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naturegirl500's review against another edition
5.0
It has been years since I read an Amy Tan novel....and this reminded me why her stories stick with you forever with the vivid descriptions of the human condition- as well as time and place.
hybrid_mobile's review against another edition
3.0
I kept getting the feeling that I had read this before, so I feel elements of the story are repetitious of other Tan books. Still a good story despite that.
jghpgh's review against another edition
2.0
The last quarter of this book? Great. The first three-quarters? I just wanted to yell, "GET ON WITH IT, ALREADY!" I have read and truly enjoyed most everything Amy Tan has written, but this one was really tough. Dark and ugly and sad....I could handle that. But slowly told dark, ugly, and sad just made it all too much. I found myself plowing through it to see how it would end, but also so that it would finally be over. Tan made me care about the characters but I was also impatient with them and with their story.
kharmar77's review against another edition
5.0
a darker more graphic novel than previous ones, but I liked it a lot.
blue_summer_song's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to love this but can only commit to mildly liking. It had an odd structure that left the ending feeling really rushed.
jhentzen's review against another edition
3.0
I almost gave up on this one... but I loved the ending
itsjustcam's review against another edition
5.0
This novel is a tiny bit pat, as Ms Tan's novels can be, but The Valley of Amazement is still a grand tale of female agency and endurance of tragic circumstances in early twentieth Shanghai and, in part, San Francisco. TW: rape, kidnapping, male Machiavellian chicanery.
he_j's review against another edition
2.0
If it was not for the fact that a book group I'm in picked this book, I'd not have finished reading it. It was WAY to pornographic for me. This part of the book is what made it way too long. I kept thinking that she would be done with this soon and move on.....not so for a long time.
Many other authors have dealt with the life of a courtesan without being so sexually explicit. I felt I was reading 50 Shades of Grey ...which I never would read. The story line through it was good, and I would have enjoyed the generations and all the mistakes made that separated them, and caused such chaos in their lives. Too bad Amy Tan!
Many other authors have dealt with the life of a courtesan without being so sexually explicit. I felt I was reading 50 Shades of Grey ...which I never would read. The story line through it was good, and I would have enjoyed the generations and all the mistakes made that separated them, and caused such chaos in their lives. Too bad Amy Tan!
donnaburtwistle's review against another edition
3.0
It has been a long time since I read Amy Tan's work and I was not disappointed here. Delving into the world of Chinese courtesans at the turn of the 20th century, her book focuses on Violet, the daughter of Lulu, a successful madam. All I can say here is that thank the sweet baby Jesus that I was not a woman born in China during this time.