurse, a doctor and their helper who are working in a tiny make shift maternity ward for expecting mothers who have this flu. Over the course of a few days, we get a graphic tale of what happens to the mothers and babies in that small room.

I really wanted to like this one, but it didn't really work for me. While I think the plot was interesting and very informative, I found myself pushing through at times. Considering we are in the middle of a pandemic right now, it was an interesting read. It gave the reader a visual as to how scary it is working during a pandemic when hospitals are under funded and under staffed.

However, this story got quite graphic at times, which is perhaps why I had a hard time getting into it. Many of the medical scenarios that were described were done in very graphic detail which was almost too much for me at times. For example, detailed imagery of a baby being still born. Some people out there may really enjoy this book and I've actually read a majority of positive reviews. So if this book sounds cool to you, then definately check it out.

Emma Donoghue’s new novel, THE PULL OF THE STARS takes place in Dublin, Ireland circa 1918 and was inspired, at least in part, by the life of pioneering doctor Kathleen Lynn.

The drama takes place over a three day period and through the experiences of several pregnant and infected patients and the three women (Bridie Sweeney, Nurse Julia Power and Dr. Kathleen Lynn) who act as their caregivers, readers are given a front row seat to the horrors and impact of the pandemic known as the Spanish Flu. Since most readers are aware that this infamous pandemic killed more people than the World War that had just preceded it we know that things will not bode well for anyone unfortunate enough to be found in the makeshift hospital ward/delivery room.

Many of the medical scenarios depicted are vividly bloody, appalling and definitely not for the fainthearted. Donoghue’s nimble characterizations and her subtle soundings of the moral and ethical issues of the time makes this another unforgettable entry into the list of memorable books she has produced.

I really enjoyed this book and included it in my recent summer book roundup
https://mashable.com/article/summer-book-roundup-what-to-read/

Beautifully written and timely tale of a nurse during a post war pandemic (1919 Ireland). It's fast paced and I read it breathlessly.

The Pull of the Stars, follows a 30yr old nurse Julia Powers during the 1918 flu epidemic. She is a mother/baby nurse for patients with the flu, crammed in what seems to be a room almost the same size as a utility closet. We see her struggle with her patients, desperate to provide care in an overcrowded hospital short-staffed due to illness. She has to learn to make her own decisions and comes to rely on an orphaned girl sent by the nuns to help her. Overall, I found this fast and interesting but (you know me) I wanted a big twist at the end and didn't get it. 3.5 stars

Serious question: were there always this many books about pandemics? Is this like one of those things where you learn about something you'd never heard of before and then, suddenly, it's EVERYWHERE. Because I keep reading these books that were written pre-COVID and pandemics seem to be stalking me.

Anyway, I really liked this understated exploration of healthcare, illness, maternity, and all kinds of power abuses. The Pull of the Stars is set in Ireland in 1918. It's a book that goes a lot deeper than you may first expect. It takes place over only a few days and barely moves outside of the single room in which Nurse Julia Power cares for those who are pregnant and in quarantine. It was a surprisingly emotional journey following Julia through her day as a nurse, trying to keep fevers down and despair at bay. Trying, against horrendous odds, to deliver healthy living babies.

The 1918 influenza was a devastating pandemic. Even as people were killing each other on the battlefields of the First World War, an even more deadly killer was spreading from person to person through love, kindness, touch. Here Donaghue brings a uniquely Irish perspective to the time. With the combination of aversion to contraception, the social pressure to churn out babies (upwards of ten was the norm), sexual abuses in religious institutions and Magdalene laundries, a maternal mortality rate of 15%, AND the pandemic, this was a terrible time and place to be a woman and pregnant.

Nurse Power sees mothers trying and failing to give birth to their twelfth child because their bodies can't take any more. She sees young victims of sexual abuse terrified as they are forced to give birth to the babies of the male relatives who raped them. She sees the "fallen women" of Magdalene laundries forced to give up their babies. She sees abuse victims who are afraid to get better and leave the hospital.

It may seem like the whole story takes place in one small room, but much of the horror that happens there is rooted in far-reaching abuses of power, religious hypocrisy, and social policy. In the early twentieth century, many people really did believe that class was genetic and passed from parent to child, so the doctors in this book dismiss the infants of poor working class people literally from the minute they are born.

I would definitely recommend it if you can stomach the gore and the mentions of abuse/incest (all off-page). I liked that the author wove a lot of historical fact with her fiction, including the character of Kathleen Lynn, who I was unfamiliar with. The only thing I didn't love is how the romantic subplot seemed to come flying in out of nowhere with no romantic chemistry suggested beforehand, but it was such a small part of what's going on in this book that I didn't mind very much.

I really wanted to like this book. I've enjoyed Emma Donoghue's other works, but I just couldn't get into this one. I didn't feel invested in the characters and had to make myself read it.

While I've been familiar with Emme Donoghue's writing, this is the first book I've read of hers. This novel takes place during the flu pandemic of the early twentieth century and is mostly taking place in a maternity ward that strapped for both staff and resources. While most people are avoiding pandemic books like the plague (pardon the pun), I found this one fascinating. I love this time period and the historical details were on point! If you like historical fiction or the TV show The Knick, you simply have to read this marvel of a book!

I had a really hard time with this. There were too many similarities to the current pandemic, and it gave me anxiety. HOWEVER, this means that I might not be the target audience. The writing is brilliant, characters are perfect, and the setting is something else. I may try again in a few years.

WOW! This book is unlike any I've ever read, and I mean that in the best way possible. Donoghue's writing utterly transports the reader into the cramped, chaotic maternity ward where Julia spends the three days of the book. Squeezing so much life and death into three days is an impressive narrative feat, and it pays off. The urgency and emotions are heightened, as are the relationships built between the characters. Donoghue's research is also meticulously done, and the endless details about life in a 1918 maternity ward are fascinating. I swallowed this book whole!

I can't quite decide if this is 3.5 or 4 stars, so giving it the benefit of the doubt and taking it up to 4 stars. Intriguing book; I always enjoy historical fiction, and the timing of this is just so spot on. Julia is a fascinating character, and I loved the short, 3-day focus of this book. It just made it feel like an incredibly intimate snapshot of Julia's life, rather than telling her whole story. Bridie was another great character (although I will admin I continually read her name as Birdie), as was Dr. Lynn (although there were far less details about her). The setting for the book was brutal; and many of the passages were incredibly graphic and drawn out, perhaps a bit too detailed? They did not bother me, but I can see how they might bother others. My biggest issue with this book? Julia and Bridie's relationship. I don't know how else to describe it other than "forced." It did not seem like a natural progression of the story, but instead something that was throw in at the last minute as a twist, and it just didn't work for me. Other than that, I really enjoyed yet another great book from Ms. Donoghue.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown & Co. For providing me with this ARC. The tears are drying on my cheeks as I write this. Emma Donoghue starting writing this book as the centenary of the 1918 Pandemic approached. It’s the story of a “closet” in a Dublin hospital that had been converted to a ward for expectant mothers who had the influenza. Covering only three days, the character driver story describes Nurse Julia Power, her three expectant mothers, and Bridie Sweeney, a 22 yr old volunteer sent by a local convent. The pace is frenetic, with nonstop action and heartbreak. The author introduces fully formed supporting characters, who each add to the drama. The descriptions of the births are more graphic than most of us would want to read, and the influenza itself is a major character. The current COVID-19 pandemic started just as the book was in the final stages. It will be published on July 21, 2020. God help us all.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of "Pull of the Stars" by Emma Donoghue. I've been a fan of Emma Donoghue since reading "Room' and her latest, "Pull of the Stars" doesn't disappoint.

Donoghue (Room) gives us a touching historical novel with characters and circumstances crafted directly from history. She managed to take me from elation at a budding relationship to heartbreak and loss to redemption in the final pages of the final chapter of this beautifully written novel. I have to say this rivals the power of her bestseller Room, and gives us female characters that all women have gathered their strength from over the past century who gave us a place in history and the world beyond that of marriage and home. This one feels as though it is slowly developing yet each cobblestone we pass builds to the road to the end. I feel fortunate to have gotten an early opportunity with this wonderful novel.