This book cry’s out to be a book club selection. But please read it even if it isn’t for your book club. It is a focused and intense read taking place over three days in a maternity ward for influenza patients. This is the Spanish flu and the maternity ward is in Ireland. Three women, a nurse, doctor, and young volunteer care for patients in their three bed ward. The details of midwifery, hospital hierarchy, the power of the church, and of women are all touched upon. As I wrote, it is intense since author packs so much into this small cast and brief time period. I would recommend this highly. I will be asking friends/family to read it so we can have a discussion.

I'm a bit torn about this book. The beginning was really slow and I actually stopped reading and came back to it months later (and reread from the beginning). I did eventually get quite into the story and found it fascinating. It is a very descriptive account of multiple labors, births, and deaths in Ireland during the influenza panic of 1918. It is extremely detailed and doesn't shy away from the painful experiences that she endures and witnesses. The overall tone of the book is quite depressing, and may be triggering for those who do get depressed easily or already have a lot of anxiety over childbirth. The last 20% percent or so felt really superfluous, terribly paced, and had a rather inadequate ending. There were parts I enjoyed of the book, but by the end, I was glad to be finished with it.

A very timely read! Fast-paced, thrilling, and intense. Relevant and powerful without being overwhelming or stressful.

Reading this during the Covid pandemic was compelling. A lot of the health crisises were horrific during the Spanish flu due to the lack of knowledge in the early 1900s. I was fascinated in the doctor who was an actual historical medical doctor. The ways they treated pregnancy and labor were equally compelling.

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me interested til the end. Quick read. I would recommend!

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this quick read. Ironically, this novel is set Ireland in 1918 during the flu pandemic (a nod to history repeating itself!). This book follows a nurse on a ward of women who are suffering from the flu and are also pregnant. As you might imagine, it is pretty bleak, but there is also joy and connection to be found. There is much here about history as well (beyond the pandemic) with nods to women's rights, the war, religion, etc. This is worth your time. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

In the fall of 1918, Dublin was suffering from years of the Great War and from the raging Spanish flu. Nurse Julia Power lives with her brother, who came home from the front unable to speak. Having already had the flu, she now works with pregnant women who have come down with it in a make-shift maternity/flu ward. Over the course of just three days, Donoghue takes the reader through births and deaths, love and loss that change Julia Power's life forever.

I love Donoghue's writing, so she's always a must-read for me. (Except for <em>Room</em>. I'm sure it's excellent, but I just can't.) This book is a detail-rich, immersive experience that is especially poignant for readers during our current pandemic. It's not an easy read - the realities of disease and war and the way people care for each other or don't are on full display - but it is a beautiful heartbreak.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Incredibly written story about a labor ward in Ireland during the 1918 flu pandemic-- so many similarities to life right now. Loved it!

This book tells a story I had never heard before. It is set in Ireland in 1918 during the influenza that ravaged so many. This specific story takes place in one room in one hospital’s pregnancy ward. It follows a nurse, Julia, as she protects the women who have been put into her care.

I thought the exploration of relationship under extremes conditions was done really beautifully. Julia is passionate and tired, willing to fight tooth and nail for the lives of her patients while also protecting a brother who came back from the war with severe PTSD. The women she serves have faced extreme abuse at the hands of their husbands and the cruelty of their worlds. This book was frequently hard to read but was filled with moments of tenderness.

I did not love the romantic plot that came in near the end. It didn’t feel authentic to me and took me out of the story a little bit.

All in all I think Donoghue’s writing powerfully crates atmosphere and tells a story that was both harrowing and hopeful.

What great timing on the publication of this book. The characters are relatable, frustrating and memorable. There were so many pieces that resounded with my daily life, that it was astounding to see this reflected in history. At times, the short timespan of the story detracted from the realness, but in times of stress and hardship bonds are often forged a lot faster.

I absolutely adored this one.

The writing is spectacular, the characters are lovable, and the story is gripping.

I can’t recommend this one enough!

Holy cow, who knew reading about childbirth could be as intense and riveting as Donoghue wrote it. As a mother who birthed her child with all the luxuries of modern healthcare, I truly cringed and wept for the experience of these mothers. Donoghue covers the span of two days, yet writes so poetically you feel months and years have transpired.

This book captured the history and time period beautifully. I was both hooked and horrified by what I was reading; captivated by the violent descriptions. Overall, great read that captured the mood, tension, and attitude of the time period and pandemic.

A copy of this book was given to me by NetGalley for an honest review

Thanks to NetGalley for the Arc!

I really enjoyed Room by Emma Donoghue. It has stuck with me for a long time & The Pull of the Stars will definitely have the same affect.

This is the story of a nurse during the flu in Ireland in the 1900s. As a person with Irish heritage I was eager to learn about this time period. I liked that it sounded similar to what we’re currently live through. To be honest I knew nothing about pandemics until now. The journey of living through one had never even crossed my mind. It was almost inspiring to know this had happened and people survived it before.

The nurse, Julia, works in a flu ridden hospital. There’s not enough help and not enough beds. This flu really affects those who are pregnant (even young and otherwise healthy pregnant woman). Often there’s not enough doctors and the nurse has to figure things out on her own. She’s given a young volunteer who she becomes attached to even in a few short days. Bridie, the volunteer, lives quite a sad life. Her story really tugged at my heartstrings.

I almost find the timing of this book unfortunate for Donoghue. On one hand it really gives perspective on what a nurse in a pandemic goes through. I have a few nurse friends and this really opened my eyes to the load they’re carrying. Being as we are living through a pandemic this book was hard to read. Not due to Donoghues writing by any means- just purely on the sensitive content. It was immensely sad. I believe the story was less than a weeks span and the devastation was heartbreaking. I think people may enjoy this book in a year from now when we’re hopefully looking back on COVID-19 as well. I read to escape today’s troubles so it was really hard to enjoy this. I also have so many pregnant friends who are terrified of our current virus. Reading about death sweeping a maternity ward during the flu was almost unbearable.

I am so impressed with Donoghues writing. I’m sure the amount of research that went into this was astronomical. I appreciate her desire to tell this story!

I was a bit hesitant to read another book about the 1918 pandemic right now (several have come out, and I seemed to have requested all of them on NetGalley 😅 ), but this book was so well written, and I really liked it. The story was both heartbreaking and powerful, and Julia was fantastic main character. The whole book was mostly set in a hospital room over the course of three days, and it's incredible how much happened in such a short time. It was definitely heavy, but I'm glad I read it.

This book was okay. I think Donoghue tried to fit too much in. I got confused at times trying to follow the different plot points and the whole thing felt rushed. And the writing style just wasn’t to my liking. Would recommend with reservations.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately I could not get into it. I do not think this was the one for me. The premise was super interesting, but towards the end to me it just fell apart.

I've enjoyed Donoghue's books in the past so didn't even look to see what this book was about before I started it and was surprised to find myself reading about a pandemic, even as we are living through one. In the Author's Notes at the end, Donoghue says that she had turned in the final edits of her book in March 2020, just as it became clear that this novel coronavirus was going to be a worldwide pandemic. It's not the only way that this book, set 100 years ago, is timely; it explores the ways in which politics affects our lives and the way poverty is exacerbated by the pandemic (or is it the other way around?).

I was also surprised that this was a book set almost entirely in one room, harkening back to Donoghue's earlier work Room. Donoghue is certainly adept at creating a wide world in a small space and in creating stories and characters that showcase the strength of women, from the woman who has come in pregnant with her twelfth child to the female doctor who is working to try to save lives even as the authorities are trying to arrest her.

At times, it felt a little bit like one of those adventure movies where if anything can go wrong, it will, what with every kind of tragedy playing out in that ward. And I was about two-thirds of the way through this book and still trying to figure out where Donoghue was going with this story when it finally occurred to me that she had already arrived there and all of those medical emergencies were there for a reason. At one point, a male orderly suggests that women shouldn't get the vote because they didn't fight in the war, didn't pay the "blood price." Donoghue makes it clear that women have always paid the blood price. In the end, I came away from this book knowing that I'd be thinking about these characters and what had happened in that ward for a long time. It would be hard not to, given that we're living through it right now.

The Pull of the Stars (2020) by Emma Donoghue follows a maternity ward nurse living and working in gritty 1918 Dublin as the world is being ravaged by the Spanish Flu. I wasn't crazy about the melodramatic last quarter of the book, but everything leading up to it was gripping. You know a book is effective when you find yourself visibly squirming and cringing as you read. Plus, this novel serves as a reminder that COVID is far from the first global health crisis the human race has experienced and overcome.

An interesting story that I expected to like more. Still, great characters and it held my interest. And I learned a lot.