A review by weiwuxivns
Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

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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