Reviews

Loved this book. Picked it up because someone said it “traumatized” them. It did not traumatize me—if anything I found it quite tame compared to what I expected/what I’ve read before. 4/5 because while the “mystery” part of it was incredibly obvious since the beginning, the path to the answer was very enjoyable.

bhookjunkhie's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Pretty sure I’ll never get that image out of my head!

gveltaine's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

Content Warnings

saschabookishowl's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

3.5 stars

I thought the parts taking place in 1937 were really strong, however, I didn't really care for the chapters taking place in present day/the 90's. The plot of this story is very well crafted, everything comes together. Only in the very beginning was I interested in the main character from the '90's story line, and I was interested in the final chapters of the '90's story line because everything came together there.

aliseaymcmahon's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

hanyaya's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.75

Starts slow but gets extremely violent. Kept catching myself saying "oh there's no way it's going to go there..." before it absolutely did. Not even just in 1937 Nanjing, which was, unfortunately, expected. Just because it was obvious what the medicine was doesn't mean it wasn't a horrible march towards the reveal.

I found Grey and Jason just so uninteresting that I didn't want to spend time with them, and the idea that she'd become the most popular hostess by talking about her studies of Nanjing and asking the men if their families had committed war crimes there was strange, but whatever. Grey felt a little like she wasn't a character so much as whatever she needed to be in the moment -- rash and emotional at one moment, calm and rational the next. Patient enough to wait years, impatient enough to be incapable of a conversation that gives us information. Smart enough to study this for so long and figure out the puzzle, that the twist of her ignorance no longer felt genuine but rather just convincing herself, and maybe that's the point.

Content Warnings

mickelanddime's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

3.0

More...