Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Lei che divenne il sole by Shelley Parker-Chan

83 reviews

go1ds's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

im not gonna stop thinking about this my god????

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

justamy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Great book. Recommend read.

I find that the secondary protagonist of this story is more understandable. His goals are very clear, while the primary protagonists goals are sort of fuzzy. This might be on purpose and I don’t think it takes away from the book.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, War, and Misogyny

Moderate: Violence, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual content, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Infidelity, and Slavery

epellicci's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I loved the premise of She Who Became the Sun. A woman who takes on a fate of greatness during a landscape of war in Mongol ruled China, examining gender and concepts of power. Unfortunately I found the execution dry. In the first section I was gripped by Zhu's journey from village peasant, to claiming her fate. But the pace takes a sharp turn towards politics and battle after this initial set up, which rather than being dramatic and engaging, was presented as mostly internal scheming, while the action was skimmed past. I found the remainder of the story had moments that snapped me back into it's world, but was mainly underwhelming. 
While I loved that this book has no obvious "good side", I found almost non of the characters likeable. Obsessive self-interest, greed, and anger is what drives most of of Parker-Chan's cast, and because of that I found myself quickly loosing interest. Ma and Xu Da were some of the only characters I genuinely felt for, and as they're engulfed in Zhu's race to power, they feel increasingly doomed as the book goes on. Unfortunately, not a book for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Sexism, War, and Misogyny

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Child death

yavin_iv's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Ableism, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Alcohol, Abandonment, Cursing, and Homophobia

Minor: Child death

solenekeleroux's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Death of parent, Violence, Death, Murder, War, Sexual content, Dysphoria, and Gore

Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, Body shaming, Genocide, and Colonisation

artemisg's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There were aspects of this book I absolutely loved, and aspects I just didn’t.

The story follows a young girl who takes her brother's identity as Zhu Chongba and therefore his prophesied destiny of “greatness” after he dies. We never learn her given name which is a decision I really loved. She grows to lead the rebellion against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. On the other side of the war (kind of - it’s complicated), we follow Ouyang, the eunuch general.

One of my favourite parts of this book were the explorations of gender and its fluidity that stemmed from these characters. Additionally, Parker-Chan does a wonderful job of making us sympathise with morally reprehensible characters and honestly root for them. Admittedly, at the end of this book, I was less of a fan of Zhu than I started. Alternatively, Ma had my whole heart from start to finish.

On the other hand, this story had pacing issues, with some intense battles taking less than a page, and some unnecessary exposition taking up far too many pages. Also, I felt like some of the destiny and fate discussions were too many and too heavy-handed.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and devoured it in one day. I’m looking forward to seeing where this series and story goes, especially after the conclusion of this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism and Colonisation

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Homophobia, and Blood

rowanasm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Racism, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Child abuse, Sexual content, Sexism, Medical trauma, Death, Child death, Animal cruelty, War, Alcohol, Outing, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Grief, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Blood

armontheroad's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

READ THIS BOOK! This is heavy on the supernatural, light on the magical fantasy, but an absolute gem. I loved all of these characters, even though I really should not. The historical setting was such a breath of fresh air. Adored the trans-nonbinary rep, the queer rep, the asexual rep, and the disability rep. This book had everything I could ever want, with political intrigue as the cherry on top. Cannot wait for the sequel.

Content Warnings: Eye gore, etc (see listed below)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Body horror, Death of parent, Slavery, Alcohol, Violence, Colonisation, Sexism, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Cursing, War, Blood, Ableism, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Death

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 So much about this was really great and I am struggling to talk about it without either spoiling things or being so vauge that it is unhelpful. I will say that I got kind of lost in the political aspect of this (which is a me problem, as I am not used to that being a huge element). I read this on audiobook, which was nice but I think re-reading it in physical form will probably help with some of my confusion -- and I am definitely looking for a chance to look at these characters and this beautiful writing again 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Torture, Misogyny, and Homophobia

Minor: Animal death

cait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

 An act of kindness that had been met with violence. And, in the end, hadn't made any difference at all. It had been the very opposite of pragmatism... The gesture had been pointless but somehow beautiful. In it had been [the] tender hope for the world as it should be, not the one that existed.

I am very happy that we are seeing more and more Chinese historical fantasy novels in recent years. As someone very interested in Chinese history and culture, I really enjoy the very unique perspectives displayed in Chinese fiction vs. Western fiction vs. Japanese fiction vs. Korean fiction, etc.

She Who Became the Sun definitely delivered on everything it promised to. We follow a clever girl from a poor village who has been cursed with a fate of nothingness while her cruel brother is granted the fate of greatness. When her brother dies, though, she decides that the only way for her to escape her fate is to steal his. So she takes his identity and runs away to a monastery, not knowing that this action would be the one that propelled her fate from destiny into reality.

This story delivers on all that it promises. Parker-Chan does not shy away from the brutality of war or ancient China. Everything is ugly and brutal and fatal and cruel. This is an ugly story. The characters are ugly. The terrain is ugly. War is ugly. The writing doesn't waste its time waxing poetic about shit-filled latrines or dismembered corpses.

So why didn't I give it five stars if it did all that? Honestly? I just don't like corruption arcs. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Death, Toxic friendship, War, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail