The Chilbury Ladies´ Choir by Jennifer Ryan
This has been the first time that I have read a historical fiction novel because I have never really had the opportunity, I mean, I am barely 16-years old and I absolutely love young adult novels and contemporary novels that are romantic, but on the other hand, I absolutely love history! I have always believed that history is so interesting and powerful because we tend to learn from our mistake as a society and history probably provides all of these factors and it always shows us different lifestyles and I believe that a lot of people that enjoy literature, probably enjoys history because we can learn about it as a story. So, once I joined Blogging for Books and I read about the Chilbury Ladies´ Choir, I thought that I should give it a try, and honestly, I am so glad that I made that choice because I fell in love with every element in the story and I ended up adoring Ryan´s writing.
The Chilbury Ladies´ Choir tells the story of a group of powerful women that live in the town of Chilbury in England during World War II. We get to meet every person that lives in the small town through different perspectives. We have the perspective of Mrs. Tilling, whose son will be leaving for war; Ms. Edwina Paltry, who writes to her sister describing her all the illicit jobs she has to get done for money; Kitty, a 13-years old girl that is trying to become her town´s hero during war while being desperately in love with Henry, who likes her older sister; and Venetia, who writes to her best friend about her encounters with Mr. Slater, a handsome painter that doesn´t even bother with glancing at Venetia´s direction.
Once everyone leaves for war, the town is left heartbroken and on top of that, the Chilbury Choir cannot continue because all the men left, but Ms. Prim decides to open a ladies choir in town to help everyone get through war and promises that the Chilbury Ladies´ Choir can place in competition, and just like that, the Chilbury Ladies´ Choir is formed and demonstrates that the women that were left behind can still do things by themselves.
And while the war continues, these powerful women will discover themselves with every note they sing.
I want to start this review by talking about the characters. I loved every single one of them because each one of them showed a different side to the war. Also, the characters were all from different age gaps, which made it easier for the readers to feel identified with. Personally, I loved Kitty because she is the youngest, but she is probably the one character that really tries to be part of everything, she has this amazing way of taking everything and everyone that surrounds her into her own world, and she wants to be a grown-up so much that it reminded me of myself because when I was 13 too, which was only like three years ago, I felt the same thing, so seeing how a character really wants to become a hero was inspiring at some point.
Although I really liked the many characters the novel had, I did feel confused from time to time because there were too many and I really liked that there was a map at the beginning, but it had so many elements that it made me go back and forth because it was very detailed, which I liked a lot, but it was a bit confusing. Yet, I really appreciated how much effort the author put into this story because it really showed and made it like we were traveling back in time.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the plot and the story itself because it has a pull-factor that makes you keep reading since it is a pretty fast-paced reading.
I really liked how Ryan portrayed feminism, which is something that is wildly talked about today because it demonstrated that WWII wasn´t mostly about fighting, it also included everyone that lived in the countries that were involved, and seeing the lives that continued while people came and went, made it more lively and real.
Also, I absolutely loved how the author wrote about WWII because she takes into account the different experiences that different people have during the war, mothers have to let go of their children, lovers have to say goodbye to their loved one, children will have to continue living without a father and so forth, Ryan did a great job showing the heartbreaking moments of war, which I think is one of the biggest themes of this novel. Another thing that I found very interesting about her portrayal of war was the way the characters held onto small moments with those they love like in real life. Ryan also shows that the war not only ends things, it starts things, like the Chilbury Ladies´ Choir, which gives hope to people because, at the end of the day, the one thing that keeps going is the small things that give us hope.
Before I end this review, I want to talk about how much I liked Jennifer Ryan´s writing because it is beautiful, it really touched me while portraying the story perfectly. I enjoyed the different point of views because as I mentioned before, it tells us the story of the village through different eyes. Also, I loved how the whole story is written through journals and letters, it reminded a little bit of Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern (review for that one coming soon!). And lastly, I loved how three-dimensional she made the characters, they seemed very real to me because they all had different things they were holding onto and different things that they hoped for while having several flaws, like real human beings.
The Chilbury Ladies´ Choir by Jennifer Ryan is a beautiful and inspiring historical fiction novel that will transport you to its small village during World War II to show you the beauty of life and holding onto the past while trying to grasp the future before it is too late.
Also, I would like to thank Blogging for Books for giving me the opportunity to review this amazing novel!
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