Helpful Score: 1
(Trigger Warning)
This haunting novel about a "comfort woman" and her relationship with her daughter is startling and at times, almost suffocating. The title refers to a time when the Japanese held women captive in WWI as "comfort women", women that were renamed and repeatedly sexually assaulted and beaten. Our protagonists mother survived the camps, but her mind does not. Although she assumes a "normal" life in America with a husband and daughter, she retreats from her memories of rape by communing with the spirits of the dead. This retreat prevents a full and lasting relationship with her daughter. She can not show the types of love Beccah needs, which means Beccah assumes the caretaker role. But Beccah eventually learns about her mothers past and finds her own way to communicate with the spirits that haunted her mother and finds the love her mother could never fully show.
I give this three stars because a five star book usually knocks me out of the water. The book also didn't reach a certain level for me, that "four" star level. Nonetheless, I highly recommend it.
This haunting novel about a "comfort woman" and her relationship with her daughter is startling and at times, almost suffocating. The title refers to a time when the Japanese held women captive in WWI as "comfort women", women that were renamed and repeatedly sexually assaulted and beaten. Our protagonists mother survived the camps, but her mind does not. Although she assumes a "normal" life in America with a husband and daughter, she retreats from her memories of rape by communing with the spirits of the dead. This retreat prevents a full and lasting relationship with her daughter. She can not show the types of love Beccah needs, which means Beccah assumes the caretaker role. But Beccah eventually learns about her mothers past and finds her own way to communicate with the spirits that haunted her mother and finds the love her mother could never fully show.
I give this three stars because a five star book usually knocks me out of the water. The book also didn't reach a certain level for me, that "four" star level. Nonetheless, I highly recommend it.
This is a story about a (little known) tragedy that some would say is equal to that of the Holocaust. It is estimated that around half a million Korean and Chinese women were enslaved in Japanese military camps and use as sex slaves during World War 2. This book gives this event a more personal touch by entering one of those camps and experiencing the horrors through the main character, a young Korean girl. It is simply written, and a quick yet engrossing read.
