Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Celle qui devint le soleil by Shelley Parker-Chan

332 reviews

itisnatal's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and War

throwback682's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

From the publisher:

“Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.”

Phew. This book was so good and I’m ready to immediately dive into the conclusion of the Radiant Emperor duology - He Who Drowned the World. 

This book is about human suffering - due to war, patriarchy, religion, etc. It’s not an easy or lighthearted read. I liked so many of the characters in spite of them all being pretty bad people - some of the best characters are power hungry, blood thirsty, and ruthless - and it gets worse from there. 

But I’ll be damned if I wasn’t rooting for them!

This book has some very queer elements (both in terms of sexuality and gender) but very much in a way that’s framed by its setting - you won’t be able to neatly cram these characters into 21st century western boxes and labels, though you might be tempted. 

Although the bulk of the “adult” content in this book is the violence of war, there’s also one graphic sex scene, FYI. See also the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, War, Alcohol, Ableism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Grief, Animal death, Excrement, and Outing

The sex scene involves

fisting.

A character sustains a battle injury that is significant to the plot. The injury is

an intentionally amputated limb.

There is a character who is mutilated.

He is a eunuch, and there are references throughout the book to this.

He is treated very poorly because of his

genital mutilation, which makes him viewed more as a woman than a man.

Two children die

one violently and one maybe of a broken heart?

The opening of the book takes place during a famine, and some content could be triggering to those with ED/ARFID I imagine.

A child is starving, etc.

Again, it’s a book about war, so lots of blood, swords, bombs, fire, etc etc. Drowning:

A great number of soldiers are washed away in a flood but there’s no description of any drowning.

Many people get sick due to something like food poisoning so there’s

a bunch of people having vomiting and diarrhea.

Gender stuff:

The main character is a girl who hides her identity and pretends to be a boy. She binds. She has a confusing relationship with her body. I wouldn’t exactly call it dysphoria in the way we’d use it, but I think those parts could be triggering to some in a related way.

and_opossum's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, and War

Moderate: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Cannibalism, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

whatevertheysay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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 and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent

sundayfever's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I went back and forth on this book. At times it really engaged me, at other times it bored me. It was easier to love and empathize with Zhu as a main character than Ouyang. A stellar world of historical fiction, with queer romance, very well written. Lots of themes of fate, desire and identity. Maybe details of military campaigns just aren't my thing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

Moderate: Dysphoria, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual content, Child abuse, and Death

Minor: Transphobia and Fire/Fire injury

inkysplodge's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, War, and Death

Moderate: Violence and Child death

Minor: Sexual content and Injury/Injury detail

njthk's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

Had some juicy bits but didn't blow me away.
The pacing wasn't great for me. Important events that could have fleshed out the world or pushed character development literally got skipped/glossed over. (Battles,

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MONASTERY WHEN OUYANG AMBUSHED IT

)
I understand that action and battle weren't the focus of the story, but with a world that felt so empty it took away SO much.
I also didn't like the timeskips during Zhus youth in the Monastery. We got some key moments that fleshed out her character but there could have been so much more.
(Daily life, struggles with her gender)
Now to the juicy bits, which was mostly the relationship between Esen and Ouyang.
The mixture of envy, guilt, resentment, love(?) and attraction Ouyang felt for Esen?
The underlying need and duty for revenge that propelled Ouyang through life, the endless circles of violence.
And Esen not being able to see Ouyang for who he is, what makes him *him* after years of companionship?
BANGER
Ma's and Chu's relationship was interesting too but not as much.

Ma choosing to want something (Zhu) at the end and it being something that will ultimately cause her suffering, by her own choice was great.

It just could have been a longer thing with the strife and battle and suffering that's constantly talked about but I couldnt *feel* it, so I wasn't invested.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, and War

lis4so's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Racial slurs, Violence, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Slavery, War, Blood, Dysphoria, Sexism, Body horror, Gore, Classism, Racism, Sexual content, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Grief, Misogyny, and Murder

isabellyboo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Violence

valkyri_anna's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content