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A review by thebookienook
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
emotional
informative
5.0
“Fall down eight times, stand up nine. For me, this saying is less about the dead paving the way for future generations than it is for the women of Jeju. We suffer and suffer and suffer, but we also keep getting up. We keep living. You would not be here if you weren't brave. Now you need to be braver still.”
I went into The Island of Sea Women pretty blind. I knew that it was about women who worked in a diving collective and that is it. I learned more about Korean culture and the Haenyo, the women diving collective, through the lens of this story. Lisa See does a beautiful job interweaving pieces of the past with the present day. Many times when there are shifts like this in fiction, especially when reading audiobooks it can be confusing to follow. It felt seamless to me. The audiobook was really well done, but I did find myself having to stop once or twice because of the heavy subject matter.
This is not a light-hearted, uplifting story. It’s one of survival and perseverance, the will to overcome any obstacle despite how atrocious it may be.
I went into The Island of Sea Women pretty blind. I knew that it was about women who worked in a diving collective and that is it. I learned more about Korean culture and the Haenyo, the women diving collective, through the lens of this story. Lisa See does a beautiful job interweaving pieces of the past with the present day. Many times when there are shifts like this in fiction, especially when reading audiobooks it can be confusing to follow. It felt seamless to me. The audiobook was really well done, but I did find myself having to stop once or twice because of the heavy subject matter.
This is not a light-hearted, uplifting story. It’s one of survival and perseverance, the will to overcome any obstacle despite how atrocious it may be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Child death, Death of parent, and Torture
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence