The Fire by Night

September 26, 2016
Messineo’s historical novel, his debut, dovetails the hardships of friends Jo McMahon and Kay Elliot, who serve as military nurses on separate ends of the Earth during World War II. After surviving a hard childhood and enduring the reign of a rapist doctor alongside Kay in their New York hospital, Jo fights off despair by committing herself to saving the six soldiers stranded with her in a makeshift hospital tent in France. With the rest of her medical team dead, Jo single-handedly navigates illness, lack of supplies, and the threat of both Axis and Allied soldiers. Meanwhile in the Pacific, Kay is captured and held as prisoner, during which time she witnesses many atrocities. Messineo’s writing style, in which scenes often play out without extensive explanation but are later elucidated, adds to the feel of wartime chaos and works well with the story’s disjointed time jumps. Glimpses into Kay’s brief happiness become a welcome necessity as tragedy piles on tragedy, though Jo’s love story feels tacked on and unconvincing. The object of Jo’s affections, a soldier, spends the majority of their time together delirious with typhus and fever. The novel’s strength lies in how well it
conveys—mostly without sentimentality—the selflessness and bravery of nurses during the darkest hours. The narrative remains engaging throughout, though the plot ultimately feels like it stops mid-sentence.

October 15, 2016
Two army nurses, friends from training, endure the personal and professional insults of World War II.Debut novelist Messineo captures the intensity of grimy conditions in field hospitals and internment camps as well as the exhausted yet relentless sense of duty propelling Kay Elliot and Jo McMahon. Near the front lines of the western front, Jo finds herself stranded with six patients and a shellshocked doctor. Her co-workers, who had promised to send a truck back for them, have been wiped out by enemy fire, the road has been destroyed, and German troops hover, ready to overtake her field hospital. The doctor is no longer sure which war he's in, one of the patients requires an immediate appendectomy, only four penicillin doses remain, and Jo's beginning to feel her heart strings pulled by the Scotsman who's likely dying of typhus. How will she bring her patients through this latest crisis? Meanwhile, in the Pacific theater, Kay has nearly hit rock bottom herself. First stationed in glamorous Pearl Harbor, Kay had fallen in love and secretly married a devoted pilot. Yet the attack on the base stripped her of everything, and she's eventually taken prisoner by the Japanese, who force her to work at a POW hospital infested with rodents and possibly conduct unethical medical experiments. Alternating between each woman's perspective, chapter by chapter, Messineo is at her best when describing the squalid environment and psychological mayhem, creating an All Quiet on the Western Front from American women's perspectives. In the theaters of wars, these nurses practice astonishing acts of mercy--including the embrace of a lover during a soldier's death throes. Although some of the romantic interludes siphon off some energy, Jo's and Kay's devastating military experiences ring true. A vibrant telling of the nurses' nightmares during a brutal war.

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June 1, 2017

Winston Churchill is often quoted as saying: "If you're going through hell, keep going." Jo, an army nurse for the Allied forces in World War II France, finds herself in hell: she is watching over a group of injured soldiers while surrounded by the enemy. Jo's friend Kay is in the Philippines, barely surviving as a prisoner of the Japanese while nursing wounded soldiers. Jo and Kay watch their patients die, while waiting for help and facing starvation, disease, and the constant fear of instant-or not so instant-death. Descriptions of the hardships of the women's current lives are interspersed with flashbacks to their time as eager young student nurses, ready to take on the world. The horrific reality of their work within the confines of a war that brings death, destruction, starvation, and terror is surpassed only by their determination to endure. This is grim reading, but teens will learn about women's vital contributions to the war effort and the many roles they played. VERDICT This story of the women of the Army Nursing Corps, who did everything in their power to keep soldiers alive while maintaining their own sanity and health, will inspire readers of dramatic historical novels to celebrate the resiliency of humanity through hope, grit, and first loves.-Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2016

It's early 1945, and American military nurse Josephine McMahon is trapped in France behind enemy lines with six patients. The tiny hospital tent becomes her world, as the shell-shocked lieutenant tries to find compassion left deep inside her to save the lives of "her men" despite having little food or medical supplies. Meanwhile, her good friend Kay Elliot is in the Philippines, first starving in the tunnels of Corregidor in 1942, and then taken prisoner by the Japanese at Santo Tomas in Manila. Flipping between Josephine and Kay's gruesomely detailed war experiences, Messineo's meticulously researched first novel explores themes of sexism, loss, desperation, trauma, and hope. The stream-of-consciousness style reflecting both characters' battle fatigue can be confusing to follow, as can the differing time lines of the war in Europe and the Pacific. The nuanced and harsh depiction of a "just war" follows the recent trend of World War II fiction including Chris Cleave's Everyone Brave Is Forgiven and Kelli Stuart's Like a River from Its Course. VERDICT Despite an underdeveloped prose style, Messineo has an eye for accurate historical detail and skillfully portrays her characters' inner emotions; this story will stay with readers long after they have finished the book. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/16.]--Christine Barth, Scott Cty. Lib. Syst., IA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016

As evidenced by the 100,000-copy first printing, there are great expectations for this debut novel about two American military nurses during World War II, with Jo tending to six badly wounded soldiers in France and best friend Kay enduring imprisonment in a Japanese POW camp.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.