Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

26 reviews

thewolvesread's review against another edition

informative mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm never drawn to historical fiction, but read this one for an irl book club. I ended up liking it. It was continuously intriguing and kept having to google some of the historical facts in it because wanted to learn mnore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Abortion

Minor: Cancer

mdwsn27's review against another edition

informative mysterious slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Fatphobia, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

weiwuxivns's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I really did enjoy how informative about ancient Chinese medicine and society this was, and inspiring in the placement of value and focus on women and their relationships with each other. The characters were written with realistic values yet overcame the societal constraints to form empathetic and loving relationships with each other in their own ways. I love it showed female companionship in literature doesn’t rely on simply girlbossing the women, instead describing female strength within the bounds of cultural norms.

I did fly through this book but I couldn’t find myself as emotionally invested as I thought I’d be. While there is significant character development of Yunxian, I did feel like her as a narrator and her interactions with most of the characters were held at a distance from me as a reader. I think more could’ve been done in the earlier parts of the book establishing her progressing relationship with Meiling, although most of the latter half makes up for it. There was a lot of time jumping and some of it was definitely necessary but I did feel at times I was missing parts of the character development and the life of the world around Yunxian.

That all being said this was definitely a good and reflective read, and I wanna believe although this was about platonic friendship, Yunxian and Meiling’s relationship definitely felt more than that :) would root for them to be lovers in a better era…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Miscarriage, and Blood

Moderate: Infertility and Misogyny

Minor: Child death and Chronic illness

carminhomarrana's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

liblibby's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is so unlike what I generally read. I tend to stay away from books that take place in fantasy worlds or ancient history or cultures just because it's hard for my brain to take in a story and character development while also understanding this world that's being created--essentially from scratch, to me. That's why I generally stick to stories that are rooted in something similar to my world. This book took place in 1400's China and I'm really surprised that I picked up on it so quickly. 

It took me a long, long time to read this book just because I found myself Googling everything. I rarely had a reading session that didn't end in falling down a Google rabbit hole. I learned so much and really enjoyed giving this story my full attention. 

This story follows Tan Yunxian from her birth until her mid-life. She was a real person who was born into an elite family and eventually raised by her grandparents--doctors, who trained her in the ways of medicine. Even though women doctors were practically nonexistant at that time. 
This book follows her--her deep, longstanding friendship with the local midwife, and all the other women who come alongside her in her life.

I have one main complaint about the book and one 1/2 complaint which contains a spoiler--I'll start with the first. The book is called Lady Tan's Circle of Women but she doesn't even gather her circle of women until the last 40 pages of the book. I wish this book had been named something like "Lady Tan: Women Doctor" or something like that. Because I was looking for female camaraderie and I feel like that really didn't even happen in a satisfying way until the end. And Tan Yunxian lived to be in her 90's--so it's not like she didn't have any more life to draw from. 

My last complaint is, honestly, rooted in my 21st century sensibilities:

So much of this book was dedicated to pointing out the inhumanity that women were experiencing at this time in this part of the world. From footbinding to the class system they must live by to the way they're raised to not even look up at the world around them, to the ways so many women were sold into sex work whether they wanted it or not. So much of the book is focused on that, that you expect that when Yunxian is finally at a station where she can make a change to any of it, she would. But she doesn't. She breaks her daughters' feet. She buys concubines for her husband. She even helps a man be sentenced to torture and decapitation because of something that her mother-in-law forced him to do... She's kind to the women around her. She eventually writes a book to help women care for the health of the people in her household--which is no small thing. But I was so disappointed in her character. That being said, I realize that she's a real person who really lived in a world so completely differently from mine. I can not judge her at all. But if there was no interest in addressing these issues, I sort of wish the author had handled the topics differently. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kappafrog's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I love the idea behind this book of fleshing out what Tan Yuxian's life might have been like. This was rich with historical details. I really appreciated how See struck a balance between making the female characters in a deeply patriarchal world sympathetic while not being afraid to show the ways they perpetuated many of their culture's harmful practices against women. While this did make the protagonist less likeable the older she got, I still found it a compelling story. We as modern readers (rightly) find footbinding disgusting, but it was reality for centuries of women in China, and See did a good job exploring the realities of how women had to cope with that system.

At the core of this book is the way communities of women in Ming China could band together to support each other, and that made for a very good read. I'd also note that the relationship between Meiling and Yanxian came across as pretty sapphic, with Yanxian frequently struck by Meiling's beauty. I thought it was realistic that they didn't pursue a relationship, but I felt like the romantic aspect between them was an important part of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Abortion, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Alcohol, and War

nellebelle's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Infertility, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Gore, Miscarriage, and Grief

Minor: Abortion and Alcohol

krystyne88's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Vomit, and Death of parent

lisettemarie's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Classism

chillriver28's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book where to start it was amazing it truly felt like every time i picked this up i was right back in it. The ending wasn’t particularly sad yet I found myself wanting to cry. I have already recommended this book to everyone I know. Probably one of my new favorites it was so interesting and now I want to read all the text used for research in this book. While some parts had me wincing from fear and pain and other had me smiling and laughing every part was enjoyable. I truly loved this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Classism

Not much explicitly but there are a few scenes as this is a book about a female doctor where we see some brutality. She also struggles with some pregnancy problems. Their is a detailed miscarriage about another character.