Daughters of Shandong is a powerful novel and a stunning debut. This is my first time reading a book set during the Chinese Civil War (though I have read books set in surrounding times and involving Chinese politics of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s), and I found it both illuminating and harrowing. When the wealthy, land-owning Ang family flees Shandong and the Communists for safer, Nationalist-held territories, they leave behind the eldest son’s wife and three daughters. As women and girls, they’re seen as disposable, not worth saving too. Hai is the first-born of these three daughters; Di is a year younger, and they’re rounded out by their baby sister and mother. Together, they will face years of danger, hunger, disease, and living in the shadows as they journey towards safety.

At the core of Daughters of Shandong is the harsh reality of sexism in China’s traditional culture. Hai’s mother is expected to give birth to a son, and her own worth is dependent on providing a male heir. With only daughters so far, she’s treated like a slave by the wealthy Ang family, and despised enough to be left to die when the Communists make it to town. Again and again throughout the novel, Hai and her mom and sisters are faced with limitations and even abhorrence from their own family. But without those Angs around anymore, these four girls and women will discover their own inner strength and resilience.

Another powerful theme is of the relationships between sisters—mainly between Hai and Di—as well as the relationship between mother and daughter. Hai narrates the whole novel; she is obedient and diligent, soft-spoken and eager to learn, but she faces some of the worst effects of the Angs abandoning her and her mom and sisters. She couldn’t be more unlike Di, her sister who is only one year younger. Di is a firecracker, independent and full of opinions, but at times reckless and short-sighted. Then there are the two sisters’ disparate relationships with their mom. Hai gets along well with their mother, but Di is often at odds with her. As Daughters of Shandong progresses, these relationships evolve in some ways, but many characteristics may be set in stone, no matter the circumstances they’re placed in. (Case in point: their evil grandmother. What an awful woman!)

Most of this novel is painful to read. Hai and her small family fall farther down in society, first being abandoned and left to face the wrath of the Communists. They live in a shed before setting out on foot for Qingdao, the nearest big city and where the rest of the Angs fled to. But from there to Hong Kong, they go from homelessness to refugees, suffering malnutrition and uncertainty about their future. Yet even with all the struggles they face over the years, Daughters of Shandong is written in a way that is completely entrancing, propelling the reader forward with each candid description and each beautiful turn of phrase.

A novel like this would generally feel heavy and heartbreaking, but despite all the hardships Hai and her family endure, it progresses with strength and ends with hope. Hai is determined to break the cycle of oppression against women. From one generation to the next, she envisions how she and her future daughter can reject the traditions that subjugate women and instead forge their own paths and independence. The last few chapters speed by, feeling like an extended epilogue, but they conclude the novel on an uplifting note.

Daughters of Shandong is a beautifully written, edifying, and impactful novel. I enjoyed learning more about this period of China’s history, seeing a deeply troubled family fractured by war, and watching as these women overcome such adversity to reclaim their lives. It’s not a light read, but it is tied up with an empowering message by the end. This is an incredible debut, and I look forward to reading more from Eve J. Chung.

Chung wrote a tremendous book! It takes readers on the tumultuous journey of Hai, her mother, and her sisters as they are abandoned by their family and left to fend for themselves as communism took over China.
Their experiences were harrowing and I read every sentence with bated breath, wondering what would happen next.
One of my favorite parts was the dressing down Hai and Di finally dished out to Nai Nai, who should have been dumped in the South China Sea.
I thought Hai’s father was a coward and I also was angry at her mother toward the end when she caved to tradition and the favoritism and partiality toward males.
It’s a wonderful read, full of culture and context. Chung says at the end of the book it’s not meant to be historical, but she based it off her grandmother’s experiences. Readers will get a good grasp on how hard the communist takeover was on millions of people and the suffering they endured.

Daughters of Shandong is a historical fiction novel about a woman and her children who face nearly insurmountable odds when China falls to communism.

Hai, her sisters (Di and Lan), and her mother (Chiang-Yue) have been living as second-class citizens in their home in the Shandong countryside. As landowners, they live in relative luxury, but without a male heir, her mother’s position in the household is low, and she’s often ridiculed and punished by her cruel mother-in-law. When they are warned that the Communist army is marching toward Shandong, it is decided that Chiang-Yue will stay behind with her daughters to defend their land and that the rest of the family will move to a safer location without the extra female mouths to feed. But immediately, the house is seized by the Communist army, and thirteen-year-old Hai is punished in place of her absent father, grandfather, and uncle. In fear for their lives, Chiang-Yue and her children will flee their province and become refugees with no money and protection while trying to reunite with the rest of their family in the middle of a civil war. Constantly on the move, they find unimaginable poverty and conditions along with small pockets of kindness and community.

Daughters of Shandong is a fascinating story of an era where women and girls are held in such little regard within their own family that it can cost them their lives. But Chiang-Yue’s difficult life under her mother-in-law and love for her daughters made her resourceful and strong even in the most dire circumstances. The reader can’t help but root for them to defy the odds and prosper despite their circumstances. The book is nicely paced with plenty of plot along with character and historical detail. I really enjoyed the author's note where she explained her inspiration and research. I look forward to reading more from Eve J. Chung in the future.

This book is beautiful. Ang the family may be cursed, but their story is inspiring. This is a wonderful read for a book club, or anyone who likes historical fiction. The love and sacrifices of a mother for her daughter’s shine throughout this book. Even when culturally, there are norms to be upheld, it is okay to take back your strength and find a way to get through. All the women in this book should be respected. I feel like this is a part of history that isn’t talked about as much so to shine a light on it with such a brilliant story is perfect. This will be a book I will be talking up very soon.
Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

It's 1948 and the Communist party has come to power in China. A wealthy family is in trouble. The husband leaves the wife and his daughters, saying he will come back for them. Instead his wife ends up needing to escape with her daughters on her own. As a work of historical fiction where I learned more about what it was like for those who tried to get to Taiwan, this was an excellent book. However there were parts that were overwritten where I skimmed instead of read. The mother-in-law was also too over-the-top for me.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a harrowing historical novel—I tend to read books that are more lighthearted and comedic—but Daughters of Shandong was a very touching story, a brilliant reminder of how our mothers go through so much for our sakes. If you’re going in expecting a story with a neat beginning, middle, and end, you won’t quite find it here; this isn’t the type of book that fits a hero’s journey plot, exactly, because it really does aim to describe a real life. I would urge anyone who reads this to read up more about the Chinese Civil War to get a better understanding of nationalist and communist tensions; Westerners tend to have a very narrow understanding of “nationalist good, communist bad,” when they both in fact inflicted suffering on the people of China, and what Hai and her family go through in this novel is only a small piece of twentieth century Chinese history.

4.25 compelling story stars

It’s China in the late 1940s. Li-Hai is the oldest daughter in her family in rural Shandong. In China, women are valued well below men. As aggressive Communist reforms come to China, the landowning Ang family flees Shandong. However, the matriarch (a truly awful woman) decides that Li-Hai, her mother, and the other girls should stay behind because girls are useless. This is also the punishment for never producing a male heir.

The cadres come to the Ang home and claim it, pushing the mother and her daughters out into the street. A sympathetic farmer allows them to stay in his shed. The women know they can’t stay long before they are sought out again and the cadres do find them and punish Li-Hai since there are no men to represent the family.

The family decides to flee but is forced to walk a long distance to try to catch up to the rest of the Ang family. They are starving and do not have adequate shoes or money. They face countless obstacles along the way and have no guarantee of survival. They spend time in the city of Qingdao but never really prosper. Illness is rampant, work is very limited for women, and food is often only what they can scavenge.

They eventually plot to make it to Taiwan where they heard the family has settled. They need permits and authorization though, and first must travel to Hong Kong. They become part of a large refugee camp with others fleeing the revolution.

As the young women push the societal boundaries that are placed on them, they have to set aside schooling and any thoughts of thriving.

As the book nears its end, there is finally some happiness for the family as they reunite with the Ang family and eventually escape the matriarch. I liked Li-Hai's evolution and noticed the change in generations. She was frustrated when her mother finally had a son, and he claimed the most important child of the family status. Li-Hai vowed that her daughters would never feel this way.

Don’t miss the author’s notes at the end where we learn this story is based on her family. I am excited about this debut author and will definitely read her next book.

A heartbreaking story about a mother and her three daughters as they struggle to survive during China's Communist Revolution. Left behind by her landowning father as he fled the Communist forces, Hai is forced to stand in his place to receive punishment for being a landowner-- even though as a girl she is treated as a second class citizen on her best days. Convinced the only way to have a better life to to track down the family who left them behind, Hai, her mother and her sisters set out on an unbelievable journey during a time of immense unrest and political turmoil.

Your heart will ache for the family as they are forced to beg and live in abhorrent conditions as they struggle not to starve to death or succumb to tuberculosis. Though they don't have much, they have each other and the journey they undertake would be unbelievable if it wasn't based partially on the author's own family. The treatment of women is infuriating and their grandmother Nai Nai will make your blood boil. This is a masterful debut and perfect if you enjoy historical fiction.

Many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the ARC.

What a powerful, heartbreaking, and epic story this was! It tugged at my heartstrings, infuriated me, but was such a beautifully written story.

I really loved the narrator Hai, and how she told her story and that of her mother. She really highlighted how strong her mother was in the face of such hatred and prejudice for not providing her husband a son. And the term monster in law comes to mind in regards to her husband’s mother.

Every hardship they faced during the Communist Revolution was so hard to read about, but such an important story to read. I loved the author’s note, and learning this was loosely based on the author’s grandmother. I highly recommend this story, especially if you’re fan of books that take place during this time. Peach Blossom Spring comes to mind.

Eve Chung wanted to honor her grandmother's story, but given that there were many unknown details, she decided to write this book as historical fiction.
The Ang family are wealthy landowners in China when the Communists take over. The men escape to another city, leaving one woman and her daughters behind, because they’re seen as useless mouths to feed. When the Communists cadres can’t find the family men to punish, they seize Hua, the oldest daughter, and torture her. Eventually the girls and their mother escape with forged travel passes, first to Hong Kong, then finally to Taiwan. Along the way they suffer starvation with other Nationalist refugees. When they finally reunite with their former family in Taiwan, Hua vows that her own daughters will never be seen as less than any boy or man.
This is a difficult read, but the privations described were quite real.

What was it like to be the oldest daughter of a landowner's family in the midst of the 1948 revolution in China? Eve J. Chung wrote this book to honor her Puo Puo and keep her memory alive. While Chung could not gather enough details to write a biography, she does pay tribute in amazing ways to the life of her grandmother. The main character is Li-Hai. As the oldest daughter of this Ang family, she is considered disposable. So much so that her father leaves Li-Hai with her mother and two sisters when revolution threatens their home estate. What follows is their perilous journey to join the family in Taiwan. The Zhucheng, Shandong to Qingdao, Shangdong to Hong Kong and finally to Taiwan. Their plight is so heartbreaking at times and the trauma that was experienced by those trapped in between the nationalists and the communists has been passed down in ways that are more obvious when you know their stories. This life-affirming story is a tribute to the strength of women and their role in nurturing future generations.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Harrowing, compelling, overwhelming, all in the best way. This is the sort of book you finish then sit with. I'll be thinking about it for weeks probably.

Based on the author's family history, we follow the women of the Ang family as they escape from civil war in their town of Shandong, to Hong Kong, and on to Taiwan. In what can only be described as trials and tribulations, these four women rely on their bonds as mother, daughters and sisters to survive. It was heavy but in a good way? I was rooting so hard for them, desperate to see them have any kind of success or safety. Really excellent writing, excellent characterization and story-building.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received a gifted audiobook DAUGHTERS OF SHANDONG by Eve J. Chung for an honest review. Thank you to Berkley Publishing and PRH Audio and for the opportunity to read and review!

DAUGHTERS OF SHANDONG follows a mother and her daughters in China as a civil war sweeps through China. The book follows Hai, the eldest daughter in the wealthy Ang family. From an early age, Hai understands that she isn't what her family wants. Her family is looking for the birth of a boy and an heir, but Hai's mother gives birth to daughter after daughter. When the Communist army approaches, most of the family flees while Hai, her sisters, and her mother are left behind to find their own escape.

This was a period of time I didn't know much about and I appreciated learning that this story is a fictional account based on her own family's story. This was a hard one to read at time and a book that I took some time with. The abuse that Hai goes through and all of the women in the family is hard to read.

The discussions about the worth of a daughter compared to a son and the way the family focuses on that were interesting (and maddening to read). Hai's mother loves her daughters and she does her best to take care of them, but even there we see the way the ideas of inequality are firmly ingrained in the mind.

I found this book to be a little bit slow in places, but overall a really interesting read!

I had moderate expectations when I started reading Daughters of Shandong, especially because this is a debut novel . But, I was quickly absorbed totally in this spell-binding novel of Hai, her family, and the travails she, her mother, and her sisters enduring during the Communist takeover of Nationalist China. I was with them through her mother's treatment at the hands of her traditional, wealthy, mother-in-law, who viewed her role as wife and mother as secondary and her failure to produce sons as shameful. Told by Hai, the group's oldest child, the story veers towards unbelievability but never crosses that line. Learning through the author's end note that the story is based on that of her own grandmother. makes this book even more relevant. The last chapter, in which Hai's granddaughter brings readers up-to-date with the family's lives since their resettlement in Taiwan and Hai's and her sister Di's educational and social experiences, is satisfying for the story but an abrupt change in perspective and style. Daughters of Shandong is a wonderful read and I eagerly look forward to reading author Chung's next novel.

Synopsis in a sentence (or two):
A mother and her daughters are forced from their home during China’s Communist Revolution. The story that follows is a harrowing journey filled with tragedy and courage, beginning in Zhucheng, China, and ending in Taiwan.

Highlights:
Daughters of Shandong beautifully depicts the strength of a mother’s love and the beauty in sisterly bonds. From the moment I started the novel, Hai, Di, Lan, and their mother captivated me. I appreciated the way Eve J. Chung showed each woman’s bravery while also showing the immense differences in their personalities. Their unique responses to the same tragedy felt heartbreaking and underscored the influence of sexism on the culture of the 1940s-50s in China. The characters’ viewpoints and choices were so well fleshed out that I was shocked to find this was Chung’s debut novel. While this story felt like a character study at times, the bigger picture was that of Di, Hai, and their Mother’s fight for security during China’s Civil War. The suffering that took place during Mao’s upheaval of the Nationalist Party was depicted with raw detail and emotion. I found myself itching to learn more about this time in history, and I felt grateful for the author’s note at the end. This is one of my top reads of 2024 and one I won’t soon forget.

Read this if you love:
📚Kristin Hannah, Lisa See, Kate Quinn
📚 Chinese or revolutionary history
📚historical fiction highlighting strong women

Rating: 5.0

Disclosure:
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for the Digital Review Copy of Daughters of Shandong by Eve J Chung. All opinions are my own.

This was such a vivid and immersive story that was pretty much impossible to put down. I was frustrated along with the characters. And some of the confrontations were incredibly satisfying. I really enjoyed reading this despite the heavy topics.

Thank you, NetGalley and Berkley Pub, for my free book for review.

I'm deeply moved by the harrowing experience of Hai, her mother, and her sisters. The cruelty they endured from their family and the abandonment that left them to face the consequences meant for the men in their family is truly heartbreaking. These women showed remarkable resilience as they escaped from their small province to another city, encountering poverty as refugees, yet finding help from people along the way.

The book delves into the complexities of family relationships, including dynamics with in-laws, siblings, and parent-child relationships. It also explores Chinese culture and tradition, shedding light on the significance placed on male children versus females.

While the story begins with heart-wrenching events, it ends on a hopeful note. It's a narrative that spans the communist war and, most importantly, delves into the themes of family, traditions, and the inspiration for change, particularly in the context of mothers and their sacrifices.

Once I started, I couldn't put this book down. Ms. Chung's writing skillfully weaves a captivating story that enthralls from beginning to end.

This book - brilliant; heart wrenching; tragic; brutal.
Such an important read!
A glorious story of family - and the place of girls and women in China. So well done- cannot recommend enough!

Thank you @berkleypub and @prhaudio for my complimentary digital and audio copies. My thoughts are my own. #penguinrandomhousepartners

What a compelling story! Set in China in the late 1940s, this novel, based on the author’s family, describes the harrowing experiences of a mother and her daughters as they are left behind (with little to survive on) in hostile territory as the new Communist regime comes into power.

I was captivated from the very beginning! Told through the first person viewpoint of Hai, the oldest daughter, Hai tells how Chinese women grow up in a culture where women are considered to be insignificant, often thought of as just another mouth to feed. Hai watches as her mother, who has internalized this belief, suffers unbelievable belittling and cruelty at the hands of her mother-in-law, Nai Nai, while Hai’s father turns a blind eye. When word reaches them that the new regime will be punishing landlords and confiscating lands and belongings, Nai Nai and the men flee to safety, leaving Hai and her mother and sisters behind. Hai suffers severe punishment in her father’s place and the mother and daughters narrowly escape as they try to get to Hai’s father. The mother and young girls suffer through extreme poverty and sickness, but they finally make their way to their family, who are less than excited to welcome them.

I was moved by Hai’s experiences, and shocked to learn that some of these beliefs still exist. Be sure to read the author’s note, and don’t miss this moving story!

This book is a novel but reads like a memoir. Based on the experiences of the author's grandmother during the Communist Revolution in China, we see the horrors of what the war brought to the children at the heart of this story. Also at the heart of the story is the old fashioned Chinese belief that women and girls are thought to be worthless. The book was well written and definitely a page turner. I highly recommend it.