Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

53 reviews

mynameisinigomontoya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Violence, Torture, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Outing, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Minor: Abortion and Miscarriage

wrenaldreads's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

4.0

this was a heavyyyyy read. My goodness. So incredibly complex and moving, much like the first book. There is so much to say - I’ll be processing it for a few days I think. Also def read content warnings beforehand if needed 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, War, Self harm, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Violence, Sexism, and Rape

nikenacs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Rape, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Animal death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Death, Self harm, Pregnancy, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Abortion, Miscarriage, and Infertility

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

This sequel to She Who Became the Sun (and conclusion to the duology ) is even darker than its predecessor -  you've been warned, reader. This is, again, a nuanced exploration of gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, and experiences of dysphoria and internalized transphobia and homophobia - and also war.  

Our character foils from book one, Zhu and General Ouyang, orbit each other even more closely in this installment, and I was fascinated to see the ways in which they aided and betrayed one another. I was surprised by how much time we spend with Wang Baoxiang, and didn't anticipate how central his storyline would become, but I honestly loved how the threads came together and how his story intersects with Zhu and General Ouyang. And never fear, because my favorite side character from book one, Ma, becomes pivotal in the final act, and I was so delighted to see how she influences the course of the narrative.

Though this book was exceedingly dark with significant on-page trauma (including rape, sexual violence, miscarriage and abortion, in addition to murder and war), these scenes felt intentional more than gratuitous, as Parker-Chan examines the intersections of revenge, sex, pain and violence in compelling and devastating ways.

I appreciated how Parker-Chan brings into this morally grey, violent hell scape earnest discussions of living authentically. Our characters each have a different vision of what it might mean to rule, and Zhu and Ma offer insight into what it might look like to create new ways of being yourself in a world that wasn't built for you. They dream of a world existing outside the binaries that have restricted them, and have to continually decide which sacrifices are worthy of this cause. The symbolic contrasting lights and shadows of the mandate, and the ability to see ghosts, layer into this vision of remaking new life and new light from death and darkness. 

I felt the story was surprisingly well-paced (given its length), and there were significant landmark scenes throughout that will haunt me for some time (sailing through ghosts?! IYKYK). 

Because of how graphically violent and dark this duology is, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to all fantasy readers, but I would absolutely recommend for those who love historical fantasy, historical retellings, speculative fiction, gender+bent history, and queer retellings with deeply (deeply) morally gray characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, War, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Ableism, Classism, Murder, Outing, Abortion, Grief, Sexual violence, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Gore, Dysphoria, Infidelity, Confinement, and Body shaming

shibh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

A bittersweet end to the duology. These books look at gender and the human experience of it in a way that has left me feeling exposed and crying. In a good way though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal death, Homophobia, Body shaming, Classism, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual assault, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Murder, Abortion, Confinement, Genocide, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Lesbophobia, Addiction, Misogyny, Child death, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Gore, Infertility, Pregnancy, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Vomit, Xenophobia, Sexism, Transphobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

isi__1's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Self harm, War, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Miscarriage, Torture, and Rape

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

thegabecole's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Miscarriage and Homophobia

thecaffeinatedlibrary's review

challenging dark emotional tense

5.0

Vague spoilers ahead.

This book. This freaking book.

Shelley Parker-Chan masterfully mixes the queer experience with the historic backdrop in SWBTS, and this continues in new wonderful and tragic ways in the sequel. It is stunning in its prose and pacing, and so well researched. The settings are vivid, from the smells to the backdrops of pirate ships. It spits in the face of gender, and gender roles, and challanges mysgony in every breath. I was angry, I was distraught, and I was heartbroken, but it was also so strangely beautiful and hopeful, in spite of all the darkness. This is a book about power, ambition, desire, and what you would do to seize your fate.

The character arc of each of these characters is astronomical, particularly in our main protagonist, Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu has done nothing but survive for her entire life, but in HE, we begin to see her learn the costs of her will, her pursuit of greatness. We see Zhu learn about herself, own herself and her body, and learn to accept and give love to those she cares for. We see her learn and grow, and when we finally see her wants come to fruition, it feels so right.

Ouyang is a character I have EXTREMELY complicated feelings about. General Ouyang leads a tragic life from start to finish. Ouyang's desires juxtaposed against Zhu's reveal several similarities, but I think Ouyang is Zhu if she never learned to see outside of herself. The way these two characters balance against each other? Magic. Ouyang's entire arc just hurt, hurt in a way that made me want to hug my friends closer. 
 
Baoxiang is a can of worms that I was not expecting from this book. His melodrama and flair and just sheer toxicity were like a bomb going off. It hurt to watch, but it hurt more to look away. Baoxiang was the quiet one, the one no one saw coming. His quiet ascent was bone chilling, but his bitter-sweet downfall brought forth Zhu's merciful side beautifully. I found myself relating to him one sentence, wanting to hug him in another, and then being horrified the next. 

And that ENDING. Perfect. No notes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Homophobia, War, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Miscarriage, and Death

Moderate: Deadnaming

cheye13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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? Yes

5.0

Cohering my thoughts about this book and the duology together is a herculean challenge. It was not a pleasant reading experience, in that horrible things are happening to all characters at all times. It is one of my favorite books in that a vice was slowly, constantly contracting around my lungs until I finished it.

Even more so than the previous book, the transness in this one is tangible. A number of lines were clearly written in response to current events in our world. The interweaving of the ensemble is just as masterful as the first book. Beginning this book, I was afraid that it would fall short because my favorite element of book one couldn't continue (

that being the ouyang/esen relationship, when one of them is dead

), but my fears were unfounded. Not only did that thread continue, but it was intensified amongst other threads.

My options discussing this book are to break it down entirely and speak at length, or to simply say it's magnificent, and I suppose I'll settle for the latter.

(I strongly recommend checking content warnings. If you would prefer not to, keep the tone and events of book one in mind and know book two pushes a little bit further.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, War, Miscarriage, Self harm, Death, Misogyny, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Sexual violence, Rape, Homophobia, Ableism, Suicide, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Minor: Abortion, Colonisation, Cursing, Dysphoria, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Trafficking

A number of characters rely on dissociation as a coping mechanism. Especially compared to the previous book, there is quite a bit of on-page sex. While technically on page, it is almost never graphically detailed. Additionally (and fitting for the setting), it almost always falls into the dicey consent grounds of transactional sex – e.g. a lesbian actively choosing to sleep with a certain man for money or power. There is a single rape scene, and again, while on-page, it's brief and sparsely detailed.

spootilious's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

 Read: December 22, 2023
 Title: He Who Drowned the World 

Series: The Radiant Emperor #2 

Genre: Fantasy / Historical Fiction / LGBT 

Rating: 4 / 5
 Review: 

I occasionally come across a book that I really struggle rating and I was shocked to find that this is one of those books. 

I came into He Who Drowned the World with very low expectations. I didn’t care for She Who Became the Sun, for a number of reason listed in my previous review. 

However, almost everything that made me dislike She who Became the Sun didn’t make it into the sequel which I am very thankful for. To be honest, I was concerned with the massive amounts of recommendations I received in regard to this series and how many awards She Who Became the Sun has won. I was praying that He Who Drowned the World would make up for what (I felt) was an extremely lacking novel. I was not disappointed. 

Parker-Chan is a beautifully talented writer (Which I knew from book 1) and tends to lean towards the very dark and morose. In fact, a bit too dark for my usual taste which may be why I wanted to give this book (He Who Drowned the World) a 3.5 and not a 4. However, Parker-Chan’s ability to write horrific imagery in a such a simplistic and straightforward manner makes the imagery all the more effective. This includes a number of sexually explicit scene, which paints sex as nothing more than a tool, punishment, or means to an end which, while I once again did not like, I can respect. The reader’s response to a story is just as much of a plot device as the sentences on a page. I was appropriately repulsed. 

I will also say that I didn’t care much for the lack of morality in ALL the characters in the novel. It left me without a ship to sail and was, perhaps, the main issue that I still hold over from She Who Became the Sun. 

All that being said, the fast pace and action-packed plot had me devouring this book, and I could not in good faith rate it lower than 4 simply due to my distaste. (i.e. the 4 star rating is more my personal rating of 3.5 and the acknowledging that some of the reasons it’s a 3.5 is because of my own personal biases against the lack of moral characters, rape, and very dark tones). 

Overall, one of the best books I’ve read this year. I will definitely recommend to individuals who love reading Dark Fantasy and Historical Fiction. 

 

 

QUOTES: 

“The most dangerous person in a game is the one nobody knows is playing.” 

“Nobody would lift a finger to change the world for us. To make a place for us. What choice did we ever have, but to do it ourselves?” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Body shaming, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Racism, Murder, Outing, Suicide, Torture, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Gore, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Classism, Deadnaming, Violence, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child death, Abortion, Blood, Sexual assault, Slavery, War, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, and Sexual content