* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: This is a novel about true love (Peony and Wu Ren) and true friendship (Peony and Quin Yi). There are many of these moments, but the winner has got to be Wu Ren helping Quin Yi getting her and Peony's writing published, because he loves and supports them both so much that he is willing to defy ancient conventions and get their womanly voices out into the world.
* JerkassWoobie: Tan Ze. She's a SpoiledBrat who complains constantly about her new home and husband from the moment she arrives, considering everyone and everything there to be beneath her. But then she's used as a [[PeoplePuppets human puppet]] by a lonely ghost who forces her into being a compliant and sexually generous wife to a husband she doesn't love. [[spoiler: ''And then'' not only does she suffer through DeathByChildbirth, she's condemned to a special hell for women who suffered DeathByChildbirth and failed to give their husbands sons. Small wonder she comes back later as a vengeful demon.]]
* OneSceneWonder: For a few chapters Peony follows around the Banana Garden Five, a small group of female poets/intellectuals who actually existed in RealLife.
* MoralEventHorizon: Peony's {{Jerkass}} grandfather [[spoiler: made her grandmother sacrifice herself for him and their son to save them from Manchu soldiers. Small wonder she cursed him and [[SuccessionCrisis his line]] in the afterlife.]]
* {{Squick}}:
** The long, detailed descriptions of footbinding. Doubles as NightmareFuel and is, horrifically, TruthInTelevision.
** The scenes where Peony manipulates a reluctant Tan Ze into having sex with Wu Ren are also pretty uncomfortable to read.
%%* TearJerker: About three quarters of this book is TearJerker material. You have been warned.
* TheWoobie:
%%** Peony, Peony, ''Peony.''
** Wu Ren, whose heart breaks to pieces and stays that way for a long time after [[spoiler:Peony dies.]]
** Peony's mother and grandmother as well, once you read about the sheer hell they went through before Peony was born.