Bound

Bound
Written by Donna Jo Napoli
Historical fiction 2

This book started off great! I thought that it had a great story line. The beginning of the book started off kind of slow, but it picked up towards the middle. It was really interesting to read about the great lengths women went through to make their feet smaller. I felt extremely sorry for Wei Ping and everything she had to endure. I am a sucker for pain, so some of the more graphics parts in this book made me a little sick to my stomach. I loved how it talked about some of the Chinese beliefs, like reincarnation and the spirits of their ancestors. This was a huge theme through the book, which it should have been. It was neat to read about how obedient and respectful they are to the spirits of their ancestors.

It was in the last 40 pages or so that I lost all connection to the book. The story that was unrolling nicely took a huge turn and began to sound like a classic fairy tale, Cinderella. Xing Xing, the main character, found a secret letter from her mother hidden under the floor. With that letter were beautiful fancy clothes. There was a huge celebration for the whole province. Xing Xing pretended she was sick, while her stepmother and stepsister, Wei Ping, went to the celebration. Up until this point I was fine with the story. I was fine with the book ending with her going to celebration in the fancy clothes, finding a husband and showing up her stepmother and sister. However, it did not go that way exactly. At the celebration, she sees her stepmother and sister looking right at her!! In a panic, she flees losing one her precious slippers. Here is where the story is the same. A gentleman from the palace comes to the house asking for all the young women. The evil stepmother says there is no one else but her and Wei Ping. Then out of know where comes Xing Xing and the show fits and yippie they go off to be married. Yay! I was disappointed. I felt like there could have been a way better ending to this story. It did not even say if Wei Ping got married, after all that agony with her feet.