I really wanted to like this book... Historical Fiction is a favourite genre, and this book's description was riveting.

The book however was slow, and just had enough going on for me to continue listening because I wanted to know how it all ended... And while the basic simplified version of the story was interesting, the telling of it fell flat... The narrator did nothing to make the narrative gripping either. I plodded through the book, and I would not recommend it.

A non fiction history book could be made more compelling than this book.

I was so looking forward to this historical fiction novel about the Vietnamese sisters who overthrew the Han in their lands, rode to battle on elephants, and declared themselves king. And it truly is a fascinating and important bit of history. Unfortunately it gets bogged down by telling their entire story with so many details that the narrative becomes difficult to focus on. I'm glad to have read it but disappointed not to have loved it.

The Trung sisters are national heroines of Vietnam. They rebelled against Han China and became co-queens. However, they were eventually defeated by China. In this historical novel, Bronze Drum tells not only the story of the Trung sisters, but how the Vietnamese suffered under China. The oppression they suffered under the hands of China forces the Trung sisters to go to war.

I was really excited about this audiobook because there are very few stories about the Trung sisters. Yet, it did not take long for my excitement to begin to turn to disappointment. The reason why I was letdown was to die with the characterization of Trung Trac and Trung Nhi. The two sisters were very one-dimensional. They were not given much depth. Trung Trac is introduced as the obedient daughter who stays inside to read and write. There are times when she is rebellious, but she mostly stays the same. Trung Nhi stays the same throughout the audiobook. She is rebellious and does not want to conform to society. She does not undergo a character arc. Therefore, the sisters were very bland. Trung Trac had more character development. However, it was not much. Therefore, I could not connect with them emotionally, and they seemed very distant. Therefore, I was not heavily invested with the story. It took me a while to finish it, and sometimes I contemplated not finishing the audiobook.

Overall, this audiobook is about war, injustice, and sisterhood. The characters were all bland. The story was very slow moving. There are very few action scenes. The sentences were simplistic and did not have any vivid imagery. However, the audiobook is meticulously researched and was filled with many facts about ancient Vietnam. Therefore, I wished that it was a nonfiction work on the Trung sisters rather than historical fiction. Thus, Bronze Drum has potential but is not executed well. I appreciate that there is an audiobook about the Trung sisters, but Mrs. Nguyen did not do them justice. As for the narrator, I had an hard time understanding her because of her thick accent. All the characters sounded the same, and I wished for a different narrator who sounded clearer. Instead, I recommend you to skip this and read the more superior version of the Trung sisters by Georgina Hutchinson called Daughters of Lac. I’ll be rereading Daughters of Lac and keep my eye out for any novels about the fascinating Trung sisters in the future.

DNF. Based on the positive reviews I've read of Bronze Drum, I can say with certainty that this is a case of it's a me problem, not a book problem. It might even be a me in this particular season of life problem because I think at another time, I might have really enjoyed this book. I love history, and while I don't read much historical fiction, what I do, I tend to enjoy. Bronze Drum is a fictionalized account of two sisters in ancient Vietnam who raised an army of women in a bid to overthrow the Han Chinese which honestly sounded right up my alley. I'm even teaching my middle schooler specifically history of the eastern hemisphere this year, so I was really excited to pick this one up. I've seen it compared to Circe or The Night Tiger, both of which I enjoyed. I think it was just too dense for me right now. I've been needing light fluffy escapist reads, and this isn't that.

BUT if you love strong, female characters, learning about other cultures and other periods of history, and beautiful, lyrical writing, you should pick up Bronze Drum and give it a shot.

This one was really good and I enjoyed it. I loved the history of it and feel like I learned a lot while reading/listening. Would definitely recommend to those that like Asian history, and stories along the same lines as The Mountains Sing, etc.

i liked the folklore premise of this but the storytelling was too dry and generic, especially the sisters' personalities. which is a pity as the story had promise.

As someone who has amped up their usage of audiobooks in the past year, I found the narrator of Bronze Drum, Quyen Ngo, brought a level of dynamism I’ve yet to experience again.

Two sisters create an army of women, fend off their oppressors, and unite a nation.

The year is 40 CE. The setting is the Au Lac region of ancient Vietnam. Here is where two sparring sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, will grow to become legends.

Lyrically written, this novel was unlike anything I’ve read before. The history was all new to me and I was captivated from the outset. The first half-ish of the novel help the reader understand the historic context and the character of the two sisters. Then tragedy pushes them to become leaders and generals. This part of the book is both full of military strategy and sooo exciting. I was on the edge of my seat!

Highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys history, learning about different ways of life, feminist story lines, or just wants to read about the evolution of some really badass women.

✨ Review ✨ Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen; Narrated by Quyen Ngo

I had been putting off this book for a bit because I'd read a couple of other long books that had similar sorts of vibes and I needed a bit of space, but I can't believe I put this one off for so long.

This book traces the story of two warrior sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, who lived in 40CE Vietnam. While much of the book details their training, studying, and youth, eventually the women go on to lead an army of women to "overthrow the Han Chinese and rule as kings over a united people."

In a time and place I don't really know much about, I learned a lot about the ways that the Han Chinese Confucian principles conflicted with traditional Vietnamese ways of life. I was really fascinated with the matriarchal structures present in Vietnam, and this made for a really beautiful book for badass girl power 2 centuries ago.

The writing style seems to be one of the biggest negative comments this book receives, but it's following a mythic style, similar to books like Circe, and for me it seemed to fit what the author was going for. The audio narrator also made this writing style feel natural and fitting with the book.

The book was perhaps a bit long, but maybe that was my fault for trying to binge it in a day (super bingeable). I really enjoyed this and the book made me want to learn more about ancient Vietnam!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: historical fiction
Location: 40CE Vietnam
Pub Date: out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ strong female warriors
⭕️ historical fiction set in Asia
⭕️ mythic writing style

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Audio, and #netgalley for advanced listening and e- copies of this book!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hachette Audio, Grand Central Publishing for my copy of Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen Narrated by Quyen Ngo in exchange for an honest review. It published August 9, 2022.
first off, I really enjoyed the narration, it was so well-done, I commend the high skill demonstrated.
Wow, this book was just so good. I learned so much about Viet culture and history, and I really appreciate the storytelling here. I think this story is very important to preserve. If you're interested in Viet history, I would highly suggest this.

What a beautifully written story. It was a very slow burn for me but overall enjoyable. I really liked the story because it’s something I haven’t read before.

#bronzedrum chronicles the lives, loves, and revolutionary presence of the Trung sisters in their home of Lac Viet. Any story that centres sisters and historical significance will always catch my interest.

Nguyen has brought to the page these two women who fought against the Han occupation to maintain the way of life of their ancestors, to assert their autonomy, and secure freedom for all their people.

I love that in developing them, they were given distinct personalities and bahaviours that spoke to the roles that they were meant to fulfill as they matured. That he was able to depict with such richness how these women would take on the roles of King and Generals, shows the respect he holds for this part of his history that may not be as well known as it should be. It also speaks to his awareness of the strength and military prowess of women.

What makes this story stand out is the manner in which Nguyen centres the bronze drum and its meaning to the Lac Viet people: to their festivals, traditions and even how they utilized it in their revolution.

“It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.” Or so said the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 4th century BCE. As many lessons in both military history, leadership and philosophy that we see the Trưng sisters attend in the first half of this story, it’s a lesson that they failed to learn if they heard it or the equivalent in the philosophers that they did study in 1st century CE Vietnam.

The Trưng sisters, Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị, were the daughters of one of the Vietnamese lords who ruled their provinces under the oppressive thumb of the Han Chinese during the first Chinese domination of Vietnam. A domination that was ended, however briefly, by the Trưng sisters’ rebellion.


Drum From Sông Đà Vietnam. Đông Sơn II Culture. Mid 1st Millenium BCE. Bronze
So the bones of this story really happened. Including the smelting of the bronze drums that that rebellion had used so very successfully in the overthrow of their oppressors.

But 2,000 years is a long time ago, especially in the history of a people that has been conquered and subjugated, divided and reunited, over and over again. And that’s where this historical fiction account of the only queen regnant in Vietnamese history comes in.

And what a story it is!

Escape Rating B: I had two separate and distinct reactions to Bronze Drum. I was being told a story (literally as I listened to the audiobook) in a historical tradition with which I was completely unfamiliar. And that history, the history of the Trưng sisters rebellion, its causes and its ultimate failure, was fascinating. Not just because it was new to me, but because it’s a story of a women-led uprising at a point in history where we don’t expect such things to have happened at all.

But I had a separate reaction to the story as it was being told, to the narrative progress of the fictionalized version I was listening to. And I was a bit less fascinated with how the story worked as opposed to the history that inspired it.

The story begins with the Trưng sisters as very young women, and the story of their early years takes up the first half of the book. While the reader – or certainly this reader – needs an introduction to their society at that point in time, this part of the story dragged in the telling of it. They are sisters, they fight a lot, the younger resents the elder, is rebellious and misbehaves, and not much happens in the grand scheme of things.


The Trưng sisters ride elephants into battle in this Đông Hồ style painting
It’s only in the second half that the pace picks up. As the immediate reasons for the rebellion start piling up – literally as in bodies stacked like cordwood – we start reaching the events that really matter. The women of Vietnam rise up and overthrow the oppressive Han regime, through training and teamwork and an indomitable will. It’s exciting and it grabs the reader’s attention and doesn’t let go.

And I think this would have been a better story if it had focused there instead of the long, drawn out recounting of their earlier years. Your reading mileage, of course, may vary.

About the audiobook…Bronze Drum is a book that I listened to in its entirety. I did try switching to the text but the way that the names are pronounced and the way that they are transliterated from the Vietnamese into the English alphabet are markedly different. Enough to make switching between the two difficult for someone who isn’t familiar with the language. (While I recognize that this is a “me” problem, if it’s also potentially a “you” problem it’s something to keep in mind.)

A lot of the books I listen to as opposed to reading are from first-person perspectives. I find those particularly well suited to audiobooks as I really get the experience of being inside the narrator’s head. Bronze Drum is in the third person, and there is a lot more narration of that third person overview than there is either dialog or internal thoughts. Narration is, of necessity, at a bit of a remove, and as a consequence the narration of this book is dispassionate to the point of being a bit flat, making the audio experience a bit of a mixed bag as well as the story. The listening experience was much closer to that of an unvoiced (un-acted) narration and that’s not what I listen to audiobooks for.

One final note. In the way that the story is told, Bronze Drum reminds me a LOT of Kaikeyi. And not just because both stories are in traditions that I was not familiar with. Both stories spend a lot of time on that portrait of the protagonist as a young girl, when they are not able to fully participate in the important events around them or yet to come. And both are stories of women taking prominent places in men’s stories and in a man’s world at a time and place where that was not expected. The major difference, at least to this reader, is that Kaikeyi puts a female perspective and a feminist interpretation on a myth, while Bronze Drum is a feminist history that really happened.

This is how you write HISTORICAL FICTION!

Phong Nguyen’s “Bronze Drum” is a masterpiece in terms of historical fiction! The book’s narrative is based on the historical account of two Vietnamese sisters from the first century CE, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi. As daughters of a local Vietnamese Lord, they are expected to carry on the traditions of the Viet people and act as leaders of the community, who were under Han rule at the time. With each chapter, the listener gets a further glimpse of Vietnamese culture and an account of the struggle to keep traditions alive in a hostile environment.

When it comes to the storytelling side, Nguyen choses a rather unique way. Instead of focusing on one continuous story from cover to cover, Nguyen writes the book as a series of short stories focused on specific times in the life of the Trung sisters. For those of us unfamiliar with the Vietnamese history, there are also paragraphs before each short story which sets the scene. These scenes give jus enough information so as not to ruin the listening experience, why I greatly appreciated!

Quyen Ngo, the narrator of the book, also deserves a lot of praise for the great work put into giving each of the character their own voice. Even at 2x speed, the Ngo’s voice is clear and pleasant to listen to.

Overall, it’s an audiobook that I highlight recommend and I am looking forward for more of Phon Nguyen’s literary works.

Special thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, Grand Central Publishing and the editorial team for giving me the opportunity to review the ARC in audiobook format and to you, my reader, for taking the time to read this honest personal book review.

If you are interested in other of my book reviews, make sure to follow me on GoodReads!

#BronzeDrumAudio #NetGalley

A captivating story of ancient Vietnam and the two sisters who raised an army of women to challenge the Han Chinese. Filled with descriptions of growth, learning, love, loyalty, and bravery, this book is based on the true story of Trung Trac and Trung Nhi as they grow from children of a Vietnamese Lord, in a country that is forced to live under Han Chinese rule. As the sister’s age they each face multiple hardships, and rather than bow or break, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi set out to build an army that can free their people.

This was a beautiful story, and while outside of my typical genres, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The narration was extremely well done, and allowed me to enjoy the story rather than stumble over some of the pronunciation, which I am sure I would do otherwise! From bickering with their tutor, to hunting a tiger, and flirting with men in a tavern, the women in this story are enchanting and awe-inspiring. I am glad I read this one!

Thank you so much to the author and @grandcentralpub for my gifted copy of this book! Thank you also to net galley, Hachette Audio, and the publisher for a chance to listen and review!

Bronze Drum is a Historical Fiction book based on the legendary Tru’ng Sisters. This book follows Tru’ng Trac and Tru’ng Nhi throughout different time periods of their lives. Tru’ng Trac is the obedient, serious, parent pleasing older sister. Tru’ng Nhi is carefree and more interested in living without constraints. Their differences set them apart but also bring them closely together. They complement one another. This story is tragic and heartbreaking but also incredibly powerful. Under the oppressive rule of the Han Chinese these two sisters demonstrate how powerful women are. Although, they suffer a lot of heartache their military prowess allows them to fight for freedom and independence. This book was beautifully written and you can see the amount of care and love the author had while writing it. It was infused with beautiful prose and culture/traditions. I was completely mesmerized and intrigued to learn more about Vietnamese history and customs. I also loved the narrator Quyen Ngo she made me feel like I was there right in the midst of everything. I definitely recommend reading this book!

Most of the historical fiction books I read take place within the past two centuries but this one took me back to the early days of the Current Era (40 CE) Viet Nam. As with many historical fiction reads, I do a little online research to look up names, dates, places, etc. to see how they align with the book. The story of The Trung sisters in this book are actual sisters that were able to put aside their differences to lead an army of women warriors to take over the rulers of the Chinese Han colonization of the Viet people. The author has a gift in bringing these sisters to life and instilling distinct personalities that we can relate to in modern times. This is a hefty book of facts woven into a touching story about family, tradition, values and power.

🎧 I grabbed this audiobook after seeing it was an August @bookofthemonth pick. I’m a little torn of how I feel about it. In the end I really loved the story of the Trung sisters, and it really look me out of my comfort zone deep down into Vietnamese history and legend. I’m glad that I listened to it because I think I would have struggled reading some of the unfamiliar names and places. I also now realize that each part of the story was important, but at the time it seemed very long.

In the end I’m glad that I snagged this audiobook. I would like to thank @netgalley and @hachetteaudio for selecting me to listen to and review #BronzeDrumAudio.

#netgalley
#hachetteaudio
#readmorebooks
#mybookishlife

Based on a true story, Bronze Drum follows two sisters in their fight against the Han Chinese to free their people. Starting when the women are young girls, this novel showcases the bond they share and portrays their bond in a raw, emotional way.

Fans of historical fiction who are looking for non-western stories will absolutely adore this one. Overall, this novel was entertaining and captivating while simultaneously being educational and insightful.

Read this novel for:
- Unique prose
- Sisterly bonds
- Vietnamese history
- BA female characters

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Happy Book Birthday to this incredible book Bronze Drum. 🎂📚🥳

I love stories about strong fierce women throughout history and this book about ancient Vietnam did not disappoint. It is based on a true story about two warrior Vietnamese sisters who rise up against an oppressive Han Chinese regime and lead an army of women to gain their freedom.

This book may be about ancient history but it reads like a contemporary work. It is fast paced, feminist and has all of the elements of an action film. The writing is exquisite and the author's ability to draw you into this ancient world yet make it feel so modern in many ways is extraordinary.

The fierce Trung sisters are brave, smart incredible warriors and who are.The beauty of this book is you get to see them mature and evolve into incredible warriors and leaders and still feel connected to their very human side. They are also women of great passion and Bronze Drum explores this duality at great length with a bit of romance. Their ability to inspire an army of women is incredible.

I loved that Bronze Drum helped me to experience Vietnam's rich culture from antiquity. Sadly, so little about Vietnam's history is known to most beyond the Vietnam War. I hope this book will inspire people to take a deeper dive into this amazing culture (as well as many others they may be unfamiliar with)and learn more about its history and people - especially its kick-ass women!

Thank you Hachette Audio for this amazing ALC