Reviews

The Picture Bride by Lee Geum-yi

sarahchdhry's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

shrrawat's review against another edition

4.0

"The Picture Bride" is an elegant piece of historical fiction, telling the story of Korean picture brides in Hawaii, women chosen by Asian laborers to be brides based solely on pictures and letters exchanged across the ocean. I was somewhat familiar with the practice in part because it was similar to the history of Chinese laborers in California, where I am from, and also because it is so similar to the mail-order/arranged marriage business currently thriving among modern Indian communities, to which I belong.

What I appreciated about "The Picture Bride" is that it was not bound to the stereotypical story of a deceptive marriage that only provides heartbreak to the bride. Some of the protagonist's friends did indeed experience this, but most of the focus was on the culture clash between Korea and twentieth century Hawaii. The result reminded me much of "Molokai," another historical fiction favorite of mine.

literallylubna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5

valancy48's review against another edition

4.5

this book was just a pleasure to read. i fell in love with willow's character and really enjoyed following her journey to america and beyond. and seeing her relationship with her husband change was so sweet but also bittersweet with how things turned out. but again i really enjoyed reading abt this time in history and about these characters, seeing the perspective of a korean immigrant in the early 1900s. willow was very empowering and her story teaches a lesson


spoiler: i was taken aback at the sudden time skip and change at pov at the end, however, it was eloquently handled and i felt like it eventually tied in smhow, but still, i was sad to leave willow's story so suddenly. the end is very poignantly ended however

ana3333's review against another edition

4.0

Overall, a very fascinating look at a unique time in history. Lee does an excellent job of exploring the type of personality a picture bride might've had, and she also provides some interesting insight into things like the Korean independence movement. I did find the ending chapters, told from the viewpoint of the daughter, to be a little abrupt and unnecessary, but the poorly paced plot didn't keep me from enjoying this book.

jennifercrowe's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

writer09's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

barareads's review against another edition

3.0

i’d been reading this book for so long omg… the whole month i was experiencing a huge reading slump and when i began to read this thing, i was sure that it was going to prevent it from becoming so long, but it couldn’t. i’m really happy that it didn’t turn out to be a yn novel because i hate those… but also… the thing is that it’s written like a yn novel - i’m talking about the very simplistic writing style lacking any literate beauty or something.. it’s very basic… so the writing style like this plus a total absence of any cool or surprising plot twists or a romantic plot made this book incredibly boring to read. i was constantly thinking about when that amazing friendship plot that was stated as a main topic of the book would start already but apparently it’s been there all along and that just means it wasn’t anything special at all. the relationship between there main female characters is described so plainly and in such an unemotional manner - or rather in a manner that doesn’t bring out any emotion in the reader - that i was disappointed. duh. but! why 3 stars? well. i do like books that talk about long periods of the characters life, and i do like stories about women who get screwed over - because that’s what happens to women all the time - but who try to manage their lives and reach some level of independence… but more than anything else this story works as a tale about immigrants, which i guess is its real main selling point which might have been advertised but i didn’t know about it. but yeah, the immigrant struggles, the falling out with your old friends because of politics, the concept of the opposition getting divided and wasting energy on infighting instead of uniting around real problems… that last one especially but all those things hit close to home for me. again, i have to say that it’s all really simple and kinda shallow because this book is written like a yn novel lol without all the fun and silly yn novel tropes. but i like it fine exactly because i probably couldn’t have read about all those topics that this book is good at addressing were they described more seriously or like historically etc because i’m not good at reading about politics and stuff. so coincidentally it was just right for me. anyway, meh.

mirr_f's review

emotional sad tense 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

4.5

annawiktoria's review

emotional medium-paced

4.75