altlovesbooks
I've never had the thought while reading a book that it was too well-researched, but I think that's why I didn't enjoy this one as much as other people did. It's clear the author did a ton of research for this book, but the amount of stuff shoehorned in made the flow feel clunky.
Yunxian (Lady Tan) studied illnesses, midwifery, and general female illnesses under her grandparents while growing up. There, she also met her lifelong friend Meiling, who was studying to be a midwife. They grow up together, learn together, and become inseparable, until Yunxian is sent away to a new household for her arranged marriage. Her new mother-in-law isn't exactly cruel, but she does forbid Yunxian from continuing to practice medicine on the women of the household, as well as from seeing Meiling. Yunxian struggles to find her place in this household, and has to figure out how to balance the wishes of her new family with her desire to practice medicine.
The author, through Yunxian, goes into minute detail about the various medical cases Yunxian experiences, making the overall story stall while the author explains some other obscure Chinese medical treatment. I also didn't really care for how unnatural the phrasing feels for some words, like 'child palace' for womb. It feels like maybe the Chinese was translated literally for some things and not others? It just felt off, to me.
The plot itself is a bit lacking as well. Most of the writing is spent on describing Chinese medicine, and the actual plot suffers periodically because of it. When the plot actually advances, it feels rushed, like the author wants to get right back into describing Chinese medicine but recognizes that a story has to exist somewhere. Many of the side characters within Lady Tan's circle felt weirdly flat as well, with the most egregious cases being her daughters. She talks a lot about how much she loves her daughters, but they barely exist in the pages.
So while the writing is actually pretty great (as Lisa See's books tend to be), I thought this one was kind of a miss for me.
I've never had the thought while reading a book that it was too well-researched, but I think that's why I didn't enjoy this one as much as other people did. It's clear the author did a ton of research for this book, but the amount of stuff shoehorned in made the flow feel clunky.
Yunxian (Lady Tan) studied illnesses, midwifery, and general female illnesses under her grandparents while growing up. There, she also met her lifelong friend Meiling, who was studying to be a midwife. They grow up together, learn together, and become inseparable, until Yunxian is sent away to a new household for her arranged marriage. Her new mother-in-law isn't exactly cruel, but she does forbid Yunxian from continuing to practice medicine on the women of the household, as well as from seeing Meiling. Yunxian struggles to find her place in this household, and has to figure out how to balance the wishes of her new family with her desire to practice medicine.
The author, through Yunxian, goes into minute detail about the various medical cases Yunxian experiences, making the overall story stall while the author explains some other obscure Chinese medical treatment. I also didn't really care for how unnatural the phrasing feels for some words, like 'child palace' for womb. It feels like maybe the Chinese was translated literally for some things and not others? It just felt off, to me.
The plot itself is a bit lacking as well. Most of the writing is spent on describing Chinese medicine, and the actual plot suffers periodically because of it. When the plot actually advances, it feels rushed, like the author wants to get right back into describing Chinese medicine but recognizes that a story has to exist somewhere. Many of the side characters within Lady Tan's circle felt weirdly flat as well, with the most egregious cases being her daughters. She talks a lot about how much she loves her daughters, but they barely exist in the pages.
So while the writing is actually pretty great (as Lisa See's books tend to be), I thought this one was kind of a miss for me.