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Daughters of the Sun and Moon
Beloved
New York Times
bestselling author Lisa See draws on the vibrancy and turmoil of post-Civil War Los Angeles to tell the story of three Chinese women who managed to survive and, eventually, thrive, despite all odds.
In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty and violent pueblo of Los Angeles. Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry and with dirt between her toes. In a moment of desperation, Petal’s father sells her to buy money for rice seed, and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain – America – where she is once again sold. Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. She is educated, speaks fluent English and has been endowed with a face of great beauty, yet her failed footbinding as a child has left her with a limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many.
Each woman has her own desires. Dove wants to love and be loved, Petal desires freedom and Moon seeks justice. Together they face a larger society that wishes them not one ounce of good will. Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined.
Brought together by hardship and heartbreak, they must use their bravery, endurance and ability to ‘eat bitterness,’ discover their voices, find freedom and connect through solace and friendship. Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.
In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty and violent pueblo of Los Angeles. Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry and with dirt between her toes. In a moment of desperation, Petal’s father sells her to buy money for rice seed, and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain – America – where she is once again sold. Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. She is educated, speaks fluent English and has been endowed with a face of great beauty, yet her failed footbinding as a child has left her with a limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many.
Each woman has her own desires. Dove wants to love and be loved, Petal desires freedom and Moon seeks justice. Together they face a larger society that wishes them not one ounce of good will. Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined.
Brought together by hardship and heartbreak, they must use their bravery, endurance and ability to ‘eat bitterness,’ discover their voices, find freedom and connect through solace and friendship. Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.
Audio CD
First published June 9, 2026
About the author
Lisa See
26 books54.7k followersLisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, The Island of Sea Women, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. Her books have been published in 39 languages. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the History Maker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women. You can learn more about her at www.LisaSee.com. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,386 reviews
July 1, 2026
Lisa See takes us back through time to 1870. A time when young Chinese women were given up by their families in China and sold to come to America. Many of them being forced to work in bawdy houses. All against their will.
Early on we meet Moon, who is now 80, and recounts how she met Dove & Petal. Moon, was the Chinese doctor’s wife; Petal, brought in to work in a brothel’ aka the 'wife of a thousand men'; Dove, hand-picked to be the second wife to a 60 year old man. All from different classes and backgrounds but somehow they manage to form a connection- a friendship.
Many of these Chinese were treated with hostility and discrimination. Women treated as chattel; concubines; all known to be ‘worthless’.
Lee captured the abandonment and shame these young women no doubt experienced, but she also captured their strength, bravery and resilience.
I appreciate Lee’s ability to weave in the Chinese women’s history in America. How there were 47 Chinese females who arrived in 1870. How The Night of Horrors - which was the Chinese Massacre of 1871 - impacted all the Chinese who resided in the L.A. area. The policies that existed which were brutal for the Chinese women.
A shameful time in American history.
4.5 ⭐️
Early on we meet Moon, who is now 80, and recounts how she met Dove & Petal. Moon, was the Chinese doctor’s wife; Petal, brought in to work in a brothel’ aka the 'wife of a thousand men'; Dove, hand-picked to be the second wife to a 60 year old man. All from different classes and backgrounds but somehow they manage to form a connection- a friendship.
Many of these Chinese were treated with hostility and discrimination. Women treated as chattel; concubines; all known to be ‘worthless’.
Lee captured the abandonment and shame these young women no doubt experienced, but she also captured their strength, bravery and resilience.
I appreciate Lee’s ability to weave in the Chinese women’s history in America. How there were 47 Chinese females who arrived in 1870. How The Night of Horrors - which was the Chinese Massacre of 1871 - impacted all the Chinese who resided in the L.A. area. The policies that existed which were brutal for the Chinese women.
A shameful time in American history.
4.5 ⭐️
June 6, 2026
If Lisa See is associated with it, I’m in.
Someone just asked if I've read this, and indeed I have! I just haven't had time to write a review. While not See's best work, I love the historical fiction of Los Angeles in the 1870s, a time where rampant racism and anti-Chinese sentiment ran true. It definitely has correlations to how we view immigrants today, and where their place in the world are knowing there is so much hatred...simply because they're not born here.
Told from the perspective of three Chinese women, who have all come to the U.S. to make a better life for themselves, some being sold by their families, the three struggle to assimilate, becomes forced into prostitution, loveless marriages, and so forth.
My only caveat, I felt like it wrapped up a little too...nicely. This wasn't an easy time to live until much later, especially well after the Chinese Exclusion act ended. Regardless, the story is an important one, and every AMERICAN, should learn about it.
Someone just asked if I've read this, and indeed I have! I just haven't had time to write a review. While not See's best work, I love the historical fiction of Los Angeles in the 1870s, a time where rampant racism and anti-Chinese sentiment ran true. It definitely has correlations to how we view immigrants today, and where their place in the world are knowing there is so much hatred...simply because they're not born here.
Told from the perspective of three Chinese women, who have all come to the U.S. to make a better life for themselves, some being sold by their families, the three struggle to assimilate, becomes forced into prostitution, loveless marriages, and so forth.
My only caveat, I felt like it wrapped up a little too...nicely. This wasn't an easy time to live until much later, especially well after the Chinese Exclusion act ended. Regardless, the story is an important one, and every AMERICAN, should learn about it.
July 12, 2026
Los Angeles in 1870 had 5,000 inhabitants, 110 saloons, six policemen, and no laws about drunkenness or sex work.
Into this dust-blown pueblo arrive three Chinese women, none of whom chose to come.
Lisa See's Daughters of the Sun and Moon braids the stories of Dove, Petal, and Moon, who live within the same adobe block.
The novel unfolds in a three-tiered narration: Moon speaks in first-person past tense from 1926, looking back across 55 years with the candor of a woman in her 80s; Petal tells her story in first-person present tense, raw and immediate; and Dove appears in third-person present.
The phrase that recurs throughout Daughters of the Sun and Moon is "eating bitterness," the Cantonese expression for swallowing hardship without complaint.
Each woman eats her own variety and plenty of it.
The novel builds toward the Chinese Massacre of October 24, 1871, when an angry mob attacked the pueblo and killed 19 Chinese residents.
The author’s note at the back is essential reading and is honest about what See compressed and combined, drawn from court records, newspapers, and contemporary accounts.
Readers who love historical fiction grounded in archival rigor, who appreciate friendship novels where the friendship is hard-won, will find a great deal to savor here.
Perfect for your next book club read.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Lisa See continues to be the queen of Asian literature. She is the ultimate champion of Chinese women in history, sharing their stories with readers everywhere. I definitely enjoyed this historical fiction book, and fans of this author will too.
This is a story about three Chinese women who meet by chance in Los Angeles in 1870. They are very different from one another, but they soon form a friendship that will bond them together for their entire lives. They all searched for either love, freedom, or justice.
Dove was sent to America at the age of seventeen to be the second wife to a store owner in the new town of Los Angeles, while his wife and children stay home in China to fulfill their filial duty to their ancestors. Dove's duty was to serve her older new husband, follow his every command, and be a symbol of his wealth.
At 18 years old, Petal is sold by her parents in China and sent to California to live a hard life of prostitution. Her dream is to one day return to China and be happy again.
Moon's narrative takes place when she is 82 years old, but she shares her memories of her life in Los Angeles with her loving Chinese husband who is a local physician, and how her life changed when she met Dove and Petal, when she was twenty-six.
All these women arrived in Los Angeles when there were very few Chinese people. Women were bought, sold, and owned. Even though slavery had been abolished, it didn't change things for these immigrant women. They had little value, were hidden away, and had absolutely no control over their bodies or their lives. The Chinese immigrants were vilified and persecuted.
A large part of this book centers around a significant, but little-known historical event. In October of 1871, a large group of rioters and vigilantes in Los Angeles rounded up all the Chinese people they could get their hands on and with the mayor and police turning their backs on the scene, the Chinese were brutally attacked and murdered. This became known as the Chinese Massacre of 1871 or the Night of Horrors. A night of violence brought on by hatred, jealousy, and rivalry.
How the three main female characters survived, saved each other, and moved on with their lives is a beautiful portrait of strength, solidarity, and love.
The Author's Note at the end of the book was greatly appreciated. It contains numerous interesting facts, including information on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
My sincere thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a DRC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a story about three Chinese women who meet by chance in Los Angeles in 1870. They are very different from one another, but they soon form a friendship that will bond them together for their entire lives. They all searched for either love, freedom, or justice.
Dove was sent to America at the age of seventeen to be the second wife to a store owner in the new town of Los Angeles, while his wife and children stay home in China to fulfill their filial duty to their ancestors. Dove's duty was to serve her older new husband, follow his every command, and be a symbol of his wealth.
At 18 years old, Petal is sold by her parents in China and sent to California to live a hard life of prostitution. Her dream is to one day return to China and be happy again.
Moon's narrative takes place when she is 82 years old, but she shares her memories of her life in Los Angeles with her loving Chinese husband who is a local physician, and how her life changed when she met Dove and Petal, when she was twenty-six.
All these women arrived in Los Angeles when there were very few Chinese people. Women were bought, sold, and owned. Even though slavery had been abolished, it didn't change things for these immigrant women. They had little value, were hidden away, and had absolutely no control over their bodies or their lives. The Chinese immigrants were vilified and persecuted.
A large part of this book centers around a significant, but little-known historical event. In October of 1871, a large group of rioters and vigilantes in Los Angeles rounded up all the Chinese people they could get their hands on and with the mayor and police turning their backs on the scene, the Chinese were brutally attacked and murdered. This became known as the Chinese Massacre of 1871 or the Night of Horrors. A night of violence brought on by hatred, jealousy, and rivalry.
How the three main female characters survived, saved each other, and moved on with their lives is a beautiful portrait of strength, solidarity, and love.
The Author's Note at the end of the book was greatly appreciated. It contains numerous interesting facts, including information on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
My sincere thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a DRC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
June 16, 2026
DAUGHTERS OF THE SUN AND MOON
By Lisa See
Narrated by Jennifer Lim, Quanna Luo Masterson, Emily Loo Zeller, and Lisa See
Another forgotten—and ugly—chapter in American history.
Set against the backdrop of the 1871 Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles, this historical fiction novel is layered with stories of survival and belonging. It follows three Chinese women—Dove, Petal, and Moon—whose lives intersect in late nineteenth-century Los Angeles.
Coming from vastly different backgrounds, each faces hardship, sacrifice, and the limitations placed on women as they navigate life amid growing anti-Chinese sentiment.
I appreciate Lisa See’s commitment to uncovering history that has been lost, forgotten, or deliberately overlooked—particularly the stories of women. The characters in Daughters of the Sun and Moon are inspired by real women and men who lived in Los Angeles during the early 1870s. Petal was the most emotionally compelling character for me, and I admired her remarkable courage and resilience.
Extensively researched and richly detailed, this character-driven novel transports readers to nineteenth-century Los Angeles. The tone is reflective, emotional, and at times heartbreaking, yet balanced with moments of strength, perseverance, and hope.
Themes of immigration, prejudice, friendship, family, resilience, and belonging run throughout the story.
After finishing this moving novel, I found myself reflecting on the treatment of Chinese immigrants in nineteenth-century America, particularly during the Night of Horrors in Los Angeles, and considering how those events echo the experiences of many immigrants today. I knew very little about this horrifying event and found myself researching it after I finished the book. The novel raises an important question: Have we learned from the past, or are we destined to repeat it?
The narration by Jennifer Lim, Quanna Luo Masterson, and Emily Woo Zeller gave Dove, Petal, and Moon distinct voices, making it easy to connect with each woman’s story. I’ve enjoyed several of Lisa See’s previous novels, and Daughters of the Sun and Moon is another memorable read. Be sure to listen to the author’s note, where she shares the historical research and real-life events that inspired the novel.
I combined my Goodreads Giveaway copy with the audiobook, which made for an even more immersive reading experience.
By Lisa See
Narrated by Jennifer Lim, Quanna Luo Masterson, Emily Loo Zeller, and Lisa See
Another forgotten—and ugly—chapter in American history.
Set against the backdrop of the 1871 Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles, this historical fiction novel is layered with stories of survival and belonging. It follows three Chinese women—Dove, Petal, and Moon—whose lives intersect in late nineteenth-century Los Angeles.
Coming from vastly different backgrounds, each faces hardship, sacrifice, and the limitations placed on women as they navigate life amid growing anti-Chinese sentiment.
I appreciate Lisa See’s commitment to uncovering history that has been lost, forgotten, or deliberately overlooked—particularly the stories of women. The characters in Daughters of the Sun and Moon are inspired by real women and men who lived in Los Angeles during the early 1870s. Petal was the most emotionally compelling character for me, and I admired her remarkable courage and resilience.
Extensively researched and richly detailed, this character-driven novel transports readers to nineteenth-century Los Angeles. The tone is reflective, emotional, and at times heartbreaking, yet balanced with moments of strength, perseverance, and hope.
Themes of immigration, prejudice, friendship, family, resilience, and belonging run throughout the story.
After finishing this moving novel, I found myself reflecting on the treatment of Chinese immigrants in nineteenth-century America, particularly during the Night of Horrors in Los Angeles, and considering how those events echo the experiences of many immigrants today. I knew very little about this horrifying event and found myself researching it after I finished the book. The novel raises an important question: Have we learned from the past, or are we destined to repeat it?
The narration by Jennifer Lim, Quanna Luo Masterson, and Emily Woo Zeller gave Dove, Petal, and Moon distinct voices, making it easy to connect with each woman’s story. I’ve enjoyed several of Lisa See’s previous novels, and Daughters of the Sun and Moon is another memorable read. Be sure to listen to the author’s note, where she shares the historical research and real-life events that inspired the novel.
I combined my Goodreads Giveaway copy with the audiobook, which made for an even more immersive reading experience.
June 14, 2026
This is my third Lisa See novel and another 5 star. If she writes it, I'm going to read it.
The three main characters, Dove, Petal and Moon stole my heart. Each of their povs alternated throughout the story and I found myself equally connected to each of them. I love a strong female character!
I was unaware of this time in history and absolutely horrified by the Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871. The scenes in the book where this takes place were so hard to read.
I highly recommend Daughters of the Sun and Moon!
My thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for the gifted copy.
The three main characters, Dove, Petal and Moon stole my heart. Each of their povs alternated throughout the story and I found myself equally connected to each of them. I love a strong female character!
I was unaware of this time in history and absolutely horrified by the Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871. The scenes in the book where this takes place were so hard to read.
I highly recommend Daughters of the Sun and Moon!
My thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for the gifted copy.
June 9, 2026
This is a powerful and beautifully written book with vivid characters and a strong emotional atmosphere. The subject matter was much heavier than I expected, and the reading experience became difficult for me personally. Readers who are comfortable with very dark themes may connect with it more than I did.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance digital copy.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance digital copy.
July 15, 2026
I love Lisa See. This one spans the Lives of three Women and Starts in 1870 as they journey to Los Angeles with dreams of a new life. California was not exactly welcoming to Asian Immigrants. Much Violence is to coming.
Petal, Moon, and Dove each live very different lives, but their friendship sustains them.
With Lisa See, I always learn so much history I was unaware of. The Night of Horrors and all the Chinese killed was awful, yet rarely documented. It was a hard life in Los Angeles during this time period. This story was exceptional moving and felt for the three women characters and all they had to endure. It was Wonderful to See each find Their Voice in a Time it was so Difficult to Do. Yet, love for each other gets them through. Lovely Book.
Thank You NetGalley and Scribner for a copy of this book. I always leave reviews of books I read.
Petal, Moon, and Dove each live very different lives, but their friendship sustains them.
With Lisa See, I always learn so much history I was unaware of. The Night of Horrors and all the Chinese killed was awful, yet rarely documented. It was a hard life in Los Angeles during this time period. This story was exceptional moving and felt for the three women characters and all they had to endure. It was Wonderful to See each find Their Voice in a Time it was so Difficult to Do. Yet, love for each other gets them through. Lovely Book.
Thank You NetGalley and Scribner for a copy of this book. I always leave reviews of books I read.
Currently Reading
April 15, 2026I won this book and it arrived today. I am so excited. How can I post that I am reading it?
August 4, 2026
Daughters of the Sun and Moon, as the author Lisa See states, was inspired by real women: Moon—a doctor’s wife who speaks in retrospect as an old woman; Petal—a peasant girl who tells her story as she lives it in the present; and, Dove—a young wife, seen in the present as an object but from afar. In 1870, these three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty, and violent Pueblo of Los Angeles on the shores of Gold Mountain. Each woman has her own desires but together they face a ruthless society, devoid of goodwill and increasingly hostile to all three women, despite their different backgrounds. This haunting story is set during a period of rampant anti-Chinese sentiment growing to a fever pitch and culminating in the Night of Horrors, a long-forgotten but bloody episode in American history. Dove, Petal and Moon are brought together by hardship and heartbreak as they, together, discover their voices, find freedom and connect through friendship. Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.
Many years ago, I read the first published book by Lisa See, On Gold Mountain. This was a nonfiction book about her great-grandparents when they first came to Los Angeles. Lisa See’s great-great grandfather came to America to work on the transcontinental railroad. And her great-grandparents—Fong See and Letticie Pruitt—moved from Sacramento to Los Angeles in 1897 as a direct result of the 1871 massacre. I loved that book and the writing of Lisa See, never missing a book of hers and often having the privilege of seeing her at book readings at my local bookstore. What is interesting and tying On Gold Mountain with her latest book, Daughters of the Sun and Moon, is that within a few years Fong See and Ticie opened a shop, the F. Suie One Company, at the corner of Los Angeles and Marchessault Streets, where it remained for decades—just a stone’s throw from where the Night of Horrors unfolded. Lisa See said that what she learned then about the riot and massacre never left her and she wanted to know more. On Gold Mountain is a book that I will certainly have to read again soon.
“. . . .the three of us were daughters of the sun and moon—connected, but different in many ways.”
Many years ago, I read the first published book by Lisa See, On Gold Mountain. This was a nonfiction book about her great-grandparents when they first came to Los Angeles. Lisa See’s great-great grandfather came to America to work on the transcontinental railroad. And her great-grandparents—Fong See and Letticie Pruitt—moved from Sacramento to Los Angeles in 1897 as a direct result of the 1871 massacre. I loved that book and the writing of Lisa See, never missing a book of hers and often having the privilege of seeing her at book readings at my local bookstore. What is interesting and tying On Gold Mountain with her latest book, Daughters of the Sun and Moon, is that within a few years Fong See and Ticie opened a shop, the F. Suie One Company, at the corner of Los Angeles and Marchessault Streets, where it remained for decades—just a stone’s throw from where the Night of Horrors unfolded. Lisa See said that what she learned then about the riot and massacre never left her and she wanted to know more. On Gold Mountain is a book that I will certainly have to read again soon.
June 14, 2026
Once again, I’ve been reminded of why reading historical fiction is so important. My eyes were opened to an event in our country’s history that I had never even heard of before!
🤔This story centers around “The Night of Horrors” in 1871 Los Angeles, on which angry mob attacked and killed Chinese immigrants.
❤️I loved the historical context of this story and how it was told from the perspectives of three Chinese women. Unfortunately, what had the potential to be a great story wasn’t well-executed.
🤷♀️Why not five stars?
Events leading up to the massacre covered 75 percent of the story. I agree that some of these details were important for setting the stage, but the pacing felt slow and repetitive to me. We finally get to the night in question, and then the aftermath is poured out with a barrage of information in the final ten percent.
I wish that the Night of Horrors had happened earlier in the story so that the impact could have been explored in a lengthier manner.
🤔Bottom line: I have seen several stellar reviews for this book, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Even though this is my least favorite novel by See, it could still be worthwhile for historical fiction lovers.
⚠️Profanity: none that I recall
Sexual: 2/5 (A main character is a sex worker, and many chapters are devoted to her experiences, although not in great detail.)
Other: Sexual exploitation, sexually transmitted diseases, miscarriage, lynchings, racism, gun violence
🫶🏼Thanks to @scribner and @netgalley for my ARC.
🤔This story centers around “The Night of Horrors” in 1871 Los Angeles, on which angry mob attacked and killed Chinese immigrants.
❤️I loved the historical context of this story and how it was told from the perspectives of three Chinese women. Unfortunately, what had the potential to be a great story wasn’t well-executed.
🤷♀️Why not five stars?
Events leading up to the massacre covered 75 percent of the story. I agree that some of these details were important for setting the stage, but the pacing felt slow and repetitive to me. We finally get to the night in question, and then the aftermath is poured out with a barrage of information in the final ten percent.
I wish that the Night of Horrors had happened earlier in the story so that the impact could have been explored in a lengthier manner.
🤔Bottom line: I have seen several stellar reviews for this book, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Even though this is my least favorite novel by See, it could still be worthwhile for historical fiction lovers.
⚠️Profanity: none that I recall
Sexual: 2/5 (A main character is a sex worker, and many chapters are devoted to her experiences, although not in great detail.)
Other: Sexual exploitation, sexually transmitted diseases, miscarriage, lynchings, racism, gun violence
🫶🏼Thanks to @scribner and @netgalley for my ARC.
July 8, 2026
Unfortunately, this newest book by Lisa See is based on real events (such as The Night of Horrors, which I knew nothing about) and inspired by real people of Chinese ancestry that endured almost unimaginable racism and treatment, particularly in Los Angeles in 1870 when anti-Chinese sentiments were high. The 3 main female characters come from very different walks of life, each with a unique challenge, and each yearning for something. One desires to be truly loved, another desires freedom and the third seeks justice. Over time, they are brought together as they discover their individual voices. As is typical with Lisa See books, Daughters of the Sun and Moon was thoroughly researched, emotionally charged and there is again a See family connection.
In many ways it deserves a 5-star rating, yet it was so heart-wrenching that I decided on 4 stars. I realize the difficult stories that are so hard to stomach are important to know, otherwise how can we prevent history from repeating itself if we don't know the story? But be prepared because this book, with its beautiful cover, is so very hard to hear. But there is also an inspirational aspect and 2 quotes that I particularly loved are:
* "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."
* "A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live."
In many ways it deserves a 5-star rating, yet it was so heart-wrenching that I decided on 4 stars. I realize the difficult stories that are so hard to stomach are important to know, otherwise how can we prevent history from repeating itself if we don't know the story? But be prepared because this book, with its beautiful cover, is so very hard to hear. But there is also an inspirational aspect and 2 quotes that I particularly loved are:
* "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."
* "A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live."
August 2, 2026
Daughters of the Sun and Moon is a stunning novel about female friendship and how women can thrive in the face of adversity.
In 1871 Dove becomes a young wife to a 60-year-old business owner, Petal becomes a prostitute after being sold by her parents, and Moon is the wife of a local doctor. Through hardships and devastation, these women form an unbreakable, lifelong bond. Set against the backdrop of a massacre of Chinese in California, we watch these women endure a traumatic event and learn to make their way in a world torn apart by racism, sexism, and violence.
I loved the three characters. I admired Petal's adaptability and drive, loved Dove's femininity and perseverance, and Moon for her quiet strength and resilience. Each woman has a completely different story and background, but they come together within the bonds of sisterhood. All three characters have such depth and dimension that they feel real.
This novel is a masterful work of historical fiction that is poetic and beautiful. I couldn't get enough of Lisa See's writing style. I felt a gamut of emotions while reading this, from joy to horror, trauma, and hope. This is a work that is so human you walk away feeling like you lived a lifetime through these three women.
If you like historical fiction at all this novel is one you need to drop everything for. I patiently waited this books release for months once I found out See was coming out with a new work. All I can say was this novel was worth every moment I waited and every dime I paid.
In 1871 Dove becomes a young wife to a 60-year-old business owner, Petal becomes a prostitute after being sold by her parents, and Moon is the wife of a local doctor. Through hardships and devastation, these women form an unbreakable, lifelong bond. Set against the backdrop of a massacre of Chinese in California, we watch these women endure a traumatic event and learn to make their way in a world torn apart by racism, sexism, and violence.
I loved the three characters. I admired Petal's adaptability and drive, loved Dove's femininity and perseverance, and Moon for her quiet strength and resilience. Each woman has a completely different story and background, but they come together within the bonds of sisterhood. All three characters have such depth and dimension that they feel real.
This novel is a masterful work of historical fiction that is poetic and beautiful. I couldn't get enough of Lisa See's writing style. I felt a gamut of emotions while reading this, from joy to horror, trauma, and hope. This is a work that is so human you walk away feeling like you lived a lifetime through these three women.
If you like historical fiction at all this novel is one you need to drop everything for. I patiently waited this books release for months once I found out See was coming out with a new work. All I can say was this novel was worth every moment I waited and every dime I paid.
June 24, 2026
Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See is another five-star read from an author who continues to impress me. I was absolutely enthralled by Lady Tan's Circle of Women, and this novel captured me in much the same way.
One of See's greatest strengths is her ability to create rich, memorable characters while exploring the complexities of women's lives with nuance and compassion. The relationships between women with the support, rivalry, sacrifice, and understanding they offer one another, feels deeply authentic. I was completely invested in the characters and their journeys from beginning to end.
What elevates this to a five-star read is how effortlessly See combines meticulous historical detail with an emotionally compelling story. The setting feels vivid and lived-in without ever overwhelming the narrative, and every challenge the characters face is grounded in the social realities of their time. See has a remarkable talent for illuminating the constraints placed on women while also highlighting their resilience, intelligence, and agency.
Beyond the historical setting, the novel succeeds because of its emotional depth. The triumphs felt earned, the hardships genuinely affecting, and the central themes of family, community, and female solidarity resonated long after I finished the book. Beautifully researched, immersive, and deeply human, Daughters of the Sun and Moon is exactly the kind of historical fiction I love and another reminder of why Lisa See remains one of my favorite authors.
Thank you Lisa See, Simon & Schuster Canada | Scribner, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
One of See's greatest strengths is her ability to create rich, memorable characters while exploring the complexities of women's lives with nuance and compassion. The relationships between women with the support, rivalry, sacrifice, and understanding they offer one another, feels deeply authentic. I was completely invested in the characters and their journeys from beginning to end.
What elevates this to a five-star read is how effortlessly See combines meticulous historical detail with an emotionally compelling story. The setting feels vivid and lived-in without ever overwhelming the narrative, and every challenge the characters face is grounded in the social realities of their time. See has a remarkable talent for illuminating the constraints placed on women while also highlighting their resilience, intelligence, and agency.
Beyond the historical setting, the novel succeeds because of its emotional depth. The triumphs felt earned, the hardships genuinely affecting, and the central themes of family, community, and female solidarity resonated long after I finished the book. Beautifully researched, immersive, and deeply human, Daughters of the Sun and Moon is exactly the kind of historical fiction I love and another reminder of why Lisa See remains one of my favorite authors.
Thank you Lisa See, Simon & Schuster Canada | Scribner, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 27, 2026
3.75⭐️'s. I liked this book. I learned about a part of history that I wasn't aware of which was informative. However, I wasn't immersed in the storyline like I was in her other novels.
July 3, 2026
Everyone y’all need to be reading this story.
It is graphic. It is sickening. It is an American embarrassment.
What I have found though on my 4th of July holiday reading is that the pursuit of freedom is worth every ounce of everything; that we need community to help us along; that being kind is greater than everything; that we are all in this together.
But now, let us learn from three Chinese women who survived it:
“I’ve suffered thousands upon thousands of mistreatments. For too long my belly has been filled with grudges, frustrations, and grievances. So many times I’ve wondered what I must have in a past life to deserve such debasement. Everything always turns to the opposite.”
“I’ve been so focused on physically escaping this life that it isn’t until this moment that I understand there are other means of escape—with my mind and with my heart.
I envision for myself the four great gifts of happiness, prosperity, longevity, and peace.”
“We are only women—
When did that stop you from trying to find freedom? When did that keep you from going forward? When did that prevent you from being a decent women, even when you’d been brought low?”
“Always remember your value….Dont let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do….If she can stand on those tiny feet and do all the things she does, then you can do anything on those big feet of yours.”
“We each had weaknesses to overcome, but we also faced a larger society that wished us not one ounce of goodwill. We shared the experiences of having little choice, little power, and little opportunity. We unearthed within ourselves bravery, endurance, and the ability to eat bitterness. We discovered our voices, found freedom, and changed our destinies. If not for Petal and Dove,I would not be the woman I am today. My heart overflows with gratitude.”
It is graphic. It is sickening. It is an American embarrassment.
What I have found though on my 4th of July holiday reading is that the pursuit of freedom is worth every ounce of everything; that we need community to help us along; that being kind is greater than everything; that we are all in this together.
But now, let us learn from three Chinese women who survived it:
“I’ve suffered thousands upon thousands of mistreatments. For too long my belly has been filled with grudges, frustrations, and grievances. So many times I’ve wondered what I must have in a past life to deserve such debasement. Everything always turns to the opposite.”
“I’ve been so focused on physically escaping this life that it isn’t until this moment that I understand there are other means of escape—with my mind and with my heart.
I envision for myself the four great gifts of happiness, prosperity, longevity, and peace.”
“We are only women—
When did that stop you from trying to find freedom? When did that keep you from going forward? When did that prevent you from being a decent women, even when you’d been brought low?”
“Always remember your value….Dont let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do….If she can stand on those tiny feet and do all the things she does, then you can do anything on those big feet of yours.”
“We each had weaknesses to overcome, but we also faced a larger society that wished us not one ounce of goodwill. We shared the experiences of having little choice, little power, and little opportunity. We unearthed within ourselves bravery, endurance, and the ability to eat bitterness. We discovered our voices, found freedom, and changed our destinies. If not for Petal and Dove,I would not be the woman I am today. My heart overflows with gratitude.”
June 11, 2026
Review to follow shortly
July 6, 2026
2 ⭐️ It pains me to write this review ( I’m obviously in the minority here) because Lady Tan is one of my favorite books. I could not connect with these characters and I was just plain bored. I felt like nothing happened for 250 pages. Sorry- still love you Lisa See
November 16, 2025
so excited ! ^-^
June 20, 2026
Set in post–Civil War Los Angeles, the story follows three women whose lives are shaped by betrayal, loss, and the brutal machinery of human trafficking. Dove and Petal are taken from China under the guise of opportunity, only to be sold into prostitution the moment their feet touch American soil. Moon, educated and married to a respected doctor, should be safe, yet she’s pulled into their suffering simply because she refuses to look away.
What begins as a chance connection becomes a sisterhood built on fear, tenderness, and the belief that even in darkness, women save one another. Moon and her husband offer what protection they can, but rising anti‑Chinese hatred, culminating in the Chinese Massacre of 1871, also known as the Night of Horrors, threatens to destroy their fragile refuge.
This book is not gentle. The violence against women is graphic and emotionally heavy, yet honest. See never sensationalizes their pain, she honors it, forcing us to witness what history tried to bury. And still, amid the brutality, the story glows with connection, small kindnesses, whispered comfort, and the fierce loyalty of women who have only each other.
I finished this book shaken, grieving, and grateful. I had no idea how deeply rooted anti‑Chinese sentiment was in 19th‑century Los Angeles, or how many women were trafficked and erased. See brings them back into the light with compassion and unflinching truth.
🎙Narrator Spotlight - Jennifer Lim, Quanna Luo Masterson, and Emily Woo Zeller each bring a distinct emotional truth to their characters, giving the women’s stories a voice that feels lived‑in and deeply human. Lisa See’s final audio note, explaining her personal connection to the story, made my broken heart ache even further.
What begins as a chance connection becomes a sisterhood built on fear, tenderness, and the belief that even in darkness, women save one another. Moon and her husband offer what protection they can, but rising anti‑Chinese hatred, culminating in the Chinese Massacre of 1871, also known as the Night of Horrors, threatens to destroy their fragile refuge.
This book is not gentle. The violence against women is graphic and emotionally heavy, yet honest. See never sensationalizes their pain, she honors it, forcing us to witness what history tried to bury. And still, amid the brutality, the story glows with connection, small kindnesses, whispered comfort, and the fierce loyalty of women who have only each other.
I finished this book shaken, grieving, and grateful. I had no idea how deeply rooted anti‑Chinese sentiment was in 19th‑century Los Angeles, or how many women were trafficked and erased. See brings them back into the light with compassion and unflinching truth.
🎙Narrator Spotlight - Jennifer Lim, Quanna Luo Masterson, and Emily Woo Zeller each bring a distinct emotional truth to their characters, giving the women’s stories a voice that feels lived‑in and deeply human. Lisa See’s final audio note, explaining her personal connection to the story, made my broken heart ache even further.
July 2, 2026
I enjoyed this historical fiction novel which focuses on three Chinese women living in Los Angeles in 1870-71. Each woman has come from different backgrounds, but face constrictions in their lives to varying degrees due to the men around them.
The chapters that focus on Petal are written in the first person and as the actions are happening, while Dove’s chapters written in third person, but also in the present (during 1870-71). Lastly, Moon’s chapters are written in first person, but as an old woman, looking back on the events of the past. I felt like I engaged most with Petal’s chapters.
The book starts off with a few exciting chapters, then it is a bit of slow burn for a while, and then the last half of the book becomes more exciting again.
I enjoyed learning about the lives of the Chinese in Los Angeles during 1870-71. The Night of Horrors has been mostly forgotten in American history, and books like this are essential to keeping the memory of those events alive so that they may not be repeated.
As always in Lisa See books, there are many aphorisms – Chinese proverbs – scattered throughout the book. I always enjoy these, especially the ones that still make so much sense today.
A good book for people who already enjoy Lisa See books. Also good for people who are interested in books that explore lesser known aspects of history, and for people who like to learn about other cultures.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster (Australia), and NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The chapters that focus on Petal are written in the first person and as the actions are happening, while Dove’s chapters written in third person, but also in the present (during 1870-71). Lastly, Moon’s chapters are written in first person, but as an old woman, looking back on the events of the past. I felt like I engaged most with Petal’s chapters.
The book starts off with a few exciting chapters, then it is a bit of slow burn for a while, and then the last half of the book becomes more exciting again.
I enjoyed learning about the lives of the Chinese in Los Angeles during 1870-71. The Night of Horrors has been mostly forgotten in American history, and books like this are essential to keeping the memory of those events alive so that they may not be repeated.
As always in Lisa See books, there are many aphorisms – Chinese proverbs – scattered throughout the book. I always enjoy these, especially the ones that still make so much sense today.
A good book for people who already enjoy Lisa See books. Also good for people who are interested in books that explore lesser known aspects of history, and for people who like to learn about other cultures.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster (Australia), and NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
July 18, 2026
Trigger Warnings:
Racism
Racial slurs
Human trafficking
Prostitution
Domestic abuse
Violence and murder
Mob violence and lynching
Death of a child
Forced immigration
Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See brings a largely forgotten part of American history to life through the stories of three Chinese women living in Los Angeles during the 1870s. Moon, Dove, and Petal come from very different circumstances, but their lives become connected as they face racism, violence, exploitation, and the devastating events surrounding the Chinese Massacre of 1871. The story is difficult and often heartbreaking, but it also highlights the women’s courage, resilience, and determination to survive in a society that offered them very little protection. Lisa See’s extensive research is evident throughout the novel, and the historical details are woven naturally into the characters’ experiences rather than overwhelming the story. This is an emotional and important piece of historical fiction that shines a light on women and events that history has too often ignored.
Racism
Racial slurs
Human trafficking
Prostitution
Domestic abuse
Violence and murder
Mob violence and lynching
Death of a child
Forced immigration
Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See brings a largely forgotten part of American history to life through the stories of three Chinese women living in Los Angeles during the 1870s. Moon, Dove, and Petal come from very different circumstances, but their lives become connected as they face racism, violence, exploitation, and the devastating events surrounding the Chinese Massacre of 1871. The story is difficult and often heartbreaking, but it also highlights the women’s courage, resilience, and determination to survive in a society that offered them very little protection. Lisa See’s extensive research is evident throughout the novel, and the historical details are woven naturally into the characters’ experiences rather than overwhelming the story. This is an emotional and important piece of historical fiction that shines a light on women and events that history has too often ignored.
July 5, 2026
Another great historical fiction novel by Lisa See, who is an automatic read for me. This one didn’t engage me as much as some of her others but it was about a time in US history in early LA times that I knew nothing about. I think if I had read the Author’s Note before I read the book and realized the personal stake in this book it would have been more impactful.
June 26, 2026
4🌟I have loved Lisa See’s books for many years. My first Lisa See novel was Snow Flower and the Secret Fan over 20 years ago. Lady Tan is my most recent favorite by this author. Set in 1870’s Los Angeles, Daughters of the Sun and Moon is a portrait of a very difficult time in history. Unfortunately, during that time Chinese immigrants, and especially Chinese women, were treated very poorly. Some of the topics explored here include immigration, racism, sexism, sex trafficking, prostitution, and kidnapping. What I liked best about the book is the women’s friendships and how they kept showing up for one another throughout all their various trials. I loved the author’s note at the end stating her family’s personal history and how she came to be interested in this story. This is great historical fiction. I had both the audio and ebook and enjoyed them equally.
June 12, 2026
In October 1871, a mob of roughly five hundred Angelenos lynched, shot, and stabbed eighteen Chinese residents in a single night of frenzied violence. The dirt streets ran with blood. The bodies were stacked at a jail yard. Then, for more than a century, the city looked the other way. A freeway on-ramp eventually paved over the block where it happened. Lisa See has spent her career retrieving stories the official record preferred to misplace, and with Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See, she returns to her own city's most disgraceful chapter and dares us to look directly at it.
Three Women, Three Crossings, One Pueblo
The novel braids the lives of three Chinese women who land in the dusty, drunken, half-Confederate pueblo of Los Angeles in 1870.
Dove, seventeen, bound-footed, the daughter of a faded scholar in Canton, has been sold as a second wife to an aging merchant who will display her on a carved chair in his shop the way another man might display a porcelain vase.
Petal, eighteen, big-footed and barefoot, is tricked onto a boat by her father, sold to the Hip Yee Tong for forty Mexican silver dollars, auctioned naked in the Queen's Room at the Oriental Warehouse in San Francisco, and shipped south to the Midnight Garden bawdy house.
Moon, in her thirties, born and educated in Hong Kong, married to Dr. Chee Long "Gene" Tong, the most respected Chinese man in town, walks with a limp from a childhood infection and dresses like an American to please her husband's white patients.
They orbit each other for sixteen months along the Calle de los Negros before fate aligns them. Dove wants love. Petal wants to walk home. Moon wants justice. They will not get the things they want in the shape they asked for.
A Story Told in Three Voices
The architecture of the novel is its boldest swing. Moon narrates in the first person, looking back from 1926, an old woman of eighty-two writing because "the palest ink is better than the best memory." Petal narrates in the first person too, but in the bruised present, with the rawness of a girl still inside the trap. Dove gets the third person, distant and beautiful, the way her husband sees her, the way the newspapers will later describe her, "she of the almond eyes." It is a choice with a thesis. Dove is the woman who is told who she is and what she wants until the people deciding her fate cancel each other out. Pulling her language away from her on the page lets See make the reader feel that erasure in their teeth.
There are stretches where the third-person remove around Dove keeps her at arm's length even from us, which is the price of the device. Some readers may find her the hardest of the three to hold onto. That is, almost certainly, the point. But the cost is real.
The Craft of It
Lisa See's research has always been her quiet bragging right, and here she has poured years of archival work into the texture of every page. Justice of the Peace Gray's actual ledger. The Wing Chung store rebranded as Forever Prosperous. The Cantonese aphorisms threaded into dialogue the way salt threads a broth. Traditional Chinese medicine treated with the same careful precision as the courtroom procedure. Lao Tzu opens each part. A newspaper clipping from the Los Angeles Gazette opens it again, in a different register, screaming the racial language of the time so that no reader can pretend it was a quiet bigotry.
A few touches that land especially well:
Auntie Lau renaming the trafficked girls in the ship's hold after flowers, and calling it a gift.
A small white poodle named Winter Melon who somehow ended up in Moon's apartment and survived the massacre, drawn from a real newspaper detail.
The image of Dove embroidering a village pond for Petal, who has never spoken a single line to her, and slipping it into her palm when no one is looking.
The three meanings the women's husbands and customers attach to sex: "the husband-wife thing," "bed business," "clouds and rain," each phrase a small social atlas.
Where the Novel Wavers
A book this researched can occasionally read as if it is carrying its sources on its back. The court scenes that follow the Night of Horrors are historically devastating and morally necessary, but they slow the pulse considerably, and the cycle of habeas corpus, demurrer, mistrial, reversal can become a procedural recitation when the novel's emotional engine wants to be running elsewhere.
The aphorisms, which are part of the music, sometimes tip into instruction. A character explaining a saying to another character who would already know it is a small but recurring tic. And the supporting cast, especially the named henchmen and rival tong members, expands faster than memory can hold, so that by the time a particular Three-Finger Lee or Headman Yo returns, readers may need a beat to place him.
These are the complaints of a four-star reader, not a three. They do not undo the book. They are the friction of a writer reaching for a fuller record than fiction usually attempts.
Where It Sits in Her Body of Work
Readers who came to her through Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, or Shanghai Girls will recognize her interest in women whose friendships do the work that institutions refuse to do. Lady Tan's Circle of Women and The Island of Sea Women sharpened her ear for women as practitioners, as workers, as witnesses. Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See is the closest she has come to her 1995 family memoir On Gold Mountain, which traced her own great-great-grandfather's arrival in this same city. The pueblo on these pages is not a stage set. It is a place she has been walking for thirty years.
Who This Book Is For
Pick it up if you read Lisa See for the woman-to-woman bond underneath the embroidery and the herbs. Pick it up if you want a piece of American history that the curriculum quietly skipped. Approach it with care if you struggle with depictions of sexual violence, trafficking, or mob killing, because See does not look away and does not ask the reader to.
Closing Thought
Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See is not a comfortable read. It is also not, in the end, a hopeless one. The verdicts get reversed. The killers walk. The block gets paved. And yet three women sit on a porch in the Apablasa orchard, growing herbs, raising children, telling each other the old stories of the Moon Lady and the Spinning Maid, alive when the men with the rope wanted them dead. That is what See has done, again, with the patience of a woman embroidering a village onto silk: she has put them back where the city tried to forget them.
Three Women, Three Crossings, One Pueblo
The novel braids the lives of three Chinese women who land in the dusty, drunken, half-Confederate pueblo of Los Angeles in 1870.
Dove, seventeen, bound-footed, the daughter of a faded scholar in Canton, has been sold as a second wife to an aging merchant who will display her on a carved chair in his shop the way another man might display a porcelain vase.
Petal, eighteen, big-footed and barefoot, is tricked onto a boat by her father, sold to the Hip Yee Tong for forty Mexican silver dollars, auctioned naked in the Queen's Room at the Oriental Warehouse in San Francisco, and shipped south to the Midnight Garden bawdy house.
Moon, in her thirties, born and educated in Hong Kong, married to Dr. Chee Long "Gene" Tong, the most respected Chinese man in town, walks with a limp from a childhood infection and dresses like an American to please her husband's white patients.
They orbit each other for sixteen months along the Calle de los Negros before fate aligns them. Dove wants love. Petal wants to walk home. Moon wants justice. They will not get the things they want in the shape they asked for.
A Story Told in Three Voices
The architecture of the novel is its boldest swing. Moon narrates in the first person, looking back from 1926, an old woman of eighty-two writing because "the palest ink is better than the best memory." Petal narrates in the first person too, but in the bruised present, with the rawness of a girl still inside the trap. Dove gets the third person, distant and beautiful, the way her husband sees her, the way the newspapers will later describe her, "she of the almond eyes." It is a choice with a thesis. Dove is the woman who is told who she is and what she wants until the people deciding her fate cancel each other out. Pulling her language away from her on the page lets See make the reader feel that erasure in their teeth.
There are stretches where the third-person remove around Dove keeps her at arm's length even from us, which is the price of the device. Some readers may find her the hardest of the three to hold onto. That is, almost certainly, the point. But the cost is real.
The Craft of It
Lisa See's research has always been her quiet bragging right, and here she has poured years of archival work into the texture of every page. Justice of the Peace Gray's actual ledger. The Wing Chung store rebranded as Forever Prosperous. The Cantonese aphorisms threaded into dialogue the way salt threads a broth. Traditional Chinese medicine treated with the same careful precision as the courtroom procedure. Lao Tzu opens each part. A newspaper clipping from the Los Angeles Gazette opens it again, in a different register, screaming the racial language of the time so that no reader can pretend it was a quiet bigotry.
A few touches that land especially well:
Auntie Lau renaming the trafficked girls in the ship's hold after flowers, and calling it a gift.
A small white poodle named Winter Melon who somehow ended up in Moon's apartment and survived the massacre, drawn from a real newspaper detail.
The image of Dove embroidering a village pond for Petal, who has never spoken a single line to her, and slipping it into her palm when no one is looking.
The three meanings the women's husbands and customers attach to sex: "the husband-wife thing," "bed business," "clouds and rain," each phrase a small social atlas.
Where the Novel Wavers
A book this researched can occasionally read as if it is carrying its sources on its back. The court scenes that follow the Night of Horrors are historically devastating and morally necessary, but they slow the pulse considerably, and the cycle of habeas corpus, demurrer, mistrial, reversal can become a procedural recitation when the novel's emotional engine wants to be running elsewhere.
The aphorisms, which are part of the music, sometimes tip into instruction. A character explaining a saying to another character who would already know it is a small but recurring tic. And the supporting cast, especially the named henchmen and rival tong members, expands faster than memory can hold, so that by the time a particular Three-Finger Lee or Headman Yo returns, readers may need a beat to place him.
These are the complaints of a four-star reader, not a three. They do not undo the book. They are the friction of a writer reaching for a fuller record than fiction usually attempts.
Where It Sits in Her Body of Work
Readers who came to her through Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, or Shanghai Girls will recognize her interest in women whose friendships do the work that institutions refuse to do. Lady Tan's Circle of Women and The Island of Sea Women sharpened her ear for women as practitioners, as workers, as witnesses. Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See is the closest she has come to her 1995 family memoir On Gold Mountain, which traced her own great-great-grandfather's arrival in this same city. The pueblo on these pages is not a stage set. It is a place she has been walking for thirty years.
Who This Book Is For
Pick it up if you read Lisa See for the woman-to-woman bond underneath the embroidery and the herbs. Pick it up if you want a piece of American history that the curriculum quietly skipped. Approach it with care if you struggle with depictions of sexual violence, trafficking, or mob killing, because See does not look away and does not ask the reader to.
Closing Thought
Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See is not a comfortable read. It is also not, in the end, a hopeless one. The verdicts get reversed. The killers walk. The block gets paved. And yet three women sit on a porch in the Apablasa orchard, growing herbs, raising children, telling each other the old stories of the Moon Lady and the Spinning Maid, alive when the men with the rope wanted them dead. That is what See has done, again, with the patience of a woman embroidering a village onto silk: she has put them back where the city tried to forget them.
July 23, 2026
This is a book about 3 Chinese women brought to LA in 1971. One is a doctor’s wife, one a child bride and one sold into prostitution. I read two other books by Lisa See and enjoyed each of them. It’s unbelievable what these women suffered and beyond comprehension that you could sell your child into prostitution for money.
July 14, 2026
3.5 stars. I’m a Lisa See fan and I wanted to love this book, but it was not as good as her other books. As historical fiction it was great. The time frame was interesting and hearing about how the Chinese community was treated during this time period and the massacre that occurred was very eye opening.
However as I was reading this book, I just wasn’t loving it as much as I expected. The story telling at least at the beginning lacked emotion and feeling with the characters. Up until the last two parts I felt like the three women came across as cold. It was as if I was reading facts and just what was happening to the characters and at times I felt like this book was preachy. It had a very feminist tone, even suggesting at the end that the world would be better with no men. Even though the story had some good, kind men in it. I think there is a way to celebrate women and tell their stories without degrading an entire gender. Don’t get me wrong the women in this book were the victims of men but they were also the victims of the time periods they lived in.
In Lisa See’s other books I felt like she celebrated the bond of women and their stories. Though she did that in this one, there was definitely an undercurrent of a particular message she was trying to convey and I wish she had just focused on the story.
However as I was reading this book, I just wasn’t loving it as much as I expected. The story telling at least at the beginning lacked emotion and feeling with the characters. Up until the last two parts I felt like the three women came across as cold. It was as if I was reading facts and just what was happening to the characters and at times I felt like this book was preachy. It had a very feminist tone, even suggesting at the end that the world would be better with no men. Even though the story had some good, kind men in it. I think there is a way to celebrate women and tell their stories without degrading an entire gender. Don’t get me wrong the women in this book were the victims of men but they were also the victims of the time periods they lived in.
In Lisa See’s other books I felt like she celebrated the bond of women and their stories. Though she did that in this one, there was definitely an undercurrent of a particular message she was trying to convey and I wish she had just focused on the story.
July 27, 2026
📚🛌👣👨⚕️NOVEL THOUGHTS🌿⚕👣🛌📚
Once again, Lisa See brings brilliantly to life, history that her own family lived through in Daughters of the Sun and Moon. Based on real characters who lived during the years of 1870-1926, who came to the US (specifically Los Angeles) for different reasons, suffered so profoundly but found the way to rise above it. These women are heroes of a devastating time and a time of unthinkable actions by the citizens and even the law; that any Chinese people survived is a miracle. The women of this story are unforgettable!!
This story is told in 3 POVs with Moon, married to Dr. Tong and a learned woman herself as an apothecarist using Chinese medicines with mixtures of herbs, bark, salves and a variety of solutions to aid the sick or hurt that came to her husbands office. He himself practiced both Western medicine as well as Eastern and had 2 offices where patients could see him. Moon is now 82 and is remembering the past and how she went from that to now. She speaks in the first person as she would be telling to story to someone. She and her husband had wanted children but all this time married yet no baby 'fills her child palace.' Moon is a strong, smart woman and is well-respected not only because of her marriage stature but also because of her own medical skills. Moon is remembering back to the time when she meets Dove and Petal, who will become life long friends as they go through the horrors of the Chinese Massacre of 1871 together.
Dove is an exquisitely beautiful woman who is especially endowed with perfect golden lotus feet meaning, they have been bound and made to never grow. This was considered beautiful and sexually desirable by men and women endured this practice in order to attract a wealthy husband. She is brought to the US to be Wife Two to Old Man Sing and is expected to make babies with him. He feels he can't leave her alone in their apartments, so each morning, she goes with him to his work, a store, where she will sit on a chair all day and attract customers to come into the store. And because of her beauty, many men will come into the store just to admire her. Dove was not raised to be anything other than a wife and mother. She has no skills except embroidery which will become a life saver as the story moves along.
Petal was born into a loving family but the times in China are harsh. Crops won't grow, and then there is no money for food and there are many mouths to feed. But Petal can help her family by agreeing to go to the US, signing a contract which no one can read, and getting on a ship with a paid passage. For this, her family will get $40 which can change their lives. Little do they know that on the other side of the ocean, Petal will be working as a 'girl who keeps her legs up' in a bawdy house owned by a mob boss named Headman Sam. But Petal is resilient, smart and shrewd. She makes several attempts to escape the Midnight Garden but is caught each time and punished severely.
The women are living on a raunchy part of Los Angeles called Calle de los Negros which hasn't gotten too populated yet and many of the Chinese who were recruited to build the railroad have remained in California to continue to make money to send home to their families there. But the "gweilo", or white men or Westerners make it hard for them to find work saying they are taking their jobs as are the Indigenous people, the Mexicans, Blacks and any other ethic group that has settled there. It wasn't too long before when California was made into a free state and yet, their constitution didn't outlaw slavery and basically this is what has happened to both Dove and Petal. They are obligated to the men who bought them. Moon is a little different in that she is in a marriage of free will and knew her husband Gene growing up. He has treated her very well and loves her.
All of the backstory of what was going on around the women builds up to the Chinese Massacre of 1871. The rivalry between the two Tongs headed up by Headman Sam and Headman Yo heats up and leads to a week of brutal killings of Chinese, hangings of men and boys, by white men and encouraged by white women, with little help from law enforcement mostly because they were in the pockets of one of the two Tongs. When it comes time to bring these guilty people to justice, everyone testifies that they didn't see a thing or knows nothing about it. Lisa See makes the reader feel the disgust of what is happening with her very blunt and graphic portrayal of the true events. The only good, if you can call it that, is Petal finding and hiding Headman Sam's bankroll which they will use to pay off the contracts he holds over the workers and therefore their freedom.
These events happened. The prejudice of ethnicities not Caucasian persisted long after the end of the Civil War. Lisa See shares the research for this book in her Afterwards and also shares that her characters were all real people and didn't change many of their names, so this part should not be missed. Also throughout, she shares Chinese aphorisms and proverbs, as philosophical moments the women live by. This was an interesting addition to her story. Not many of us if any even knew about this horrifying time in our American history. Without authors like See, these travesties would stay in the past. As it was, many of the court documents for example, were missing or only partially kept. Guilty consciences?
As always, female friendship and the strength and support this gives, is the essence of Lisa See's female characters. The unexpected bond makes them family and they will do whatever they can to carry each other through very difficult moments. Moon shares, "I had once told Petal that the three of us were daughters of the sun and moon----connected, but different in many ways. I had helped them both over the previous sixteen months. Now they helped me. Sometimes you must wait a long while for the clouds to part to see the moonlight." pg 329
Once again, Lisa See brings brilliantly to life, history that her own family lived through in Daughters of the Sun and Moon. Based on real characters who lived during the years of 1870-1926, who came to the US (specifically Los Angeles) for different reasons, suffered so profoundly but found the way to rise above it. These women are heroes of a devastating time and a time of unthinkable actions by the citizens and even the law; that any Chinese people survived is a miracle. The women of this story are unforgettable!!
This story is told in 3 POVs with Moon, married to Dr. Tong and a learned woman herself as an apothecarist using Chinese medicines with mixtures of herbs, bark, salves and a variety of solutions to aid the sick or hurt that came to her husbands office. He himself practiced both Western medicine as well as Eastern and had 2 offices where patients could see him. Moon is now 82 and is remembering the past and how she went from that to now. She speaks in the first person as she would be telling to story to someone. She and her husband had wanted children but all this time married yet no baby 'fills her child palace.' Moon is a strong, smart woman and is well-respected not only because of her marriage stature but also because of her own medical skills. Moon is remembering back to the time when she meets Dove and Petal, who will become life long friends as they go through the horrors of the Chinese Massacre of 1871 together.
Dove is an exquisitely beautiful woman who is especially endowed with perfect golden lotus feet meaning, they have been bound and made to never grow. This was considered beautiful and sexually desirable by men and women endured this practice in order to attract a wealthy husband. She is brought to the US to be Wife Two to Old Man Sing and is expected to make babies with him. He feels he can't leave her alone in their apartments, so each morning, she goes with him to his work, a store, where she will sit on a chair all day and attract customers to come into the store. And because of her beauty, many men will come into the store just to admire her. Dove was not raised to be anything other than a wife and mother. She has no skills except embroidery which will become a life saver as the story moves along.
Petal was born into a loving family but the times in China are harsh. Crops won't grow, and then there is no money for food and there are many mouths to feed. But Petal can help her family by agreeing to go to the US, signing a contract which no one can read, and getting on a ship with a paid passage. For this, her family will get $40 which can change their lives. Little do they know that on the other side of the ocean, Petal will be working as a 'girl who keeps her legs up' in a bawdy house owned by a mob boss named Headman Sam. But Petal is resilient, smart and shrewd. She makes several attempts to escape the Midnight Garden but is caught each time and punished severely.
The women are living on a raunchy part of Los Angeles called Calle de los Negros which hasn't gotten too populated yet and many of the Chinese who were recruited to build the railroad have remained in California to continue to make money to send home to their families there. But the "gweilo", or white men or Westerners make it hard for them to find work saying they are taking their jobs as are the Indigenous people, the Mexicans, Blacks and any other ethic group that has settled there. It wasn't too long before when California was made into a free state and yet, their constitution didn't outlaw slavery and basically this is what has happened to both Dove and Petal. They are obligated to the men who bought them. Moon is a little different in that she is in a marriage of free will and knew her husband Gene growing up. He has treated her very well and loves her.
All of the backstory of what was going on around the women builds up to the Chinese Massacre of 1871. The rivalry between the two Tongs headed up by Headman Sam and Headman Yo heats up and leads to a week of brutal killings of Chinese, hangings of men and boys, by white men and encouraged by white women, with little help from law enforcement mostly because they were in the pockets of one of the two Tongs. When it comes time to bring these guilty people to justice, everyone testifies that they didn't see a thing or knows nothing about it. Lisa See makes the reader feel the disgust of what is happening with her very blunt and graphic portrayal of the true events. The only good, if you can call it that, is Petal finding and hiding Headman Sam's bankroll which they will use to pay off the contracts he holds over the workers and therefore their freedom.
These events happened. The prejudice of ethnicities not Caucasian persisted long after the end of the Civil War. Lisa See shares the research for this book in her Afterwards and also shares that her characters were all real people and didn't change many of their names, so this part should not be missed. Also throughout, she shares Chinese aphorisms and proverbs, as philosophical moments the women live by. This was an interesting addition to her story. Not many of us if any even knew about this horrifying time in our American history. Without authors like See, these travesties would stay in the past. As it was, many of the court documents for example, were missing or only partially kept. Guilty consciences?
As always, female friendship and the strength and support this gives, is the essence of Lisa See's female characters. The unexpected bond makes them family and they will do whatever they can to carry each other through very difficult moments. Moon shares, "I had once told Petal that the three of us were daughters of the sun and moon----connected, but different in many ways. I had helped them both over the previous sixteen months. Now they helped me. Sometimes you must wait a long while for the clouds to part to see the moonlight." pg 329
July 1, 2026
The "Night of Horrors" refers to the Chinese Massacre of 1871. It happened on October 24, 1871, in Los Angeles, California . So the story goes, from the Night of Horrors, to a life well lived. This story spans a lifetime of Chinese women living in the 1800’s and one of them reliving their past as she lives well into the 1920’s. Strong, smart and resilient women, the end wraps up nicely, although I must say there are some very graphic scenes of violence that I tried to pass by.
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