Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

36 reviews

bookaddictlt's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Lily is willfully stupid and selfish. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

Moderate: Death

amanda_reads89's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

emcat591's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was not at all what I thought it was, but that wasn't a bad thing. I feel like it could have been titled "Experience the Horrors of Being a Woman in Historical China - Now in High Definition." There is very little positivity in this book. It's quite sad. Please know that going in. I know it's not my right to judge another culture, but there is so much abuse in this book. Some of it was hard to stomach, particularly the footbinding and the domestic abuse later on. It's true that the book is about women navigating through the hardships of their society, but the suffering that the characters go through is so tremendous that to put it that way feels like a euphemism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Miscarriage

steveatwaywords's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

See has her fans; she is undoubtedly quite popular for this particular brand of storytelling: sad stories of old China. And true enough, if you have not read anything of the world of "privileged" women in pre-modern East Asia, this will offer some fairly graphic insights. Equally, the author's own learning of an historical secret writing for women makes for an interesting premise for storytelling.

But I'm afraid that neither of these historical premises (foot-binding and other suffering by Chinese and Japanese women for the sake of beauty nor the language of nu shu) are nearly sufficient to sustain a good novel. I found myself frustrated at two levels:

First, the characters and their own growth itself: we might hope to see the development of their ideas, of their relationship, of their understanding of their own condition, etc. But these fundamentals to storytelling take a far backseat to outside events (many beyond their experience or understanding) which impact their fortunes. What political drama which exists within the female community itself is also resolved through time and death, not through the actions or understandings of our protagonists. In other words, our characters are long-suffering from start to finish. And yes, this might be "historically accurate," but this is not a history; it's a novel. The final conflict/complication around the secret language (the sustained conceit for the story) arises from such a simply elementary misunderstanding as to be unreasonably ignorant even from this white male reader's immediate response. Is <i>this</i> really what we have been building towards?

My second concern is a bit different, and I admit that I believe reading writers like James Clavell (Shogun) and Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha) is problematic. I kept asking myself not just why I was reading this (it came recommended), but why it was written.  It's a bit like writing about an idealistic sheriff in the mythological American Old West and saying, "I wrote a story of the United States!" Truly, are there no other stories to write of China than of this world of silks and tea? If we want to stay with historical fiction of China, are there no other eras of classes from which to draw across its thousands of years of history? Reading this felt oddly voyeuristic, so focused through this single misaligned peephole into a vast and complex culture.  

It's true that I have also been recently reading contemporary writers from China, and so perhaps the comparison isn't entirely fair. But there it is, a comparison. There are far better choices into literary China, and I don't see what this book in that light has to offer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

heather_freshparchment's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Grief, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Death of parent, War, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content and Excrement

redlerred's review against another edition

emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Suicide, Grief, and Pregnancy

allydee's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Pregnancy, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Death of parent

myworldtoread's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, and Grief

Minor: Suicide

mirgsg's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I very much liked this book because it kept you immersed in the female experience of 19th century rural China, so you learn about the culture and values of that community at that time. The main characters are flawed and so realistic, but not too flawed to make them completely unlikeable. As most books, it starts off slow and then gets better after the first ~30% of the book. Since it is a story of the main character's lifetime, it has some dark stages so it gets sad at times but that is not the overall vibe of the book, in my opinion. It made me reflect about some of my behaviors so I do think it is a reflective book, one that leaves you with something to think about after the ending. Overall an enjoyable read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

decembermagpie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Death and War