Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

152 reviews

areyouciarious's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death of parent, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexism, Child death, Cursing, Dysphoria, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Racism, Torture, and Pregnancy

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Murder, Child death, Death, Death of parent, War, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Dysphoria, Grief, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Homophobia, Colonisation, and Blood

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Slavery, Suicide, Alcohol, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Body horror

ellen_suth's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-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

3.75

I really enjoyed this book but can’t help but feel like some of the emotional punches would have landed harder if I had more cause to care for the characters. Zhu and Ouyang are both brilliant but in wanting to hide where the story was going, I think the author maybe lost a lot of what would have made me empathise if not completely agree with them. Ma was a personal favourite and I look forward to seeing how her story resolves in the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, and War

Minor: Child death

andtheywereroommates's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, Violence, Homophobia, Torture, Blood, Misogyny, Death, Physical abuse, Dysphoria, Ableism, and Grief

Moderate: Racism, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Child death, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Death of parent

death, mutilation, trauma, tourture, death of a perant/offscreen death of a child, animal death, violence, abelism, war, PTSD, even more death, misogyny, homophobia- internal and external,

nikenacs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Sexual content, Sexism, Xenophobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Colonisation, Child death, and Dysphoria

Minor: Alcohol

biobeetle's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Death, Child death, and War

Moderate: Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Physical abuse

tinyjude's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely fell in love with these flawed characters and their journeys, how they fight to challenge or grasp their fates and how their perceptions of themselves as beings change as the story unravels. 

It has several lgbtqia+ representation within the story and oh god, the body dysphoria truly hit the sensitive spot for me (/pos) with Zhu, so beware if that is a major trigger warning. 

I couldn't get enough of Ma and Zhu's relationship despite seeing how that journey towards greatness was so toxic and harmful. Same with the other protagonist of the novel, Ouyang, so complex, with such a heart-wrecking story. I felt his shame, humiliation, resentment, desire, sense of duty, self-loathing, so strongly... I felt so much for these characters, enjoyed the world building, politics, war strategies, complicated relationships, mentions of faith, heaven, kinship or 'likeness' as they reference a lot, with characters mirroring each other in many different levels. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Colonisation, Death, Dysphoria, War, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Sexism

heckin_hello's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Blood

duffchan's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved the diversity and differing points of view from characters depending on their birth and circumstances. Zhu was an inspiring a character, showing how you can overcome your designated fate by sheer will. The book was overall a bit slow, but worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, and Death

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Outing, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, War, Child death, Sexism, and Grief

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Torture

Minor: Cannibalism