When books serve educational as well as entertainment purposes, they are the most interesting to me. The Picture Bride tells the story of young Korean women, in the early 1900’s, who left the Japanese controlled Korea for Hawaii and the promise of trees with shoes and clothes growing on them. The young women were sent pictures of their prospective Korean grooms, and in almost every instance, the reality was they were marrying men much older who misrepresented their lives. Willow, Hongju and Songhwa come from the same village. The three remain close as they navigate life in Hawaii, enduring hardships and facing challenges, including the growing divisiveness in the Korean community over the independence movement. I highly recommend this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

In the early 1900s, a peddler traveled from village to village, selling household wares and personal items to Korean women. This peddler showed the young women photographs of promising young Korean men who lived in Hawaii and sought wives. The peddler promised the young women they would lead better lives if they moved to the US and married these men.

Willow faced a tough decision. She could agree to travel to Hawaii and marry the Korean landowner who wanted a wife. In his photo, the man looked handsome, youthful, and prosperous. Although she could attend school in her new country, she may never see her family again. But a picture marriage, Willow decided, would be better than a life of poverty.

Little did she know…

I was unfamiliar with picture marriages, thought the novel was an interesting premise, and learned much about the concept and Korean culture. However, the portion of the story about Willow’s husband’s involvement with the Korean independence movement dragged for me. The details caused the story to lose its flow, and I skimmed over those parts.

I have heard before of the traditional marriage arrangements between families through a go-between by only producing pictures of photos of the prospective bride or groom as i come from Asian culture and this used to be a common practise especially in the olden days (but still being in practise even today!).

However,i have not known about the practise among the Koreans and the Japanese in the year 1900's. Therefore, this book did exactly that that is it provides a glimpse of the lives of the Korean picture brides in Hawaii during that era.

The story begin with a Korean woman named Willow where one day a peddler from Pusan known as the 'Pusan Ajimae' (Ajimae is a term used to address an older woman as in an aunty though the person may not actually be related to you as a sign of respect).came into her village by bringing in the news about some Korean men in Hawaii are looking for future brides for marriage. In the previous years, Korean and Japanese men were said to have moved out from their villages and migrated to Hawaii for the economic reasons (making a living and finding a better life and opportunities which they did not get from their hometowns). After years of struggling with hardwork working on the plantations on the island, the men finally thought of finding some wives/companions for themselves,so through the help of a go-between, they tried to find some potential wives by sending home their own pictures/photos.

The go-between's role later on would be to bring around the photos of the grooms searching from a village to a village while bringing news and promoting about the groom to a household in those visited villages, just like how the Pusan Ajimae is doing in this story where while selling her things, she is also bringing the news about the marriage and promoting about the groom at the same time with the hope of securing a potential bride.

This is what exactly happened in the story where Willow and her good friend from her village named Honju later on secured a husband for themselves when the Pusan Ajimae came into their village bringing news about the marriage. Of course while promoting, the Pusan Ajimae tend to glamorised or sugarcoated when describing the qualities and features of the grooms while at the same time both girls were fed with hopes of living a better life and opportunities where it is said that life in Hawaii is so good that even money grows on trees!.

Both girls had different motives of agreeing to be picture brides, for Willow she yearns to seek an education for herself (which surprisingly and to my dismay she never did until the end in the story even after her life gets better later on when she moved to the island to meet with her potential husband!.) and as for Honju she just wants to escape her hard lives and filial duties in the village by marrying a rich and handsome husband!.

So, this book later on showcases what happened to the girls when they moved to the island to live with their future husbands while at the same time portraying the problems encountering the prospective brides upon their meeting with their potential husbands where every wonderful descriptions by the go-between about the potential husbands turned out to be too good to be true or fabrications or lies!. The husbands were neither rich nor handsome!.

Instead,each of the brides landed with having to face their own problems with their potential husbands later on!. (for Willow her husband doesn't even want to marry her, for Honju her husband is a slacker and isn't rich! for one of their friends, Songhwa whom they met while onboard the ship to the island, her husband is too old! (the girls later on made some new friends amongst the other picture brides whom they met on board their ship to the island).

So, this story also provides a glimpse into the lives of these picture brides in facing their own personal problems with their husbands and at the same time trying to survive living in an unfamiliar place with a culture and way of life that is foreign to them, away from their own families. This new life forces them to adopt and adapt with the new environment and culture; starting from changing the way they dress to the kinds of work/jobs they had to do to survive.

We will get to learn more about the good and the bad, the happiness and sadness and the hardships and struggles faced by these women as they bonded with each other and how they overcome their own problems. And yes this is a story of friendship as well as betrayal where the women loyalties and trust towards each other were tested in some point over the differences in political views and stance as this story took place during a critically sensitive and turbulent times where Korea is under the colonization of Japan and the Koreans were striving hard to gain their independence from Japan. It is a very sensitive and fragile period even for the wives/the women when their friendships been tested and trusts compromised all because of their different political parties and stance to the point of going to a separate church as each church supports a different political party (yes, that's how divided and polarised they are at that time). The women even went in to separate saloons because of their differences in taking a political stance/sides/support!.

Another aspect that i love about this story is how the women especially Willow (since she is the main character so more focus is given to her in the story and everything is looked based upon her own perspectives!) resiliently trying to build up on their own lives during the absence of their husbands (who either went to war or go training in another country for their independence movement or simply non-existence just like Songhwa's husband who is neglecting and abusing her). To me, only Willow's character stands out the most in this part (of being resilience and hardworking) as she later on switched from working for other people (at the plantations or doing laundries) to working on her own when she set up her own shop,first selling shoes later on diversified to selling Korean embroideries!.Later on, she set up her own laundry service which she teamed up with her friends, Honju and Songhwa and some other lady friends she made. I love how enterprising and smart she is!.

Ok, now the parts that i disliked or did not enjoy. Honestly, the story seem flat,boring,slow and repetitive at times. I find the characters' one dimensional and lack of emotions. The characters lacked depth. And everything happens and switches too fast without proper explanations or details, like poof! moving on to the next scene. Especially in the second part after Willow's daughter, Pearl was introduced. Then suddenly without any explanations/details, the timeline jumps up to a few years later when Pearl already grew up into a young lady (when before that she was only a baby!).

I also notices something's off with the translations and some errors (typo and grammatical) and find some of the sentences did not make sense or sounds weird.

Either way, these blunders did not hinder me from finishing and enjoying this story as thank God it is a fast moving and a short story (too fast at times haha!) otherwise i am afraid of hitting the snooze button!. To me it is exciting to read the story about these women/picture brides despite lacking of depths of their characters and emotions and seeming one-dimensional as i learn something i never knew before about the picture brides and the lives and experiences of the Korean immigrants living in a foreign country (except for the novel Pachinko which i read previously that talks about the lives of the Koreans living in Japan under the Japanese colonization and discriminations). So, this book brought a new perspective to me in that area.

I rated this book a 4🌟 out of 5.

Thank you the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this e-ARC copy!.

Overall, I felt that The Picture Bride was a fascinating story. I was intrigued by the history of women brought to Hawaii as brides for the Korean (and Japanese) men working plantations there in the early 1900s. I can't imagine the kind of courage required to set out on such a journey in that era. As I read about Willow, and her friends Hongju and Songhwa I just couldn't imagine myself in their shoes!

Which leads me to the fact that this book was a bit boring at times. Though it is a novel, there was a good bit of straight-up history. It was hard to keep the emotional connection with the characters where there are multiple pages in a row of Korean history (that was honestly a bit hard to follow since it was interspersed with story). I think that the translation of this novel didn't help matters either.

Overall, this book was just okay. I really liked the ending though I would have liked to know even more about Pearl!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

I was granted free access to an uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.
My thanks go out to the publisher and to Netgalley for the early access.

I definitely had an OK time with this one and would recommend for anyone looking to read more about Korean history, specifically the time period in which Korea was under Japanese rule.
This book looked at Korean picture brides which are basically women who enter into a marriage agreement based on solely a picture and the information given to them by a matchmaker. The women enter into these arrangements in hopes of living a better life far away from home, but would often arrive at their destination and realise that their husbands look nothing like the portrait that they previously shared.
I knew nothing about picture brides or about the mass migration of Koreans, Japanese & other nationalities to Hawai'i. And thus it was an interesting page in history to read about.
Another reason to pick up this book would be if you enjoy reading about those who are left behind when men go off to war. our protagonist definitely is a woman who often has to keep the household afloat while her husband is involved in the revolution, or later the war.

However, in terms of the writing itself, the structure or the overall plot, there is nothing that really stood out to me. It made me aware of a reality and a page in history that I didn't really know about. But as a piece of art, it didn't do much for me.

I received an e-galley of The Picture Bride by Lee Geum-yi from Macmillan-Tor/Forge via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love stories that are set in a historical timeframe - allowing readers to learn about a particular history - while also invoking a great sense of storytelling that focuses on the personal stories of the time. In The Picture Bride, readers are brought into the period of time when Japan had colonized Korea and thus our story starts with the young Korean woman, Willow, who chooses to leave her home country for what is promised to be a better future in faraway Hawaii. She becomes one of many picture brides at this time - choosing a husband through a picture from a matchmaker - and not meeting said husband until she makes her long journey across the ocean. When she arrives in Hawaii, she finds that the promises made of this new life are not quite as she was promised - but her tenacity and determination to make the best of the situation creates a story of strength, hope, and friendship.

Long before the days of internet dating and swiping left or right on Tinder, young Korean girls were chosen as brides for Korean immigrants in Hawaii, based on their picture. The men, in return, sent pictures of themselves, and a match was made. But what the girls were promised - a new life, an opportunity to go to school, shoes and clothes growing on trees - was far from the reality when they arrived.
Though I have often heard of the "mail-order wives" of mid-Western farmers, I had never heard of the picture brides. It was a fascinating look at the lives of the immigrants who came to Hawaii to work, and the young women who joined them there.

Thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and MacMillan Tor/Forge for my copy of The Picture Bride by Lee Geum-yi in exchange for an honest review. It published October 11, 2022.
This book was so fascinating to me. I haven't come across any literature about the topic of Picture Brides before, especially regarding Koreans immigrating to Hawaii. I also have not come across a lot of literature about the Japanese, Korean conflict in the 1910's and on. I found this book to be very informative and a good educator. On top of that, it was well-written, interesting, and I was glad to be on the journey.
It definitely opened my eyes to some history I didn't know much about and plan to learn more about it the future.

The Picture Bride tells us about a very interesting part of the history of Hawaii. Many men went to Hawaii to earn a living working in the sugar cane industry. Once the men were able to save up enough money, they sent it back home in order to get a bride. These men would often times send a picture of themselves in order to convince a young woman to choose them. The pictures were not always accurate and many young women were affected by this. This is part of our history, whether we live in Hawaii or not. The research was done very well. I loved the history and the story, but there were too many names and words in general that made the reading a little harder. I am very glad I read this, next time I would write the unfamiliar names and words down.

This is my review and I thank NetGalley and McMillan-Tor/Forge for an ARC.

Willow if one of many Korean women who travels to the United States in search of love and a better life. Driven by a picture of an eligible husband, these women are known as "Picture Brides" because the only thing they truly know is from a picture sent by the suitor. But upon arrival to Hawaii, promises made are not always kept or true.

This is an excellent novel that shows so much history of Korean-Americans who moved to the United States in the early 20th century looking for a better life.

#ThePictureBride #NetGalley #historicalfiction #koreanamericanhistory #koreanamerican #picturebrides

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

The premise of this book is interesting, and something that I am unfamiliar with. Brides who are contracted to marry literal strangers who they have only "met" through pictures and profiles - which might not be even updated or entirely truthful.

The research that goes into this kind of story must be extremely detailed.

Thank you for bringing light to parts of history such as this.

Absolutely loved this. One of my favorite books of the year. I live in Hawaii (Maui) and have read several books about Hawaii's Picture Brides and this ranks right up there as one of my favorites. I was surprised to realize it was not originally written in English, but this was a translation of the original - beautiful translation. I alternated between reading the e-book and listening to the audiobook, and it was a seamless transition. The narrator of the audiobook was fantastic and she continued to narrate in my head when I would switch to the e-book. The characters were well-developed and came alive through the author's voice. The story was obviously well-researched and true to the history of Hawaii's immigrant families. Many people who live in Hawaii today - my friends and neighbors - are the children and grandchildren of these Picture Bride marriages and Hawaii's economy was built on their backs. I highly recommend this book to any fan of historical fiction, Hawaiian history, immigrant history, or just good literature. 5-stars

I loved the premise of this book. Having always been interested in history of any kind, I find reading about the times in stories helps me understand. Here, I got a better idea of life in Korea at that time, how immigrants felt, life on Hawaii, and the community over all. I respect the fact that ample time was given to the political divide between Korean immigrants, and that they talked about both parties. More than any of this though, I wanted to know how the brides felt, how they adapted. I loved reading about Willow, Hongu and Songwa. This story really brought their community, dreams and fears alive for me. The story had a good flow to it, and was easy to follow. Coming into this book knowing almost nothing about picture brides, I feel like the historically accurate parts here gave me a good understanding of the time.

Being able to spend time hearing about the first immigrants of the Hawaiian community that moved down, straight through to the generation after Willow, was really interesting. I couldn’t put it down! Lovers of asian literature and culture will find a lot to love here as well as the historical fiction addicts.

I feel like I saw a good amount of character growth from each of the brides, and watching them grow stronger with their trials made me happy. Honestly, I got a lot of emotions here- anger, sympathy, sadness, and joy. I feel like the writer did a great job of making Willow and Hongu real for us. I could wish I had more time with Songwa, but as this is told from Willow’s point of view for the first two-thirds of the book I can see why that might have been difficult. Overall, this was a great book with good character development; I would give it four stars and fully intend to buy at least one copy as a gift this holiday season.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
On the adult content scale, there’s language, violence, very light sexual content, and some substance use. It’s definitely written with adults in mind, but later teens might like this too. Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything here I would worry about giving to a young teen.

I was lucky enough to recieve an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Forge Books in exchange for an honest review. My thanks! I really enjoyed this one.

Picture Brides....

There was a time in Hawaii's history that picture brides were a common occurence. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, foreign male workers came to Hawaii to work in the backbreaking sugar cane industry. It was hard, hot, unforgiving work, and men would save up and order a picture bride from their home country. It is a little known part of history and the stories need to be told.

In the 1918, Willow becomes a picture bride from Korea. Along with several of her friends from Korea, this tale recounts her disappointments and struggles as a picture bride with no money, no education and in a differnt country.
4.5

The Picture Bride is a novel written by Lee Geum-yi and originally published in March 2020 in Korean. It has been translated into English by An Seonjae and hits shelves October 11, 2022. I am grateful to have received an ARC through NetGalley and am excited to share my honest thoughts on it.

The story follows Willow, a young woman who is growing up as the only daughter of a widowed mother. She is forced to leave school in order to assist her mother with taking care of her younger brothers and keeping the household. Willow dreams of one day returning to continue her education, but circumstances in Korea are not ideal for that dream to come true.

Enter the Pusan Ajimae telling Willow and her mother about an eligible bridegroom in Hawaii. Willow is told that food and clothing are so abundant that they grow on trees and she can return to school to get the education she so longs for. With stars in her eyes, she agrees and thus begins her journey as a picture bride.

I graduated with my bachelor's degree in Asian American Studies over a decade ago. I say this to provide context as I believe my history with the subject matter affected 1) my choice to read this story and 2) my engagement of this story as a reader (though my studies were primarily of Chinese immigrants and this story was about Korean immigrants).

The explanation of how one becomes a picture bride in this story has the chance to read as dull, but the way that Geum-yi went about it brought heart to it that grounded it in reality. The main character of Willow was fleshed out in such a way that you were able to not only understand her feelings and motives, but you were almost able to understand where she was going to go before even she did.

The dynamic between the picture brides was loving and vulnerable. Even in moments where there was jealousy or envy, I never felt like these women were being pitted against each other. It was refreshing to see women supporting each other even in the face of various negative emotions.

While I was familiar with the concept of picture brides, I will admit that my knowledge of the events happening in Korea and the Korean community in Hawaii during this time is very limited. The historical pieces of this novel were really brought to life by the way each of the characters reacted to what was going on around them. Geum-yi was able to paint a full picture of life during this time and it makes me want to pull out some history books and learn more about it.

Understanding the concept of picture brides going in, I did not expect much, if any, romance to be present in this story. While the romance that we normally see in stories is not present, there are touches that brought romance vibes to the forefront. There are also a lot of depictions of non-romantic love and the different ways in which you are able to show someone you care.

I had a small handful of moments where I was reminded that this story was a translation and the original text was not English, but it did not take away my enjoyment of the story as a whole. If more history was presented to me in this way, I probably would've enjoyed learning about it while I was in school.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge to give me this ARC book. I leave my honest review here voluntarily!

Actual rating 3.5 ⭐

This book tell us about story of women who left their home for Hawaii to become a picture bride. They hope for a better life and far from war that happening on Korea. Our main character here is Willow but we will not only follow her but also people around her. Especially her friends who also become a picture bride on Hawaii.

Through this book we can see how hard life for Korean at that time and I personally can't imagine how hard it is for them to try find a better life in a foreign country, far from their family and maybe never going to see them again and at the end it's not like what you hope. Most of them trick by their picture groom. Fortunately not for Willow, but Willow must bear a cold husband, the one who never want the marriage and care for her.

I honestly love how Willow really try to improve her life. She try to talk honestly to her husband, try everything she can to close to her husband, to earn money for herself. Even after her selfish husband leave her for his own selfishness, leaving Willow alone with their child. She really become a great women and mother for her children.

The story itself hard for the characters and I love to see the friendship of this picture bride, especially for Willow, Hongju and Sanghwa. They become a real sister in a foreign land. But, I didn't really like the ending, I didn't see really how it ends. Is it normal with historical fiction books? because I didn't read much book with this genre.

But I love how the author make the last chapters about Willow daughter's point of view. We will have a quite long time lapse but we will see what happen in the past year through her and of course with a little bit of surprise too.

I always like to learn new things. The Picture Bride focuses on young Korean women who came to Hawaii to become brides. I was unfamiliar with aspect of history until reading this book. They were called picture brides because the prospective grooms would send their pictures as a way to attract brides.
I found it very interesting to read about their lives on Hawaii, the fight to free Korea and all the domestic troubles that ensued.
If you’re looking for a fresh aspect of a little known topic, this book is a good choice.

Thank you Net Galley for giving the opportunity to be able to read this ARC.

Given the background of 1910s Korea, Willow sought for a better life in Hawaii. Under the Japanese occupation, women in Korea struggled to gain their rights in getting education, a lot harder for women who didn’t come from the Yangban family. As the young women in Ojin Village were matched to marry, Willow was matched with a stranger across the sea by exchanging pictures. Though she was matched to marry a wealthy man, her dream was to pursue better education in Hawaii.

I can’t even begin to imagine such experience of marrying a stranger to a world unknown with no slightest idea of the language to communicate. It was refreshing to go through Willow’s journey, her innocence has given her a lot of expectations in the land where “food and clothing is so plentiful, it grows on trees” yet, it’s devastating to see the other women’s lives shattered when they anticipated so much to marry the men they’d chosen only to be duped by the pictures of their respective future husbands and the promises. I have not heard about “picture brides” before and I’m glad that I’m able to learn through this piece of literature; the history, challenges, and expectations put in Korean immigrants. All and all, everything did not come the way we wanted it to be. Far from family, being mistreated in a strange land, struggling to adjust.

I particularly love the relationship Willow established with her best friend, Hongju, and the other women who came in the same journey as her. The emotions put into these women by the author are pertinent that I felt sympathetic. However, because this is my first time of reading a translated version of a book, the writing doesn’t really flow smoothly from scene to scene and action to action. It took me long to finish and to get myself to fully indulge in the moment every time I continue reading it. I wish I had read the original version in Korean the first time.

Overall, if you love Asian literature and historical fiction I’d suggest you give The Picture Bride a go. A beautiful story to learn about a piece of history of Korean diaspora.

3.5 stars

The Picture Bride is an insightful narrative about a historical period and culture with which I'm unfamiliar. The concept of picture brides is fascinating and terrifying - so many of these women travelled across the world to be misled and often mistreated. Stranded in a strange country where they don't speak the language, many of them illiterate, it would be impossible to do anything other than accept the situation.

"'For me, Korea is the enemy. Because our land is powerless, I lost my husband and my child. But Hawai'i is not Korea, there you'll have no country to protect. Once you're there, just forget us here, be happy with your husband and children, and enjoy life. That's my only wish.'
Her mother's bitter voice was engraved on Willow's heart as she fell asleep."

While Willow's perspective is not devoid of emotion or introspection, I struggled to feel a connection to her and the narrative. I was a passive observer, and it's certainly not because the story wasn't interesting or engaging - I was wholly intrigued with what would happen to her and these other women. The writing style flows from one action to the next, so I think that left me disengaged, just going with the flow.

I would highly recommend The Picture Bride to fans of historical fiction who would like to learn more about an interesting facet of Hawaiian and Korean histories.