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A review by starrysea98
The Picture Bride by Lee Geum-yi
2.0
it was fine until part 3.
i had never heard of picture brides before and found the entire premise of this novel interesting. however, the execution did not live up to the summary but was enough to keep me hooked. i was really rooting for willow! but then came problem #1.
willow is so … a product of her times. okay i get it, she doesn’t know any better right but the way she blames herself for things outside of her control or the way she’s so naive is so frustrating. i understand she’s like this bc of her upbringing and the time period this was set in, but damn, it’s thoroughly infuriating.
next, i was hoping we would see more of the relationship progression between willow and taewan, especially after her explosion at him. no. we get a few bare minimum lines: “we started to get closer and evenings became more affectionate.” i’m paraphrasing but yeah, those were basically what we got. they went from 0 to 100 and we didn’t get to experience it with willow.
finally, the icing on the cake: pearl’s POV shoved in at the end. what the actual fuck? we’ve been with willow for so many chapters of her life and then suddenly, we are thrust into pearl’s perspective, who is the most annoying brat i’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. i don’t care about her and her boyfriend trouble, i don’t care about her wanting to be american. (side note but how the fuck did pearl and willow communicate when she was growing up if willow can’t speak english and pearl speaks broken korean? lmao) i want to know willow’s story, not hers! i hated this part so much but i couldn’t skip it bc it was the ending.
the good parts: like i said, i didn’t know anything about picture brides before and i really enjoyed learning about them. willow and old mr. so’s relationship was also lovely and i’m glad she had him to support her. also hongjoo and songhwa’s friendship with her are so precious!
i had never heard of picture brides before and found the entire premise of this novel interesting. however, the execution did not live up to the summary but was enough to keep me hooked. i was really rooting for willow! but then came problem #1.
willow is so … a product of her times. okay i get it, she doesn’t know any better right but the way she blames herself for things outside of her control or the way she’s so naive is so frustrating. i understand she’s like this bc of her upbringing and the time period this was set in, but damn, it’s thoroughly infuriating.
next, i was hoping we would see more of the relationship progression between willow and taewan, especially after her explosion at him. no. we get a few bare minimum lines: “we started to get closer and evenings became more affectionate.” i’m paraphrasing but yeah, those were basically what we got. they went from 0 to 100 and we didn’t get to experience it with willow.
finally, the icing on the cake: pearl’s POV shoved in at the end. what the actual fuck? we’ve been with willow for so many chapters of her life and then suddenly, we are thrust into pearl’s perspective, who is the most annoying brat i’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. i don’t care about her and her boyfriend trouble, i don’t care about her wanting to be american. (side note but how the fuck did pearl and willow communicate when she was growing up if willow can’t speak english and pearl speaks broken korean? lmao) i want to know willow’s story, not hers! i hated this part so much but i couldn’t skip it bc it was the ending.
the good parts: like i said, i didn’t know anything about picture brides before and i really enjoyed learning about them. willow and old mr. so’s relationship was also lovely and i’m glad she had him to support her. also hongjoo and songhwa’s friendship with her are so precious!