The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
⭐ 4.5/5 Book Review: The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue 🌟
👉 Grab The Pull of the Stars on Amazon (affiliate link) 📚✨
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
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Graphic childbirth scenes 🤰
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Stillbirths & infant death 💔
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Death from influenza ☠️
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Sexual abuse (mentioned in backstory) 🚫
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Grief & loss 💭
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War trauma ⚔️
✨ My Thoughts
Wow. Just…wow. The Pull of the Stars is not for the squeamish. If you’re faint of heart when it comes to medical realism, brace yourself. Emma Donoghue does not hold back on the childbirths, the flu patients, or the bodily details (I found myself wincing more than once).
But here’s the thing: it’s also incredibly moving. This book reminds you that humans can stare down the absolute worst—pandemics, war, loss—and still find ways to connect, to love, and to keep going.
I’m giving it ⭐ 4.5 out of 5. Why not a perfect score? Honestly, it took me a little while to settle in. But once I did? I was hooked. This book grabbed me and didn’t let go.
Also, fun fact: Donoghue actually wrote this before COVID hit—it was scheduled to release in 2020 just as the pandemic started. Talk about eerie timing.
📖 Spoiler-Filled Plot Summary
⚠️ Major spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk.
The story is told from the POV of Julia Power, a 29-year-old nurse working in a Dublin hospital in 1918, right in the middle of the Spanish influenza pandemic and the tail end of World War I. Julia lives with her brother Tim, a war vet, while her parents live out on a farm.
The novel spans just three days (October 31 – November 2, 1918), but so much happens.
👩⚕️ Julia is put in charge of a makeshift Maternity/Fever ward: three cots for pregnant women who also have the flu. Right away, one patient has already died, and Julia is left scrambling. She gets a helper—Bridie Sweeney, an untrained volunteer from a convent home. Julia is initially frustrated, but quickly realizes Bridie has grit, heart, and a willingness to learn.
👩⚕️ Dr. Kathleen Lynn (a real historical figure, and also a rebel involved in Ireland’s independence movement) shows up. She proves to be an ally and a strong, compassionate doctor.
🚼 Julia delivers a stillborn baby for one patient and fights to save the mother’s life. Another patient, Ita Noonan, dies with her unborn child. New mothers cycle in and out of the ward, each case filled with tragedy, risk, or both.
🌙 One night, Julia and Bridie end up sleeping on the hospital roof (the nurses’ dorms have been repurposed). There, under the stars, Bridie shares her painful past—life in an orphanage, hunger, and abuse. The two women kiss, and Julia realizes she’s fallen in love. It’s tender, heartbreaking, and beautifully written.
💔 But tragedy strikes again. Bridie shows flu symptoms the next day. Despite Julia’s desperate attempts to save her, Bridie dies. Julia is gutted.
👶 Julia refuses to let another child end up in the same kind of brutal institution Bridie grew up in. So, when a baby boy (whose mother died) is left unnamed, Julia baptizes him as Barnabas White and decides to raise him herself. The novel ends with Julia walking away from the hospital—broken, but with new hope in the form of the baby she’s determined to protect.
🏥 Why You Should Read This Book
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If you liked The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah) or Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell), this sits in that same lane: historical fiction with raw emotion and unforgettable characters.
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It’s a short timeline, high intensity kind of book—you feel like you’re living minute by minute in the ward with Julia.
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Donoghue balances the clinical (the births, the flu) with the deeply human (grief, love, resilience).
📚 Final Rating
⭐ 4.5 out of 5 stars.
It’s disturbing. It’s heartbreaking. But it’s also profoundly hopeful.
Not exactly a cozy read with tea and cookies…but definitely worth it.
📖 Similar Reads You Might Like
If you loved The Pull of the Stars, check out:
👉 Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
👉 The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
👉 Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
👉 A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
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