Women’s friendships in a world where they have little freedom shape a quietly moving book.
The lives of women in 15th-century China are illuminated in this engrossing novel.
Tan Yunxian was a real historical figure who published a book about her career as a physician, but little is known about her personal life. See creates a rich story about a girl born into an aristocratic family. That accident of birth should have written her fate: limited education, bound feet, arranged marriage, childbirth, and a life spent entirely behind the walls of family compounds. She doesn’t escape all of those things, but after the early death of her mother, she’s raised by her paternal grandparents, who are both doctors, and given an unusually advanced education, including in the healing arts they practice. Yunxian’s life is constrained by rules governing her class and gender, and she is literally never alone—even when she sleeps, her maid sleeps at the foot of her bed. Her family’s wealthy extended household has an elaborate structure, and she learns early to negotiate the gradations among first wives, second wives, and concubines and to recognize that, like them, she is valued for beauty and fertility and little else. She breaks a rule, though, when she becomes friends with Meiling, the daughter of Midwife Shi, who delivers the family’s babies. As Yunxian’s grandmother says, midwives are “indispensable”—male doctors are not allowed to look at or touch their female patients—but they’re also reviled for their contact with blood and practice of abortion. The lifelong friendship between Yunxian and Meiling will have an indelible impact on both women, and in a later portion of the book they’ll even be involved in an attempted murder trial. Yunxian’s arranged marriage is a fairly happy one, but as she matures, she grows more focused on practicing as a physician. She sometimes has insight into the inequities of feudal China, especially the treatment of working-class women. But she’s hardly revolutionary; even though she experienced the brutal pain of foot binding and watched her mother die of an infection caused by it, she binds the feet of her three daughters without question. Although the book’s pace can sometimes slow, it’s packed with historical detail.
Women’s friendships in a world where they have little freedom shape a quietly moving book.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781982117085
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An expertly crafted page-turner with unpredictable twists, steamy romance, and magical creatures.
A princess and a gladiator join forces amidst political intrigue and bloody carnage in Robson’s fantasy novel.
For the citizens of the wealthy kingdom of Arrow, the most exciting entertainment can be found in the arena—for the gladiators from the surrounding kingdoms, it’s a relentlessly brutal series of fights to the death. The combatants hope to win enough matches to earn the royal title of “Bloodguard,” which will allow their families to immigrate to Arrow. Leith, a gladiator in his mid-20s, is a skilled fighter driven by his desperation to support his mother and two younger sisters (and by the rage built from years of killing his peers for an audience’s delectation). After killing the arrogant Lord Filip (who challenged him to an impromptu duel) and subsequently emerging victorious in a surprise melee with a group of his peers and a dragon, Leith is getting closer to becoming a Bloodguard. He attracts the attention of Princess Maeve, a 20-year-old healer. Now that her fiance, Lord Filip, is dead, she’s in dire need of a noble spouse so that she can claim the throne when she turns 21. Maeve proposes a deal: She’ll help Leith achieve the Bloodguard status in exchange for his hand in marriage. But as their relationship blossoms, problems arise when royal secrets are revealed and government corruption is exposed. Soon, they’re not just vying for a title and a crown—they’re fighting for their lives. Robson’s novel is an exciting blend of action, palace intrigue, and romance in a high fantasy setting. The story unfolds through the perspectives of Maeve and Leith, who are both compelling and well developed, with flaws, foibles, and distinctive voices. The supporting characters are equally intriguing. Readers will love the richly detailed worldbuilding and combat sequences, as well as the use of snarky, modern language (“Of course the only royal offering me help is one who’s clawing her way to the throne, not already sitting pretty on one. That tracks,” Leith gripes). The book’s thoughtful queer representation and exploration of oppression and exploitation are also noteworthy.
An expertly crafted page-turner with unpredictable twists, steamy romance, and magical creatures.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781649374059
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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