Book - Story of the Stone vol 3

Deceptive! So deceptive! And sad!

Volumes 1 and 2 were nothing but delight. The building of the garden, sneaking out of the house for mischief, theater performances, the poetry club, garden parties....

Then we get to volume 3. It starts with a death. And it just snowballs from there. Sickness and death at every turn. The family is running out of money. Things are just not good for the family.

I can't decide which death was sadder. The story about Jia Lian's second wife or the one about Bao-Yu's favorite maid. Both of their deaths were caused by the horrible jealousy and abuse of those around them.

The last couple chapters in this volume begin the awful part of growing up. The girls in the garden are beginning to be married off. The first one ended up with a horrible husband that abuses her at every turn. She ends up visiting her family in hopes of help, but they just tell her that it's her duty to serve her husband. He's probably going to kill her.

It was all so sad, I'm not sure I want to read the next volume. I guess I'll take a break from the series again and see how I feel later. I do still want to see if Bao-Yu ends up with Bao-Chai or Dai-Yu.

I think for my next book I'll read something non-fiction. Maybe I'll read Realityland. It's about disney, which means it's not allowed to be sad.

(no subject)

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