The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

4.12 AVERAGE

kamja's profile picture

kamja's review against another edition

5.0
challenging emotional reflective 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: Complicated
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diba_a's review against another edition

3.5
adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective relaxing sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
cachk's profile picture

cachk's review against another edition

5.0
emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
melindamm's profile picture

melindamm's review against another edition

4.0
dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

davechua's review against another edition

3.0
Tan Twan Eng can write well, but felt there were too many sidetracks away from the central plot. Japanese gardens, archery, Tao Te Ching, tattoos, Chinese legend, Akutagawa's story "The Spider's Thread" and lots of other historical nuggets are packaged together with the themes of memory and loss, and the novel never gathers momentum. The characters are flat, and the central character, a retired judge, is surprisingly passive. Most of the other characters are similarly uninteresting, including the Japanese gardener that becomes a mentor to the narrator. It's undoubtedly well crafted, but never achieves the poignancy it reaches for.

sprior's review

5.0
emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

m_w's review against another edition

3.5
challenging dark mysterious

harriet_b's review against another edition

5.0
challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

nypeapod's review against another edition

5.0
This is a slow burn of a book. I keep having to return it to the library so I have not made much progress. I enjoy it whenever I find the time to listen - summer 2024 project I believe to finish.

This book is a commitment and will not be for everyone. I enjoy the audio version - the narrator has a very soothing voice and the writing is so lyrical that it is easy to lose yourself in the story as you listen.

More and more of the characters back story is slowly being revealed. All is not as it seems with her long time friends. The back story of almost every character in this book is heart breaking.

sara_k13's review against another edition

4.5
emotional reflective relaxing sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes