Reviews - Lady Tan's Circle of Women

6.29k reviews for:

Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Lisa See

4.26 AVERAGE

hpel's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional informative 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: Yes

mtty's review against another edition

3.5

emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

wiiicked_witch's review against another edition

5.0

inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

hellbent56's review against another edition

3.5

sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

uhlillie's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative sad 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: Yes

afowxc's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed the book and learned a lot about 15th century Confucian ideology and culture. Because it is based on a real person who was set in a specific cultural setting, there was some social critique with Lady Tan becoming a doctor as she wanted and some blurring of hierarchical lines... but certainly not enough for a 21st century reader to be fully comfortable. I think it is admirable to be able to stay true to the time period as a current author, but that didn't make me less likely to cringe at the open endorsement of horrific (from my perspective) foot binding and open, institutionalized misogyny. I certainly wanted to shake some of the characters by the shoulders at points, but our society is far from perfect as well and I still enjoyed the story and the setting for what truly was radical behavior at the time.