Reviews with content warning for Animal death - She Who Became the Sun

I am incredibly mad because I desperately wanted to love this book and just couldn't. The writing style and historical setting are beautiful and intriguing and the slow beginning and the monastery time really did it for me. The rest... not so much. For one, I was confused about what was going on for way too long. Sure it's fun to if you have to figure out motives and plans but at some point I want to have at least a small idea about what could possibly happen next. That didn't happen here. And not in the good, being-on-the-edge-of-your-seat kinda way, in the why-am-I-still-reading-this-and-who-the-hell-even-is-this-person-I-don't-remember-kinda-way. For a very short time I even cared for some people but they were either never mentioned again or worse. Concerning the two/three main characters, I honestly loved their personal stories in the beginning and then they all kinda just slowly morphed into these war and violence driven people without any individuality. I thought the queerness would carry me through this book but it honestly is a very questionable portrayal of these topics and every bit of warmth and intimacy is quickly extinguished by the plot. This book is about war and not about queerness and individuals but still tried to be and didn't do it well.

Content Warnings

georgiaisreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.5

Such a good story! I was entranced by the world building and vivid imagery depicted. The fleshed out characters which all had their own ambitions and flaws seen in their pov was great!

Content Warnings

chrisljm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging slow-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? Yes

2.5

This book has been marketed so heavily as a fantasy but it’s really not. There are only two fantastical elements and they’re not even that important to the story.

This is a story about fate and how the main character seeks greatness with hers. Although an interesting premise, I didn’t really enjoy how the story was told. It’s like the meme about Zuko’s honor except it’s a billion times worse because all the main character talks about is her fate/greatness, it was incredibly excessive (fate was mentioned 145 times, greatness 50 times). I think the main character started off interesting, but something about the way we see her through other POVs made me so unattached to her, and I really didn’t care if she succeeded or failed.

I think one of the worst things is that she wanted Ma as a way to remind her of empathy and to keep her from becoming like the men she hated, but at the end that’s who she became anyways. And I especially hate how Ma feared a life where all her thoughts, feelings, and wants are ignored, yet in the end she stays with Zhu because she loves her even though she knows that means a life of pain. I don’t find that romantic at all; I think that’s terribly sad and love shouldn’t contain so much suffering. A line in the end from Zhu’s POV says “Zhu’s desire propelling them higher and higher, until there was nothing left above them but the dazzling vault of Heaven. And for Ma every moment of that ascent would be compromise and heartache and the gradual erosion of her belief that there was always a kinder way. . . I’ll make it worth it, for both of us.” I just don’t see how anything could possibly make that pain worth it.

I think maybe a large part of why I didn’t enjoy the book that much is because my beliefs/the way I see the world is so vastly different from the main characters, and so my disappointment might just be a me problem.

But also, the story moves so slowly it’s kind of hard to read in large chunks. A lot happens but it doesn’t feel like it, and I don’t want to say it’s boring, but it was hard not to zone out. There are also times where parts of a scene happen off screen? I don’t know if this is just a writing style or what, but it was confusing because instead of reading what happens, I have to infer for myself because the author likes to describe emotions first and events second.

For instance during the scene where Ouyang cuts off Zhu’s hand, they’re fighting and all of a sudden they’re not fighting because something is clearly wrong and then “her fingers clenched around the sword in her lower body”, and then on the next page his sword flashes and there’s an impact and every feeling is described and then you’re told her hand is missing.

I just feel like this book was more frustrating to read than it had to be.

Content Warnings

leonormsousa's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

chalkletters's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective 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? Yes

3.25

To keep things interesting, I make every effort not to read similar books too close together, but, actually, it’s always interesting when the universe intervenes. Reading (or watching) two stories with similar themes throws them into comparison with one another, which lights up different thoughts about them both. She Who Became the Sun and Devices and Desires are both low-magic military fantasies with characters who ruthlessly pursue their goals.

Of the two, She Who Became the Sun engages with its themes in a much more rounded way. Zhu Chongba is self-aware enough to self-describe as unempathetic, something which doesn’t seem as though it would occur to any of K J Parker’s characters. She Who Became the Sun is at its most charming in the early chapters, when Zhu’s ambitions are primarily her own continued survival. Fans of fantasy con artists will especially enjoy Zhu’s problem-solving at the monastery. Shelley Parker-Chan balances Zhu’s ability to compartmentalise emotions with other characters: both Ma Yingzi and General Ouyang have more than their fair share of emotional turmoil.

Though Zhu continues to put her smarts to good use throughout, the middle of She Who Became the Sun is less engaging if you’re not a fan of military stories. Shelley Parker-Chan doesn’t go overboard with tactical battle details, but perhaps because of that the stakes don’t feel as immediate. The drama moves onto a much larger scale, and so loses some of the human interest. That said, the relationships on both sides play out in serpentine ways, elevating the subplots to the point where they are more rewarding than the plot is.

Towards the end, Shelley Parker-Chan weaves everything together into an ending that hits hard and really highlights Zhu’s journey, while still giving a sense of how far she has to go, and potentially, what depths she’ll have to reach to get there. Themes and characters coalesce, and its clear that the plot is well thought-through.

I just find, personally, I’m not that interested in where it’s going… This might be a book for readers who can engage with the themes on a more sophisticated level, because She Who Became the Sun feels like it will reward that level of attention.

Content Warnings

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional 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

4.0

i loved the characters and the relationship between the two main characters. the ending was such a perfect end to the story.

Content Warnings

More...