Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

9 reviews

heather_freshparchment's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cancer, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Vomit, War, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Excrement and Sexual content

allydee's review

emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Suicide, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Drug use

honeymoonleo's review

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Infertility, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Death, Pregnancy, and Misogyny

cait's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Vomit, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Cancer, Child abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Physical abuse, War, Death, Sexism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Child death, Chronic illness, Infertility, and Injury/Injury detail

crystaldragonst's review

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Picked up this book on a whim in a bookstore last year and finally got around to reading it. The book is well written with an easy to read style. The historical setting of 1800s China was interesting and lent a vibrant backdrop for the focus of the story which is of Lily (mc) and her relationships with others and finding her place as a woman.

Warning: there is a pretty graphic description of footbinding early on in the book. I knew about footbinding but the book describes the process in detail and I honestly felt sick reading that part. I think it’s important because that is something that happened in real life and Lily’s character is shaped by this event pretty strongly. But just be aware.

Overall, I cried at the end of the book. It was sad, reflective, beautiful. A good reminder to examine your relationships and not take everything at face value.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Miscarriage, and Death

Moderate: Child death and Suicide

mtnest's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Physical abuse, Child death, Grief, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Death, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Excrement, Suicide, Infertility, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and War

strawbibble's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Ableism, Blood, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Abandonment, Body shaming, Cancer, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, War, and Infertility

mergwenthur's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

where do i even begin with this review! i loved this book, it was so beautifully well written. 

i read the journey of lily through her childhood to her old age and viewed her relationship with snow flower and how both of them developed individually and as same-olds. 

set in mid-1800s i read as lily and snow flower dealt with things such as footbindings, tragedies, love, death, marriage and children. 

cultural and society traditions were adapted and the challenges lily and snow flower went through were eye opening. 

it was a beautiful yet tragic story which leaves you with so many emotions

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, War, Violence, Miscarriage, Medical content, Grief, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Body horror, Child death, and Classism

stwriter92's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I have been wanting to read this book for a good long while, but wanted to first finish up some other books before diving in. Reading this book reminded me why I love Lisa See's writing in general. It's so beautiful and lyrical. She has such a fantastic grasp of language and nuance when it comes to storytelling. One does not read her stories as much as step inside and live them. Like with the two previous books of hers that I have read (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane and Peony in Love), it was a story focused on connection, steeped in the raw emotions that truly make us human. 

The novel opens up with a formal introduction to our narrator, Lily, who is telling her story at the ripe age of eighty years old. Her story starts when she was five, still unaware of the life she was about to lead. A life filled with extreme joys and extreme sorrows. A life of love gained and love lost. As a young girl living in China during the 1800s, her only real choices in life are to find a good husband or to wither away (thankfully, much has changed since then). In order to ensure a good marriage, she is selected to have a laotong. A laotong, from what I understood, is almost like a platonic marriage between two girls. It binds them together forever in sisterhood and friendship and was at the time widely regarded as a distinction in society. A girl who had a laotong was seen as special. Lily's laotong was a girl named Snow Flower, who seemed to be the exact opposite of Lily. Where Lily was naive, Snow Flower was quick minded. Where Snow Flower was emotional, Lily was a voice of reason. They balanced each other out almost to perfection. As laotongs, they also communicated using nu shu, which was a secret language known only to women. They would write to each other on a fan, which would be passed back and forth between the two girls, slowly building up a history of their lives as they joined together and as they diverged and separated. Throughout the novel, we see the two girls grow side by side, navigating the tricky and treacherous waters of society that women were forced to sail. Both girls are married, but they remain close. However, Snow Flower's secret begins to grate on their bond, slowly eroding it away as a river creates a canyon. Small fractures appear in their unbreakable bond, making it more and more brittle.

Throughout the novel, we are constantly reminded of the pains and injustices women faced during this time. The passages dedicated to footbinding in particular were painful to read, but I can only imagine that it was a thousand times more painful to endure. On top of this, they are constantly told that they are worthless and burdensome as women. Women must exist in the inside realm of the home while men exist in the outer realm of society. Women must be shut away like secrets, only brought out to be displayed as beautiful objects, rather than people with emotions, desires, hopes, and dreams. 

What I did notice, however, is that Lily slowly begins to see Snow Flower in the way a man would: that is, as a possession. This possessiveness and need to own Snow Flower is, I think, what ultimately causes their friendship to shatter. Snow Flower's other friends confront Lily at the end, when they say "She loved you as a laotong should for everything that you were and everything you were not...But you had too much man-thinking in you. You loved her as a man would, valuing her only for following men's rules" (242-243). While I was reading, I found myself liking Lily less and less because of her treatment of Snow Flower. Snow Flower loved her unconditionally, but Lily slowly became more and more hard hearted like her mother, berating when she should have been comforting, speaking when she should have been listening. Lily had thought that, because following the rules of men worked for her, it would obviously work for Snow Flower, who was in a very different situation. This lack of empathy made me dislike her more and more.

It made me wonder why we hurt the ones we love. Can love, which is sold to us as a wondrous fix, be destructive? Of course it can. I think, like any force, it can be constructive and destructive. It is dependent on how it is wielded. Snow Flower loved in a way that built upward. She loved unconditionally and unashamedly. Lily, on the other hand, was constantly filled with shame and the need to control Snow Flower. She loved Snow Flower, but never really took the time and effort to truly understand her. That, in my mind, is a destructive love. To love someone without understanding them or supporting them is not a true love. It's a possessive and selfish love. It takes but does not give. Towards the end, it was almost parasitic.

Perhaps I am being too harsh on Lily. The story was, after all, told from her perspective. I saw Snow Flower as Lily saw her. Kind and adventurous. Loving and tragic. I wonder if I would still hold the opinion I do if the story was told from Snow Flower's perspective instead. 

In the end, this novel made me think about the way I connect with people in real life. It has made me want to be a better friend to those around me and to seek out genuine human connection and to strengthen those bonds that have already been formed. I think, at the end of the day, that is what everyone is truly looking for. Everyone wants to find a way to connect in a deep and meaningful way. I hope that happens to you, if you've made it this far (and even if you haven't).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child death, Death, Cancer, Sexism, Misogyny, Violence, Terminal illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, War, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Gore, Gaslighting, Drug use, Blood, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Sexual content