Because of a possible tutoring job, I picked up this book without expectations. It's a wonderful weave of history, literary name-dropping, and fiction. Barker manages to pull off the gruesome tales of WWI without going over the top. There was much to chew on, too...men and war, the passivity we impose on soldiers, class, the horrors we accept, honor and pride.

Haunting, but a great historical fiction. Can't wait to continue the trilogy.

I basically read this as research for a story wip once I realized it centered around psychology at the time of WW1.

First ever Book Club read.

It was mostly social commentary (anti-war, PTSD/mental health, relationships), but the psychological aspect is what I enjoyed the most.

It was well written and good social commentary, but that’s all it had going for it. It didn’t feel like fiction for me.

Won’t be reading the rest of the series because it’s focus is LGBT and I will not read material that supports sin.

I feel bad for just dishing out 5 stars but they are deserved. God, the dialogue in this was golden. I felt myself just praying for Rivers to start talking to someone else.

First in the trilogy, the book tells of psychiatrist William Rivers who treats British officers suffering from "shell-shock" during WWI. The story becomes his story, also that of the soldiers he tries to heal, all for the stated purpose of sending them back to the front where, in all likelihood, they might be maimed or killed. Enough to make any man question his purpose. Rivers isn't just any man -- he's quite brilliant and self-possessed. So I struggled somewhat to swallow the idea that initially his sense of duty overrode the sheer lunacy of his work's overarching goal. Of course, he does experience some transformation neat the end.

Barker writes fantastic dialogue, sharp, pared down, and smart. And she deals with weighty issues. Two niggling things: first, I didn't feel I got enough of Rivers sense of values and how they were instilled in him such that despite his extraordinay empathy, he willingly sought to repair these men as a doctor, then dispatch them as a soldier, and reconcile those two acts; second, transitions between scenes were often not clearly demarcated, and since there were POV shifts within chapters, this created confusion.

However, a fascinating story, all the more so since Rivers was a real historical figure.

I read this before, years ago, and thought really highly of it. This time I liked it but, perhaps because of raised expectations, not as much. I felt I wanted to know 'how much was true' - never a good sign with a novel. But Barker writes well, is never boring, and makes her characters complex and mainly likeable.

A good read, if you like this sort of thing. I don't, but I expect there are those that do.