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lanid's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Sexual content, Colonisation, Child abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Ableism, Antisemitism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body shaming, Violence, Murder, War, Xenophobia, Gore, and Slavery
shetland_pone's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
So, why 4 stars? Because I had an absolute blast reading this. I loved it. It may not be objectively excellent but it is a fun one.
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Misogyny, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, War, Death of parent, and Child abuse
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Ableism
bloodbrooxv's review against another edition
- 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 isn’t exactly what I expected it to be, and it's quite slow especially in the first part, but I found the story super compelling. The way Shelly Parker Chan managed to reinterpret Zhu Yuanzhang's history is a breath of fresh air, and I loved how all the characters were written, especially Zhu and Ouyang; I particularly appreciated how the relationship between Zhu and Ma was built too. I can't wait to find out how the story will end!
(P.S.: THE ENDING!??!!? WE SUPPORT FEMININE RAGE)
______________________________
🇮🇹Magnifico.
Non è esattamente quello che mi aspettavo, e risulta abbastanza lento soprattutto nella prima parte, ma ho trovato la storia super avvincente. Il modo in cui Shelly Parker Chan è riuscita a reinterpretare le vicende di Zhu Yuanzhang è una boccata di aria fresca, e ho adorato come sono stati caratterizzati i personaggi, soprattutto Zhu e Ouyang; ho apprezzato particolarmente anche la costruzione del rapporto tra Zhu e Ma.
Non vedo l’ora di scoprire come si concluderà la storia, a questo punto non resta che attendere agosto.
(P.S. : IL FINALE!??!!? WE LOVE FEMININE RAGE)
Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Dysphoria, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, and War
Minor: Torture
Representation: non-binary lesbian main character, lesbian main character, gay main character, bisexual main character, chinese characters, mongolian charactersmarabdelmageed's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Sexism, War, Child death, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Sexual content
Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Alcohol, Body horror, Murder, Blood, Slavery, Death, Body shaming, and Death of parent
ka_cam's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
seriously power hungry she/he questing energy. I enjoyed the exploration of gender in Zhu and Ouyang’s body-mind experiences, and the ever lurking themes of trauma and social/cultural violence and oppression that (sometimes literally) haunts these characters. I felt parts of the book dragged or stalled, and the greater world building or depth of other characters (esp Ma) could have improved some of the slower parts. I’d have enjoyed more development of the ghosts or other spirit world elements but that’s just me. Will definitely be on the lookout for #2!
Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, War, Murder, Sexism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Torture, Sexual violence, and Slavery
Minor: Ableism, Sexual content, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death
nicnevin's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Ableism, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Slavery, Animal death, Body horror, Alcohol, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and War
hmatt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I persevered because Natalie Naudus, and of course the hype. And also it takes a lot for me to DNF a book, so I just pushed through.
Some things I wasn't into:
- As I alluded to before, I had a hard time keeping track of all the characters
- This might also be a genre (/part one in a series) thing, but there are so many events that happen one after another that I didn't feel were super necessary to building the story. This and the multiple time jumps made the story seem both rushed and too long.
- So many of the pivotal moments are glossed over? Like I didn't even realize that a lot of them had happened until after?
- The above also fed into my lack of conviction over the characters relationships with each other. There were really only one or two relationships that felt fleshed-out and genuine to me, and these were the rare ones where we spent a lot of time with both characters together. The main character and their love interest was completely blank for me, I didn't feel any of the build up and had no investment in their relationship.
All this said, it's a "fine" story for me. I did like the writing style, despite my thoughts on how the story comes together. The steamy scene that has received a ton of social media attention is incredibly random in the context of the book but like, lives up to the hype and I could have done with more of that honestly? Well done. I really appreciated the book in audio form for its accurate pronunciations of words/names I would read wrong in my head, and I'd love to read more historical fiction focusing on this area of the world.
Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Death, Child death, Sexual content, Misogyny, Medical content, Blood, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, War, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Gore
Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, and Grief
Minor: Infidelity
jjjreads's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Ableism, Child death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Excrement, Fatphobia, Murder, Outing, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Homophobia, and Misogyny
Moderate: Alcohol, Deadnaming, and Physical abuse
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content
theworstofit's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Ableism, Slavery, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, and War
Moderate: Transphobia and Gore
Minor: Racism
simone_ebony's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, War, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Ableism, Alcohol, Child death, and Death of parent