J. D. Wynne
Author of Soldier On
Works by J. D. Wynne
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Evergreen Park, Illinois, USA
- Short biography
- J.D. Wynne was born in Evergreen Park, Illinois, and grew up around the Chicago-land area. After a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2003, she moved to South Carolina where she obtained her BSc in Psychology from the University of South Carolina Upstate. She is currently a teacher in the Los Angeles area.
Soldier On is her first book and loosely draws from her own personal experiences in the Army. While most books on war and soldiers focus on the frontline, Soldier On uses fiction to highlight the lives of soldiers in the multitude of non-combat support roles, without which an Army cannot function. As such, Soldier On is meant to be a tribute to the women and men whose stories are not told.
Members
Reviews
Note: I was given a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Where this book is most successful is as a series of vignettes about life as a guard at a military prison in Afghanistan after 9/11. These sequences paint a picture of that world, from the silly to the sincere to the horrible. A scene where the main character is taking a simple morning run around the perimeter fence really stuck with me with it's imagery of the every day -- taking a run and playing with a dog -- next to risk -- just on the other side of the fence was an area studded with mines.
The plot of the book was a mixed bag. Overall, it was a fairly simple romance coming of age story. Telling such a familiar story again is not necessarily a bad thing, but the telling needs to be exceptional to make it interesting. There was also too much action that happened off screen. A chapter would end with something big happening and instead of describing it directly, the next chapter would start with McKinney's journal entry about the event. Near the end of the book, more of the plot forwarding events were described directly and those final chapters were better.
The story also had too many characters who were not differentiated enough. Most of the characters were described upfront, but their personalities often did not feel distinct in later interactions with them. For example, of the other women that McKinney shared her tent with, the only one that felt like she had a personality was Russo (with her immaculately decorated space). For the others, I found myself thinking, "Wait, was she the good friend or the weirdo?"
The book that came to mind as a comparison while I was reading this was, oddly enough, Anne of Green Gables. L.M. Montgomery is a master of painting a personality in a few strokes, making vignettes feel like a coherent story, and making a predictable love story interesting. This book had the potential to be that sort of story, but it did not realize it.… (more)
Where this book is most successful is as a series of vignettes about life as a guard at a military prison in Afghanistan after 9/11. These sequences paint a picture of that world, from the silly to the sincere to the horrible. A scene where the main character is taking a simple morning run around the perimeter fence really stuck with me with it's imagery of the every day -- taking a run and playing with a dog -- next to risk -- just on the other side of the fence was an area studded with mines.
The plot of the book was a mixed bag. Overall, it was a fairly simple romance coming of age story. Telling such a familiar story again is not necessarily a bad thing, but the telling needs to be exceptional to make it interesting. There was also too much action that happened off screen. A chapter would end with something big happening and instead of describing it directly, the next chapter would start with McKinney's journal entry about the event. Near the end of the book, more of the plot forwarding events were described directly and those final chapters were better.
The story also had too many characters who were not differentiated enough. Most of the characters were described upfront, but their personalities often did not feel distinct in later interactions with them. For example, of the other women that McKinney shared her tent with, the only one that felt like she had a personality was Russo (with her immaculately decorated space). For the others, I found myself thinking, "Wait, was she the good friend or the weirdo?"
The book that came to mind as a comparison while I was reading this was, oddly enough, Anne of Green Gables. L.M. Montgomery is a master of painting a personality in a few strokes, making vignettes feel like a coherent story, and making a predictable love story interesting. This book had the potential to be that sort of story, but it did not realize it.… (more)
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
Soldier On kept my attention from start to finish. The main character Molly joins the reserves and is sent to Afghanistan as an MP to guard prisoners in deplorable conditions. She manages to cultivate her family away from home as the women learn to protect and help one another.
She is only 20 years old and makes the mistake of falling for the wrong guy at first. It's the story of someone finding their once in a lifetime true love Unfortunately as reality takes over when they get back home, an unfortunate circumstance has Molly pulling back from her relationship.
After time has passed and they meet again, they both realize they still needed each other.
I would recommend this book. It is interesting and gives some pretty vivid description about a soldier's life on deployment.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.… (more)
She is only 20 years old and makes the mistake of falling for the wrong guy at first. It's the story of someone finding their once in a lifetime true love Unfortunately as reality takes over when they get back home, an unfortunate circumstance has Molly pulling back from her relationship.
After time has passed and they meet again, they both realize they still needed each other.
I would recommend this book. It is interesting and gives some pretty vivid description about a soldier's life on deployment.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.… (more)
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
It’s going to be tough to write this review. I served in Bagram and Sharana as an MP, doing almost the same work as Molly did. This book is so well done that I’m considering giving it to my mom to read. We don’t talk about my service very much, and I think letting her read this might be good for her. The monotony and the relationships that seem to foster around deployments is very well portrayed. Even the language is right. The smells. The heat. We had nametapes made up with our block names. I have a tattoo in Pashto ... and well that’s a tangent. The situation at the end comes as a surprise and hits you like a ton of bricks. I could have done without the afterword, but that’s me not entirely needing closure, since my deployment didn’t exactly give me closure yet. If you ever did our jobs, this book will trigger you. If you ever want to know what it’s like to our jobs, this book will share some secrets. All the good and all the bad secrets of what we did, saw, and had to face. I went to Afghanistan as a 26 year old and I didn’t feel old enough to handle it. I never once thought about how young or old my other cellies were, and how that could have effected them. This book is a treasure and I’m thrilled to have reviewed it. Thank you for writing our story.… (more)
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kristincedar | 10 other reviews | Mar 21, 2018 |
kristincedar | 10 other reviews | Mar 21, 2018 | Awards
Statistics
- Works
- 3
- Members
- 24
- Popularity
- #522,742
- Rating
- 4.3
- Reviews
- 13
- ISBNs
- 2
This story focuses on a group of young women at base camp in Afghanistan who bond and find themselves falling in and out of love and sleeping with the men they work with, and sometimes developing strong feelings for. The main character, Molly, eventually does find true love, but it is ripped apart by one young man who she thought she loved, but found out he was a married man, among many other things, before finding her other true love through Sgt. Adam Beck.
Unfortunately, I wasn't drawn into the characters and their "hard times" they were supposedly living over in Afghanistan, but the storyline, overall, was actually pretty good.… (more)