Story: 6.0 / 10
Characters: 6
Setting: 7
Prose: 7 ( )

Accidentally inhaled this in one bedtime reading sitting. The title refers to the flowers of mourning in Korea, as this is a tale of tragedy, viewed through the past as it was happening to Hana, the older sister, and from a contemporary point of view as Emi, the younger sister, nears the end of her life but is determined to find out what happened to Hana.

It's upsetting that it wasn't until 1991 that survivors began to speak about their "comfort women" experiences, and that part of why this was largely buried from the public mind was 50 years of purity culture shame. A riveting story, and as the author notes at the end, a reminder that war atrocities on women still continue to this day. ( )

Hana and Emi are sisters separated by the former's act of courage and sacrifice. Hana thought she spared Emi from the ravages of being a comfort woman but Emi led a life of guilt and shame and could never fully focus on the present. Towards the end of her life, she found peace when she found her sister in the form of a commemorative statue. The author also revealed at the end of the book what happened to Hana. I am sure this is not the author's intention, but I can't help thinking that their story is an illustration that our best intentions may not end up being the best and may make things worst. How would Hana feel if she knew that her sacrifice had ended up making Emi guilty and unhappy for most of her life? ( )

Good story. Didn’t like the writing style. ( )

It is during WWII, and 16-year old Hana is a haenyeo with her mother in he water on Jeju Island in Korea when she is stolen from the beach in an effort to protect her younger sister from the soldier Hana spotted. She is taken with other young girls to a brothel in Manchuria to “service” the soldiers (these girls/women are later known as “comfort women”). In 2011, an older woman, Emi, is still haenyeo, but has two middle-aged children in Seoul. Emi has kept plenty of secrets from her children about her life when she was younger.

I was not prepared for the amount of violence and rape. I must have known that would be the case when I added it to my tbr, but often, between the time of adding a book to my tbr and actually reading it, I forget what the book is about. I only remembered it being about haenyeo (women divers in Korea). That being said, although I learned about haenyeo in Lisa See’s book, I didn’t know about “comfort women”; the two books have a different focus.

I often like one storyline more than the other in these dual timeline books, but although Hana’s story is the more jarring and powerful of the two (I often “like” those better), I think Emi’s story gave me a bit of a break from Hana’s abuse. Oddly, although I often don’t like unrealistic endings, this one didn’t bother me (and the author explains in her note why she ended it this way). Overall, I thought this was very good. ( )