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thedambookshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
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? It's complicated
5.0
As many of you have seen in other reviews, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Park Chan is one of the most hyped books this year on bookish social media. I am not one to follow hype really, and it’s been a while since I’ve picked up something that everyone else was currently talking about, and guess what? I was not disappointed.
She Who Became the Sun follows a girl destined for nothingness who takes on the role of her brother, Zhu Chongba, and spins a way to achieve heaven's favor that has been promised to her brother from the moment he entered the world. You follow Zhu in a cunning game for power, desire, and greatness. And you certainly find it, though Zhu is not the only perspective you get, you get many but the other most prominent is Ouyang. Ouyang is a eunuch general who has risen in power to serve as the right hand to one of the most powerful Mongol princes. He has been forced to serve the people who mutilated him and is in a constant battle between his fate and his desire to be loved.
SWBTS is a very atmospheric, genuine, and deliberate read. You get to the point from the beginning to end, I never felt as if the plot was lacking nor the setting, characterization was impeccable, and everything just hit. Honestly, I’ve read another review on good reads where they stated comparing this to the song of Achilles is a disservice to SWBTS, and I could not agree more.
This book is so rich in battle and war, not romance, the political aspects feel so real and despite this story being a reimaging of 1345 china under Mongol rule, I learned more from this than I ever did in AP WORLD. All the characters and I mean this, ALL OF THEM, are anti-heroes/morally grey characters. I found it very hard to dislike anyone, and if that’s not good character building, I don’t know what is. I don’t want to get too spoilery but in terms of romance, this book was just it for me, I’m not a big fan of sappy romances in plots like this. It isn’t realistic I feel? So, the way Shelley went about it, was perfect. Also, I just want to state, Patroclus and Achilles have nothing on my boys in this.
Something else I really want to talk about is the way gender is structured and spoken about in this book, first off, I am genderfluid so having two lead characters that are genderqueer was a win for me. Especially the situation with Zhu, whose gender was assigned a female at birth but does not identify as a female, and yet she also doesn’t feel quite male either. She’s in limbo between the two. I feel like Shelley did an amazing job constructing such in a fluid and relatable manner, same with Ouyang and his struggles of dysphoria. I will say this story is rich with gender dysphoria which for me helped me feel better about the parts of me that make me experience the same dysphoria but for others, it may not come across that way, so be mindful about such once picking up this book.
Despite this book just being all-around incredible, I really felt known in Shelley’s writing and there are not many books that make me feel like that, but this was one and I cannot wait for the sequel. This book was a 5-star read for me, and honestly, it would have been higher. Oh! And who wants to join my Wang Baoxiang protection club? Anyone?
She Who Became the Sun follows a girl destined for nothingness who takes on the role of her brother, Zhu Chongba, and spins a way to achieve heaven's favor that has been promised to her brother from the moment he entered the world. You follow Zhu in a cunning game for power, desire, and greatness. And you certainly find it, though Zhu is not the only perspective you get, you get many but the other most prominent is Ouyang. Ouyang is a eunuch general who has risen in power to serve as the right hand to one of the most powerful Mongol princes. He has been forced to serve the people who mutilated him and is in a constant battle between his fate and his desire to be loved.
SWBTS is a very atmospheric, genuine, and deliberate read. You get to the point from the beginning to end, I never felt as if the plot was lacking nor the setting, characterization was impeccable, and everything just hit. Honestly, I’ve read another review on good reads where they stated comparing this to the song of Achilles is a disservice to SWBTS, and I could not agree more.
This book is so rich in battle and war, not romance, the political aspects feel so real and despite this story being a reimaging of 1345 china under Mongol rule, I learned more from this than I ever did in AP WORLD. All the characters and I mean this, ALL OF THEM, are anti-heroes/morally grey characters. I found it very hard to dislike anyone, and if that’s not good character building, I don’t know what is. I don’t want to get too spoilery but in terms of romance, this book was just it for me, I’m not a big fan of sappy romances in plots like this. It isn’t realistic I feel? So, the way Shelley went about it, was perfect. Also, I just want to state, Patroclus and Achilles have nothing on my boys in this.
Something else I really want to talk about is the way gender is structured and spoken about in this book, first off, I am genderfluid so having two lead characters that are genderqueer was a win for me. Especially the situation with Zhu, whose gender was assigned a female at birth but does not identify as a female, and yet she also doesn’t feel quite male either. She’s in limbo between the two. I feel like Shelley did an amazing job constructing such in a fluid and relatable manner, same with Ouyang and his struggles of dysphoria. I will say this story is rich with gender dysphoria which for me helped me feel better about the parts of me that make me experience the same dysphoria but for others, it may not come across that way, so be mindful about such once picking up this book.
Despite this book just being all-around incredible, I really felt known in Shelley’s writing and there are not many books that make me feel like that, but this was one and I cannot wait for the sequel. This book was a 5-star read for me, and honestly, it would have been higher. Oh! And who wants to join my Wang Baoxiang protection club? Anyone?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Body horror
Minor: Infertility and Infidelity
nefariousbee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
objectively a good book, but it was a bit heavy with all the war stuff, not a good fit for me personally. I appreciated the new view in gender in the Zhu character a lot tho
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Blood, and Colonisation
sporemiette's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.5
sometimes the prose was really good and sometimes it felt clumsy. the dialogue especially was a toss up, although i think it got better as the book went on. one thing that i wasn't a fan of was the cursing in the narration, although that's something i don't like in any book. there were times when i felt like the crass nature of swearing contradicted whatever was going on in the actual scene. other than that the story was good and i especially like how the author handled gender identity and dysphoria ^^
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and War
Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Outing, and Alcohol
Minor: Pedophilia, Excrement, and Pregnancy
wrenxavier's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and War
Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment
sugarpal's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-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
4.25
This book gave me pretty much everything I wanted. The main character was power-hungry, morally grey, and gender non-conforming. (Also, if you saw my update about starting the book… Yeah, I take it back, Zhu has plenty of red flags. Yay!) The plot was excellent, the writing was beautiful. Everyone was gay. Amazing.
Just a couple of quibbles: the pacing felt slow at times, maybe because I wasn’t really invested in Ouyang’s plotline, and there were some times when I was confused by the writing. Maybe I’m dumb, but I just needed the genius plans and intrigues explained more fully for me, instead of implied. Also, I wanted to see a couple of semi-important events that were kind of glossed over? But oh well.
As I said, this book has a lot to recommend it. The characters are excellently handled, even though like I said I didn’t care much for Ouyang. The depiction of Chinese culture was excellent, fascinating, and I thought the magic was an interesting way of playing with the concept of the Mandate of Heaven. This book definitely gave me some Poppy War vibes, although it’s set further back in history and has to do with the Mongolian colonization instead of the British. It’s also more focused on politics than war, and I felt it was a bit lacking in action. But there is some in there, and this book has a lovely (steamy, queer!) romance to make up for it. (Be aware, it is VERY explicit.)
I’m definitely going to be reading the next book!
Just a couple of quibbles: the pacing felt slow at times, maybe because I wasn’t really invested in Ouyang’s plotline, and there were some times when I was confused by the writing. Maybe I’m dumb, but I just needed the genius plans and intrigues explained more fully for me, instead of implied. Also, I wanted to see a couple of semi-important events that were kind of glossed over? But oh well.
As I said, this book has a lot to recommend it. The characters are excellently handled, even though like I said I didn’t care much for Ouyang. The depiction of Chinese culture was excellent, fascinating, and I thought the magic was an interesting way of playing with the concept of the Mandate of Heaven. This book definitely gave me some Poppy War vibes, although it’s set further back in history and has to do with the Mongolian colonization instead of the British. It’s also more focused on politics than war, and I felt it was a bit lacking in action. But there is some in there, and this book has a lovely (steamy, queer!) romance to make up for it. (Be aware, it is VERY explicit.)
I’m definitely going to be reading the next book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Slavery and Alcohol
totallyshelfaware's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Minor: Animal death and Homophobia