Reviews with content warning for Trafficking - Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig

18 reviews

culpeppper's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

The plot of this story is pretty straightforward and simple on the surface: a pirate captain dies, the world is changing due to aggressive colonial actions, and a tired woman is just trying to survive all the shit that happens between it all. There's a lot going on in the in between. Shek Yeung is a complex character, someone who spent most of her younger life isolated, brutalized, and/or controlled by abusers but soon has a chance at a kind of freedom when her first husband dies in the beginning of the book.

Her agency, or lack therof, sticks out to me amongst all the other topics Chang-Eppig covers in the story. Shek Yeung's whole life is controlled by others, their specters hanging over her and shadowing almost every choice she makes. Her husbands, living and dead, give reasoning for her choices she makes. Notably when she makes choices that harm others, she may recall with a pride and maybe a little guilt that she choices she made would have been the same choices her dead husband would have made. It cheapens her actions; just once, I wanted her to say she wasn't making a choice regarding the fleet without checking it against what He would have done.

Her relationship with Yan-Yan feels particularly imbalanced throughout the narrative in a way that isn't really explored.

This is solidified at the end when Shek Yeung leaves a now implied to be disabled Yan-Yan to live a life she has expressed she didn't want previous to her doing this. Though she maybe feels conflicted about it, there's no real interrogation of what Shek Yeung (and Dawa but she's hardly a character) is actually doing by choosing this life of motherhood over employment for Yan-Yan, who has little to say after getting injured for the sake of Shek Yeung's child until she is forced into her new life. Kinda weird.

There are a lot of things that I'm just taking as fictionalized elements of historical reality (as I have very little knowledge on this particular part of time and space) but the lack of meaningful interrogation on what it means for Shek Yeung to have this power, and the continued lack of agency, means a lot of the other elements fall a little short of what I think Chang-Eppig was going for.

On the surface, if you don't look too deep, it's a fine book. Pacing can be weird, there's time jumps back and forth, there's some interesting mythical interludes that add a little depth to the world, side characters are all kinda one dimensional, the lines of leading questions made me roll my eyes, and I don't think it dug as deep as it thought it did— but overall, I eventually got invested and liked the attempts at serious conversations, even if I would have liked it do have gone a little deeper.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Toxic relationship, War, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Torture, Grief, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Gaslighting

Minor: Islamophobia, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, and Cannibalism

Takes place just prior to the start of the Opium Wars, at the end of the height of piracy. All the topics are what are to be expected, more or less, from reading the inside flap and having a general understanding of how brutal we can be as a species. There are multiple battle scenes, which include blood, injuries, and death. Multiple accounts of sexual violence, including rape, not overly graphic but frequent. Colonization hangs heavy on the narrative. Sexual slavery:

The main character is captured by pirates as a teenager, raped, and eventually sold to a Madam who runs some "flower boats" (floating brothel.) During this time, the character is a teenager, aging to young adult. The physical, verbal, sexual, and emotional abuse is mostly alluded to rather than described explicitly, in most cases. She is eventually "freed" from this slavery by marrying her first husband, the older pirate captain, who is taken in by her brains and beauty. While consensual and happening when Shek Yeung is a young adult, there is still a sense of ownership and power imbalance. The main male lead was taken as an adolescent and implied to have had relationships with much older pirate captains.

Familial Death, and Illness:

Father and brother dead or presumed dead because pirates, mother died from some illness *I think* when main character was young. Main character's best friend is sick during the beginning of the story and dies from some illness off-page.

Imprisonment:

Captives are taken multiple times through the book. The main characters are all captives in one way or another, forced mostly by circumstance and hard choices, and there are multiple times where that slavery/imprisonment is described or recounted. There are multiple captives taken, and sometimes tortured, in the story with a main or side character's order or action. Torture not graphic but frequently mentioned, or used subtly.

Pregnacy warnings: Main character spends multiple scenes and a period of time pregnant in the story.

There are two different traumatic birth scenes. One is at the end of her high risk pregnancy.

jinmichae's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It's really well written, and an interesting story of the main character warring with her identity and what she's become. But it just wasn't for me. I'm too much of a romantic who wants happy endings after succeeding against the odds, and this is a tale of how cruel reality can be. There isn't always a happy ending, and sometimes the sum of all your scheming is just emptiness and a polite defeat.

My main problem I should have seen coming: it's hard to feel sympathy for or connected with a main character who's a fairly ruthless pirate, even if she internally struggles with her actions, or isn't as terrible as others she nonetheless allies with. She wants to fight against the emperor's stranglehold on the country, but what does that mean to the individual peasants? They either die of the emperor's famine, or the ones caused by her raids.

I guess that's part of the book's message about the cruelty of society and fate, so go into the book expecting such. It was my own hope for something more like Robin Hood that disappointed me, not the actual story.

Content Warnings

ra22ouille's review

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adventurous challenging emotional tense 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

5.0

As much as these characters weren't "likeable," I did love them—Shek Yeung particularly so. I was greatly moved by the depth and complexity of this book's emotional journey, and I was utterly absorbed and invested in Shek Yeung's trajectory.

The story covers around 2 years in it's actual timeline, and it also recounts time from Shek Yeung's pre-pirating years. Rita-Chang Eppig does a great job with this narrative that jumps into Shek Yeung's past throughout the book, succeeding in weaving everything together into a compelling plot line.

Shek Yeung and Chung Po's relationship had me feeling so many ways. I didn't know what I wanted for them and it seemed like Shek Yeung didn't totally know either. And who knows what Chung Po thought. They were both so smart and so opaque and closed off. Getting to know them both was like being shown a secret. I think their character development was suuuuper. And at times very surprising. I loved hearing Shek Yeung's internal voice that showed her own conflicting feelings about her development as a person. And even though I was inside her head she remained so hidden in lots of ways, which so reflected how she hid parts of herself even from her own eyes.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and I didn't love some of the character voices the reader did. But I did like Shek Yeung's voice and how the narration was read. I've also seen some reviews saying that the language was wordy, monologues overdone, etc., and I wonder if listening to it be read helped to immerse me in the writing style. I didn't anticipate that people would have those complaints so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Reas if you're interested in political adventures, explorations on the effects of power, gender politics, classism, and brutal stories of survival (especially survival as a woman).

Content Warnings

ginny_lind's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a deep reflection on what one will do to survive, for those you care about, and for yourself. In a deep exploration of the life of Shek Yeung, a Chinese pirate leader, mother, and survivor, follow lyrical and mystical language along a brutal journey. Relatively slow as a read, but interesting and beautifully written with a complex main character and deep immersion into the time period and our character’s reality.

Content Warnings

lanathebooknerd's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.25

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anniestar's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Listen, I wanted to like this, but I found it incredibly boring. Shek Yeung feels reduce from her historical power, more of a victim than someone who rises above the circumstances she was forced into. The ending was also very abrupt and dissatisfying.

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vonya45's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

"Grief had the quality of a cast fishing line sometimes. In hand at the start, reaching the zenith only once it was in the distance and not subsiding until even farther out, until it had traversed so much space as to have lost its force. Sometimes it never truly subsided."
I'm glad I got this as an audiobook instead of reading it. I might have gotten bogged down in trying to keep track of the quick action scenes or understanding the military maneuvers and pirate politics. Instead I was able to catch glimpses of bloody battles and complicated strategems, and see past them into what the story was really about.
The view into the mind of a pirate queen is a striking one. How does a intelligent but regular girl become a master tactician and a cold blooded killer? The author did a marvelous job at answering this question without making the main character into a caricature of a murderous pirate, or on the other end of the spectrum, a one-dimensional "strong female character" with no flaws who is somehow always morally upstanding despite being a dangerous warlord. Shek Yeung enjoys killing those she believes deserves it, in the midst of battle or otherwise. When she slits the throat of suspected spies, she never gets confirmation on those suspicions, and neither does the audience. She makes choices based on what is best for her and what keeps or gains her power. She even becomes a wife and mother in order to keep that power. Yet she still has relateable feelings about her motherhood, wanting what's best for her children and feeling inadequate to care for them. She shows tenderness and care towards her husband despite their marriage being a strategic decision. She is a strong and powerful figure, but still shows empathy and compassion toward strangers. She is looking out for her best interests but she cares about her friends. She uses the patriarchal system to her advantage but her reflections on womanhood are incredibly impactful feminist perspectives.
The book does not give easy answers on any of its themes, but its deep dive into the main character's psyche is to be admired. I gave it a 3.5 because it is not really my kind of book, I am not a fan of having this much darkness or callousness in a story, and I don't like pregnancy/motherhood themes. Yet the book was well written and an enjoyable listen.

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nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.0

my book club and I agreed this is marketed incorrectly - it's not an action-packed pirate adventure! it's a detailed and well-researched historical fiction account of a real Chinese female pirate and so has a lot more to do with strategy, politics, gender, and the generational effect of violence.

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spacerkip's review

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challenging reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

This was a very character-focused novel, with flashbacks and tales of Chinese mythology interspersed throughout the main plot. As a result, the story is slow-building, and it takes a while for the conflict with the emperor's pirate hunter, Pak Ling, to manifest. Even still, the bulk of the novel deals with the politics of commanding a fleet and navigating alliances with other pirate leaders, rather than daring adventures or fearless yarns.

The story's introspection serves well to explore the many themes it introduces. Ambition vs love (romantic, platonic, or maternal). Pragmatism vs cruelty. What it means to take power and control for yourself when the only way is to steal it from those around you.

I'm not entirely sure why it didn't click with me, but there were quite a few things I liked. The setting at sea, for one. My experience with age of sail novels lies almost exclusively with stories about the British navy, so this was a refreshing change of pace, and I eagerly took in all the details about sailing in this part of the world. The historical backdrop was very interesting to me as well. Not only in the events taking place, but in the descriptions of each port Shek Yeung and the other characters visited, from the construction of buildings to the clothing worn to the different religious practices. I also enjoyed the firmly grey morality of the main character, Shek Yeung. She was not shown to be right or wrong or always justified, simply a person who lived (and learned to thrive) in very difficult situations.

If you are interested at all in Chinese piracy, I encourage you to give this a try!

Content Warnings

emzhay's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.0

Content Warnings

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