I really enjoyed this multiple POV book set mostly in Korea. I loved the setting and the descriptions of Korea. The MC is a woman who journeys to the land of her ancestors in search on answers. The story expands to include her mother and aunt, who she did not know existed. The descriptions of life as a 'Comfort Woman' are painful to read but add to the depth of the narrative. Overall, really great.

Fascinating, riveting, instructive novel about a woman’s return to Korea where she finds answers to family secrets and insight into her mother’s suicide. Very informative about the Japanese occupation of Korea and the history of the “comfort women.”

I had never heard of the “comfort women” before reading this book. Wow is all I can say for this story of Angelina and her search and the life she lived. Keisuke was such an interesting person in this narrative.

The charaa a caters and scenes were so well developed I could see everything in my minds eye while reading this book.

I highly recommend this book. It is such a great read!

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This is a historical novel that takes place mostly in Korea. A woman is searching for her aunt who was taken by the Japanese during WWII and forced into service as a “comfort woman.” During her search we learn a lot about Korea and the war, about the women divers. This is also a love story and a story about family.

Stone Angels by Helena Rho is an important read that brings up a dark time in history of "comfort women" in Japan that were young girls taken from Korea. That is a small part of this story but an important one. The families that were broken apart have an effect for generations and this is what we see in this book. Angelina's story is so important as she travels to her mom's country to learn Korean after her mom. has passed. While there she uncovers more about the family's history. There were parts of Angelina's story that I didn't love, but I understand why the author included it to show the human side of the next generations. This book has so much to discuss and would make a great bookclub pick., my book club was able to get a copy from The Book Club cookbook Galley Match program and our discussion was fantastic, with varying views and we all picked up different important parts of the book as important. Look for this book out in March 2025.

Stone Angels is a page turner driven by a quest to understand multicultural identity and the inherited trauma of exile. The stories of multiple characters are tightly woven together in an international drama. Dynamic characters in complex relationships, interesting historical context and crisp description of place will draw you into the story. You will be intrigued, heartbroken, and long for more. I fully recommend Rho's masterful novel!

A love letter to women; an ode to motherhood. ‘Stone Angels’ tells the story, from multiple points of view, of three generations of women in a Korean family. It is an ambitious novel that explores loneliness and grief, love and loss, intergenerational trauma, cultural identity, and redemption.

By far the most compelling story is that of Sunyuh, kidnapped and forced to become a ‘comfort woman’ by the Japanese during WWII. Her story is an important and horrific part of history that needs to be heard and remembered, and for that alone, I am thankful for this book. Her story is the emotional backbone of the story as her experience ripples out with devastating impact on her mother, her sister Gongju, and then down to her niece Angelina.

Most of the story revolves around Angelina, and while her narrative is the least-compelling, it resonates with authenticity as she explores her cultural heritage and personal history, faces her perceived failings, and ultimately finds what she has been seeking. And with her we become immersed in Korean culture, with beautiful depictions of its land, its rich history, and its people [I particularly loved learning more about the haenyo, the female free divers on Jeju Island].

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is an important story and I thank Helena Rho for writing it. I am very glad to have read it. (Pub Date for this novel is March 4, 2025)

I love a story of a family that spans time and historical events. That's the historian in me, so I was excited to read this story of a Korean/Korean American family. Unfortunately for me, I really did not connect with the primary MC, Angelina, a 40 year old recent divorcee. She travels to her mother's home, Korea, after her mother's death, to take a Korean language course, but also to reconnect with her mother's family. When she arrives at her grandmother's house, she learns from a cousin about a family secret, that her mother had a sister she never mentioned, an aunt that Angelina is named for, Sunyuh.

The rest of my review contains spoilers, and can be found at Goodreads (with spoilers hidden).

The best form of literature comes from the existential conflict of a character at war with herself, and in Stone Angels we get war in sweeping charges and retreats with Angelina. We also work through an immersion in another culture, led by the character herself; Korea comes to us as confusingly as it comes to our protagonist, an American-Korean who seeks to find her Korean family and to understand what cultural forces shaped her mother and hence herself.

Stone Angels holds a family secret finally big enough to anchor a big book – the sex slaves taken and abused by the Japanese and unacknowledged both by their tormentors and by their own country. This isn't backdrop or political frippery—it's laid out for us through direct, horrific experience.

There are chapters of anguish and chapters where we take wing. There is dark lyricism (as in February 1945) and there is resolution (as in Gongju's salvation as she loses her unrequited love). There is nearly a Buddhist guidebook on how to recover a crumbled adult life from failure. The author takes huge risks in what is a novel of interiority, with complex structure and double timelines, and wins through. Stone Angels is a redemption story, and we all love redemption.

This is an important book you won't truck off to the book sale. Keep it and revisit it like calling up an old friend.

After her mother commits suicide in 2006, Angelina Lee uses the opportunity of a summer course in Korea as part of her doctoral program studies. She left Seoul thirty-five years before as a child when her parents emigrated to the US. She returns in search of answers about the crippling sadness that led her mother to end her life. It’s also an opportunity for her to examine her own life’s trajectory after divorce. Her excavation of the family’s past bring light to history dating from the World War II era Japanese occupation of Korea. Her mother’s sister was kidnapped and forced to become one of the “comfort” women brutalized by Japanese troops. The entire family suffered in unimaginable, long-lasting ways. Readers will cheer for Angelina’s courage as she persists in her dual missions, join her in sorrow for her scarred family, and admire her as she opens herself to a life that permits joy

Author Helena Rho weaves past and present into a compelling whole, telling a multi-layered tale of generational effects of trauma. In this skillfully wrought novel, she employs powerful scenes, lyrical descriptions of settings, and flawless plotting to create a compelling experience for her readers. I heartily recommend Stone Angels.