This book was beautifully told. I love Lisa's attention to detail and history. Such a fascinating look at the lives of these women

What a WONDERFUL book! Thank you to Lisa See and Netgalley for the ARC. I've enjoyed Lisa See's writing before but this novel was a perfect "10." I learned of the divers, wartime life, and island living that I never knew of prior. This all came through the wonderful storytelling and prose of the author. I can't say enough good things about this book. There are 14 of us in Book Club that read it and we all felt the same way!

It’s been many years since I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which I loved. This book, like that one, feels very authentic. It is incredibly detailed and well researched. I learned a lot about a culture and a country I knew nothing about. It was a little slow going at first and then it gets more interesting about halfway through. The characters are very compelling, dynamic, and interesting.

I started to read this book and not sure why, but picked up something else instead that needed to be read for a book discussion. Finally got back to The Island of Sea Women after a couple of friends of mine mentioned they had recently read it and liked it.
Boy, am I glad I did get back to it! However, a caveat...do not read before retiring for the night if you are prone to nightmares. A couple of sections were a bit graphic. Luckily it did not bother me too much.
Loved the characters and the author is so talented in writing about friendships.
I also learned so much more than I knew about these women and history of the island.
Again, I'm a very 'tough grader' and rarely give 5* reviews but this one was close.

ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY: An interesting and detailed piece of historical fiction about a group of women in a culture and period of time I knew very little about.

BRIEF REVIEW: Lisa See takes readers to the South Korean island of Jeju in 1930 where we meet best friends Young-sook and Mi-ja. The young girls come from very different backgrounds with Mi-ja's father is considered a Japanese collaborator during its occupation. The friends grow up in a culture where the women support the family while the men care for the very young children and cook. The women work as sea divers known as "haenyeo", catching all kinds of sea life to sell. The females begin training as baby divers and the friends are preparing for their first dive with Young-sook's mother being the lead-diver of the group.

This a story rich in culture, customs and traditions. There is so much material covered in this one novel that at times it felt a little overwhelming. The story included details of a massacre which was horrific and I was not familiar with. Although the story begins in 1930 it continues through WWII, the Korean war and up through 2008 with the advent of modern technology. The author's research is extensive and well done. I especially enjoyed the story of the "haenyeo women" which I found fascinating and, I also loved the friendship among the women and how resilient they seemed. The political climate and brutality of war was difficult to read about as there was incidents of rape and suicide.

This book took me about a week to finish not because it wasn't good but more because the story seemed so foreign. The audio is narrated by Jennifer Lim who did a great job but, I did find myself stopping to research names, places and more about "haenyeo women". This book was recommended to me by a few woman who loves historical fiction - definitely fascinating but not an easy, comfort sort of read. It would make a good book group discussion story IMO.

I have always admired the writings of Lisa See and enjoyed the stories she weaves. This book, takes my admiration further- as the story she tells is so moving and filled with strong women. As I say that, all her books incorporate strong women, but this novel has them beat. Through the story, I really felt that I was there in the water with them- and truly can’t imagine the courage it would take to do this job. This book gives an opportunity to see a different world, feel a pull to a world of unique consequences and be a part of a strong woman circle. Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy.

Well, that was extraordinary. Let's be honest, for most of us, our only knowledge of Korean history comes from watching M*A*S*H reruns. So this wonderful book made me confront the depths of my own ignorance. I had never heard of the island of Jeju, or the women divers who make their living off its coast.

I can't hold my breath underwater for more than 30 seconds, so the idea of these women who hold their breath for minutes at a time while they gather sea creatures fascinated me.

Lisa See always educates, moves and entertains, and this book is one of her best. The main characters are unforgettable, complex, and heartbreaking. There were some parts in the middle that really requires some knowledge of Korean history to fully understand, and I read the wikipedia articles about the real incidents in the book to help me get it. Worth the effort. Unforgettable book.

It breaks my heart that I didn't know about this horrific chapter in history before reading this book. I feel like I learned so much about the culture and customs of this group of people, but there was always a distance to the main characters that left me feeling disconnected. It was a powerful stylistic decision in this case, but watching the story unfold from afar like that was a disconcerting and frustrating experience. This book also reminded me a great deal of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, watching as a friendship collapses under the weight of secret tragedy and misunderstanding. A painful and unsettling story, but I'm glad I read it and I plan to do more research of my own on the topic.

What a fascinating book. I had never heard of the Jeju haenyo and the unrest on the island. I kept stopping to find out more about certain events. This story is centered around friendship and family and is so incredibly heartbreaking. It will stick with me for a long time, and I'll definitely read more from this author.

This book is incredible! I really enjoyed reading it - while I was expecting it to go somewhere a bit more intense than it went, and parts felt a little over-narrated or over-nostalgic, this book was very good and I would - and have - recommended it to other readers.

What a beautiful, haunting, and inspiring story! Lisa See never fails to impress or educate me through her stunning storytelling. This is the story of two friends Mi-ja and Young-sook who Live on the Korean island of Jeju. Jeju is the home of the Haenyeo, Women who spend their days diving in the sea holding their breath for an unbelievable amount of time and harvesting shellfish and see creatures. This is a matriarchal society where the women go out and work and the men stay home and take care of the children. The girls spend their days in the sea waiting for the day that they too can dive. But this is not an easy life the sea is unpredictable and unforgiving. The island of Jeju was a strategic military hold constantly changing occupants. A tumultuous time in Korean history that adversely impactsed this peaceful island.

As in all Lisa See’s books I was completely fascinated with the history. I am ashamed to say I knew absolutely next to nothing about Korea and why Japan or America ever occupied the country. I mean I knew there was a Korean war but probably most of what I learned about it took place on the television show MASH. The reality of it was so brutal. What these people went through was heartbreaking and ultimately it was a unbelievable tragedy that tour Mi-ha and Young-sook apart. These were women who had grown up together, dove together, traveled together, were pregnant together, gave birth on a boat together, and yet the politics of others destroyed their friendship. Some parts of this book were hard to read about as the truth often is. I think this was an important story about a group of people that deserve to have their story heard.

Great novel, highly recommend for those who enjoy the genre. Will be recommending for immediate purchase.

This is one of my favorite genres to read, so I had high hopes for this book. I was happy to find that I found it just as enjoyable as I was hoping. I didn't know anything about these divers and found it fascinating to read about. I think that anyone who enjoys reading historical fiction or about different cultures would enjoy this book. Thank you so much for providing an advanced copy.

Lisa See never disappoints. This was a heavy read, but one I enjoyed very much. The characters were amazing, the story intriguing, and the relationships poignant. Further, I very much enjoyed the historical background to the text as well and I could tell that a lot of research went into the book, and it was done very well. I would definitely recommend this book to serious readers.

I am fascinated by this choice of topic and now want to learn more about the haenyeo, female divers, of this time period. Perhaps the climax of the story read a little bit too much like a history book or perhaps my timing in reading it wasn't right. It didn't grab my attention as I thought it would. Overall, a good read although I expected more from a story about lifelong friendship.

Lisa See knocked it out of the park again with this one. I am so in love with this. The attention to detail and the research that went into this story was phenonmal and being able to see what happened between the two girls as they grew tore at me.

What an incredible story. Lisa See has out done herself yet again. Sometimes you read a fabulous award winning novel and hope that the author can repeat the performance. I started with Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. After reading that book with my book discussion group, we rated that our favorite book. Then with another book group I read, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. With this group we held a in person FaceTime discussion with Lisa. I was so impressed with her writing and her interview style. She was warm, friendly and seemed to really appreciate her readers. Now this was I thought the best book she had written, but now The Island of Sea Women, she has published another incredible novel.

This is book is such a beautiful story. Not only do you learn a history lesson about Korea and what happened there between the Japanese and the Koreans during the 1930s leading up to the Second World War and the Japanese colonialism. Then the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and afterwards, when the Americans came in and divided the country and the Korean War. It was a turbulent time in the Korean history that I am sure many readers are unaware of, as I was, until they read this book.

Lisa describes in intimate detail what it is like to be one of the haenyeo, women who lived on the island of Jeju off the Korean coast, who were females divers. Lisa is very adapt at writing about the life of these strong independent women who go out into the frigid waters off the island and dive to incredible depths to gather abalone, octopus, and other edible seafoods that they sell to support their families. When they age out of diving or are too young to dive, they gather seaweed and other shellfish at the water's edge. In this society women are the wage earners and the men stay home and take care of the children. There are so many interesting angles to this book.

It is all based around the story of Young-sook and Mi-ja, two young girls who become close friends, and follows them through their lives, growing up to become haenyeo, then as they get married, start their families and what happens when the war and other political differences separate them and challenges their relationship. The tides ebb and flow driving them together and apart. The waters are cold and the life is hard and Lisa See draws a clear picture of their lives. All based on real events and people she interviewed, this novel is immersed in historical facts.

It took me over three months to finish this book, and it wasn’t for a lack of interest in the author; this was my seventh Lisa See novel and interestingly, not even my least favorite. I wouldn’t say there’s anything ostensibly wrong with this book, and it’s not exactly a radical departure from the rest of See’s historical fiction: it follows a friendship between two women against the backdrop of a turbulent period in East Asian history (though here the setting is the Korean Jeju Island instead of See’s usual China).

But despite the tried and true blueprint whose familiarity should have been comforting, I really struggled to get invested in The Island of Sea Women. I think my main issue was with the protagonist, Young-sook (whose name I just had to look up even though I finished this book only two days ago, so that’s never a good sign). Young-sook and her best friend Mi-ja are haenyeo – female divers – and See’s exploration of this culture is as thorough as ever. However, Young-sook herself makes no particular impression, and I think it’s mostly down to how anemically drawn her character is: she’s a model haenyeo, so she loves being a haenyeo; she’s meant to desire marriage and children, so she desires marriage and children; she’s meant to honor her family, so she honors her family. She’s a collection of cultural values rather than a distinct person – a pitfall that I think See gracefully avoids with the protagonists of each of her other novels that I’ve read. I don’t ordinarily feel that she needs to sacrifice character development to establish historical context, but sadly I did here.

About 60% through the book, during a scene of a horrifying and brutal massacre, See’s decision to tell this story through Young-sook’s eyes finally, finally made narrative sense to me, but up until that point, I had been wondering why the focus hadn’t been on Mi-ja – an infinitely more interesting character for the ways in which she didn’t fit as neatly into the society in which she was raised. Their friendship is competently portrayed, but it’s missing a spark for me that I felt in so many of her other books, notably Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls.

And I think that’s the word I keep coming back to when I think about this book: it’s competent. It’s a great crash course in Jeju history for those of us who weren’t already familiar with the island. It’s an occasionally heart-wrenching story about loss and the inability to forgive. It’s just not spectacular, and it never quite gains the momentum needed for the most brutal scene to make as much of an impact as it should have.

All said, I liked this book but I didn’t love it, but I undoubtedly should have pushed myself through the rocky beginning rather than dragging this reading experience out for three months; and everyone else seems to adore it, so I’d encourage you to give it a shot if it interests you. But if you’re looking for somewhere to start with Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls remain my go-to recommendations.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

Haenyeos are women divers who scour the depths of the ocean searching for abalone, squid and other sealife. They are the workers in their families, leaving their husbands home to tend to the house and the children. The job is year-round and these hardy souls dive even in the winter months. That alone is a stunning setting for a novel. The timeframe covers Korea during the Japanese occupation through the American presence following the Korean War.

Mi-ya and Young-sook are two Korean girls who become the very best of friends. Young–sook is an orphan who has been ostracized because of her dead father’s collaboration with the Japanese. For years the two girls are inseparable and they both join the ranks of the haenyeos as “baby divers”. Later in life they both are paired in an arranged marriage and their lives begin to drift apart. But one incident is too much for Mi-ya to handle and there is a break between the girls that cannot be healed. Many years pass and Mi-ya is now a grandmother. She is approached by a descendent of her former friend, but the old animosity remains even then.

The story of two girls whose friendship is severed forever is crucial to the plot, but the underlying situation of Korea in the Twentieth Century is critical to See’s book. Like the book Pachinko, the Japanese oppression of Korea is detailed, but here Lee exposes the aftermath of Japan’s withdrawal and the American influence on Korean lives. This is new territory, showing how many suffered under American influence in their country. It is eye-opening and frightening. The book takes the human story of the two girls and places it squarely in the midst of important historical events.

There’s so much to explore here. See covers cultural issues that are remarkable, historic events that impacted an entire country, women who are strong and fearless, all mixed in with the story of two girls who are hurt by betrayal. Another powerful book by an outstanding author.

4.5 stars rounded u to 5.*

I think I am the only person I know who never read The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane or Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I'm not sure why I never did, and now that I've had the pleasure of reading The Island of the Sea Women I will definitely be moving these titles and everything else by Lisa See up my to-read list.

The Island of the Sea Women was brought to my attention on two different lists recommending upcoming releases. One was specifically for feminist literature and the other was a list recommending books for those wanting to experience other cultures. On both accounts, this book lived up to the hype and then some.

I will admit it took me longer than normal to finish the book. Partly because I was battling jetlag, and partly because it is an emotional, heavy story. it's not devastating or something I would expect would require a trigger warning for most readers, but it is truly a unique tale with one-of-a-kind characters.

The Island of the Sea Women is the tale of Young-Sook and Mi-Ja, young women born in a small Korean village with a truly unique culture- the women of the village are the workers, earners and dominant forces in the culture. They are known as Haenyeo, and they are sea divers. The majority of the story takes place in the 1930s and 1940s when the girls are young and strong and ambitious. Their friendship is challenged by social norms, the Haenyeo culture, fear of Japanese collaboration, and eventually their own marriages, children and lives.

Their story is heartbreaking and important. Lisa See writes beautifully and honestly and makes the reader truly empathize with both characters.

I highly recommend this book! One of my favorites of 2019.