Reviews - Lady Tan's Circle of Women

6.27k reviews for:

Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Lisa See

4.26 AVERAGE

mkakoske's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hannahmh13's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Incredibly rich in language, characters, history, culture. Each of the women in this story are uniquely brilliant and their relationships feel tender and complex, often underpinned by differences in class and role. Clearly well-researched; Lisa See’s website has fascinating explanations and pictures of marriage beds, foot binding, concubines, childbirth etc. that I kept coming back to while reading. The details can be almost excessive at times but worth working through.

hadleynicole's review against another edition

3.75

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

lisabeesa's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

It was a very interesting look into traditional Chinese medicine and culture. It followed the life of a high class woman who was a doctor hundreds of years ago in China. I really liked the glimpse into her life and it felt historically accurate.

bookwormexpresskwan's review against another edition

4.0

Mixed feelings about this one. I appreciate the “unlocked” (to the West) details of Chinese culture and medicine and the amount of research that was put into this fictional story using the little information left from a remarkable woman in history.

I found it really interesting to learn about Tan Yunxian, a woman doctor in 15th-century China. As she comes from an important family, she is married into another wealthy family and lives a life secluded from the outside world with all the wives, second wives, concubines, and offspring of her husband’s family. Important to this story is her lifelong friendship with Meiling, a woman from a completely different background, and who becomes an excellent midwife.

I kind of think it’s accurate for Yunxian to not be aware of her privileges, which led to her being insensitive to Meiling and her circumstances. I also think it’s okay for Yunxian to be a tad self centered, as I can imagine that’s a possible outcome for someone who had been catered for all her life. But Yunxian didn’t come to life as a person to me, it remained unclear to me what her drives were and whether the path her grandparents set out for her was the one she would have chosen herself if that was a possibility.

As Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a work of fiction, it’s okay for the author to use their imagination to tell the story they want. However, I sometimes found it unappealing how things were explained. I’m aware that the author needed to provide context and introduce concepts for the audience that is probably unfamiliar with 15th century China, but I thought some things were better left un-said, as they showed a (modern) interpretation while presented as a Chinese custom/culture.

3.5 stars