Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

As much as there were interesting moments that dealt with the rich historical time period in the novel, I felt that there was a lot of unnecessary repetition that dragged the narrative. Also, the pacing was at times incredibly slow, and in other moments the author glossed over information or made certain events feel like they were sped up like with Beautiful Moon's death. The whole thing felt so sudden and pointless.

Furthermore, the constant self-deprecation of the narrator (always thinking herself inferior to her laotong, thinking that women are worthless creatures and that sons are the only worthy accomplishment of a woman) was starting to grate on my nerves. Obviously, the historical context of the novel makes it so that this rampant misogyny is acceptable, but the constant reminders and hammering in of the ideology was oftentimes excessive and unnecessary.

The amount of foreshadowing in this novel was insane and really ruined the anticipation of events. I wanted to discover the twists and turns for myself, not have them told to me from the get-go. In any case, the ‘big reveal' around the midway point really wasn't as jaw-dropping as what you'd expect; in fact, it was rather underwhelming.

Overall, I feel that this story had so much potential to be really interesting and unique, but it ended up being lukewarm and too slice-of-life for my taste.