Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

288 reviews

leannanecdote's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Grief, Bullying, Sexual harassment, Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Torture, War, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Classism, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Homophobia, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Slavery

librarymouse'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed the way Shelley Parker-Chan builds characters who are not necessarily sympathetic, in that they're willing to do terrible things to survive, yet familiarizes them in such a way that readers find ourselves rooting for them. I also really enjoyed watching Zhu's journey with gender, and her shift through the identities she embodies. I was invested in this book from start to finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Grief, Animal death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Body horror, Classism, Genocide, Murder, Sexual content, War, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Medical content and Misogyny

Minor: Pedophilia

branthegremblin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Minor: Death of parent, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, and War

crystalisreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense

• 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

Intense.  well written. Compelling.  Wonderful audio narration. Incredibly morally grey characters. Brutal. All the feels. not for the faint of heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Slavery, Torture, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Sexism, Physical abuse, Racism, Ableism, Child death, Classism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, War, Infertility, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

megnut's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Misogyny, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Grief

fin_pilot's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful informative slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Misogyny

snipinfool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

She Who Became the Sun was the story of a young girl, Zhu Yuanzhang, who uses her brother’s identity, Zhu Chongba, when he died. She had no other options open to her. Her brother had been told greatness was his fate. She hoped that becoming Zhu Chongba, she would have a better fate as well. Zhu went to a monastery and entered as a novice in hopes of securing food, shelter, and education. Zhu planned to do everything in her power to make the prophecy foretold come true.

I really enjoyed this book. I admired Zhu for choosing to take a difficult path to survive. Posing as her brother (something that she would have to do for potentially her entire life) was the only choice she could see that could provide a life with the hope of survival. Zhu was a fast learner, which allowed her to gain the skills she needed. Zhu’s nemesis, General Ouyan, was a worthy opponent who had his own interesting life history. Parker-Chan told a very compelling story. I listened to the audiobook and it was hard for me to turn it off. I was constantly curious what happened next to our main hero of the story. A sequel, He Who Drowned the World, continued Zhu’s story. I will add this to my TBR.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny

amazelan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

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

5.0

c'était magistral.

je ne m'attendais pas à être autant transporté.e dans cette histoire, ni à m'attacher autant aux personnages ; pourtant presque toustes sont un peu affreux à leur manière. Zhu en particulier est si intéressante, et son développement est incroyable. c'est l'un des exemples les + magistraux de grey character. pareil pour Ouyang, mais différemment. 
puis même les personnages + secondaires sont tous intéressants, RÉALISTES surtout dans leurs travers et leur cruauté, et leurs relations le sont toutes autant. 
le désir, le destin vs les choix sont trois sujets essentiels à l'histoire et très bien développés je trouve ; ils sont finalement tous intrinsèquement liés et lient ainsi d'une certaine man ère les personnages entre eux, même si les liens se révèlent souvent destructeurs. 
j'ai aussi beaucoup aimé que Zhu soit un personnage assez flou dans son genre, et surtout suivre son développement et sa prise de confiance face à cette non-conformité de genre qui fait partie de sa grande force. on voit assez peu de personnages aussi gnc, et ça fait du bien. 
voir des relations peu cishet et complexes dans un livre comme celui-ci fait du bien. 

les plot twists sont bien placés, l'écriture est magnifique et transporte dès le début - même si elle est assez descriptive et que le début peut paraître vraiment long (moi j'adore les descriptions comme ça donc ça m'a pas rebuté du tout ahah). 
puis le mélange entre historique et fantastique est incroyable.

je pourrais écrire encore plusieurs lignes sur à quel point j'ai adoré ce livre mais j'aurais jamais les mots parfaits je crois, juste lisez-le il est TROP CHOUETTE !!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexism, Violence, War, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, and Grief

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

4.0

This book, like its characters, contains multitudes. It reflects on gender, survival, ambition, society, discrimination, loyalty, identity, and even more than I name here. It also manages to tell an epic story on top of all that. For that I praise Shelley Parker-Chan. My only gripes with this book are that it takes a very long time to get into the meat of the book, that the prose is beautiful at the expense of sometimes distancing us from the characters (who were truly my favorite aspect of this story) and

there is a very interesting connection made with fate and biological sex throughout the story, but ultimately I, as a nonbinary reader, felt wasn’t explored as well as it could have been.

All in all I recommend this book and enjoyed it, though I will say I am not in a rush to pick up the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Animal death, Abandonment, Child death, Misogyny, Blood, Murder, Violence, Vomit, Colonisation, Medical content, Classism, Excrement, Homophobia, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, and War

moreadsnrambles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed the complexity of this book. I was worried that it would be overwhelming as someone who doesn’t read a lot of fantasy but I thought the premise was really interesting and the book was really good! Somehow I both liked and disliked a lot of the characters’ choices, often at the same time, but I really enjoyed getting to know their lives and stories! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Ableism, Islamophobia, Misogyny, and Slavery