The descriptions of the foot-binding process are not for the faint-hearted. I cringed through the whole chapter and then further winced any time Snow Flower or Lily were ever mentioned to be walking, even after their feet had "healed".

Prior to reading this, I had gifted a copy to a mentor of mine as I was leaving an internship. I can only imagine what she must have thought of my tastes, reading scenes like this:

One day, as I made one of trips across the room, I heard something crack. One of my toes had broken. I thought the sound was something internal to my own body, but it was so sharp that everyone in the women's chamber heard it. [...] By nightfall the eight toes that needed to break had broken, but I was still made to walk. I felt the broken toes under the weight of every step I took, for they were loose in my shoes. The freshly created space where once there had been a joint was now gelatinous infinity of torture.

M's rating: 3/5