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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
hopeful
informative
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Started with the audiobook and got confused by all the different characters but undetood it better when I switched to reading it.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
medium-paced
i really really enjoyed the first part of the book. Zhu's suffering and desperation was raw, and her motivations were sympathetic. after the monastery part, i felt more and more detached from Zhu's character. her victories took some suspension of disbelief. i liked how ruthless she was, but by the second half the book, it didn't feel like there was any weight to her story. maybe it's because i dislike ideas like fate and destiny, i didn't like how much Zhu relied on her fate to bring her victory. it felt more like just luck.
but overall, i liked the concept a lot, and the prose was really beautiful, so i give this a 4/5.
but overall, i liked the concept a lot, and the prose was really beautiful, so i give this a 4/5.
3.5 ⭐️
I really liked this story in the sense that it definitely posed a lot of questions regarding fate, desire, and what you would do to achieve those things/the intertwining of fates. I just thought the plot line was slow and didn’t have that much of a pay off at the end.
I really liked this story in the sense that it definitely posed a lot of questions regarding fate, desire, and what you would do to achieve those things/the intertwining of fates. I just thought the plot line was slow and didn’t have that much of a pay off at the end.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book should’ve been epic. She Who Became the Sun is a character-driven story set in 14th-century, Mongol-occupied China. A nameless peasant girl steals her dead brother’s identity, decides she will seize his fate of greatness for herself, and then bulldozes her way through life leaving an actual river of bones behind her. Gender identity, survival, destiny, society’s outcasts. All big themes, and all ripe for drama.
It started so strong. The first quarter was brilliant: Zhu in her village, dealing with the fallout of deciding to literally become her brother and navigating the survival game with cunning and grit. I was hooked. The last quarter also came alive. We got deception, action, big moments, and… yeah, that fisting scene that came way out of left field.
But we can’t just ignore the middle, which, honestly, for me was just a swamp of “meh.” Endless political intrigue, plots, deaths, battles (or just threats of battles), and scheming so drawn-out I nearly forgot what Zhu was even fighting for. It dragged. On and on and on. I was way more invested in the moth on my ceiling than in the fate of the empire.
I think the problem for me was when the story shifted from survival to pure power-grabbing. Zhu goes full morally-grey warlord, not because of some grand cause, but basically just because she’s decided “I will have greatness”. And honestly that’s not really the kind of character I root for.
That said, Shelley Parker-Chan’s writing is beautiful. The world felt rich and immersive; I really was transported to 14th-century China. But beautiful writing couldn’t disguise the fact that, for me, this was a slog.
Not a bad book. Just not my book.
It started so strong. The first quarter was brilliant: Zhu in her village, dealing with the fallout of deciding to literally become her brother and navigating the survival game with cunning and grit. I was hooked. The last quarter also came alive. We got deception, action, big moments, and… yeah, that fisting scene that came way out of left field.
But we can’t just ignore the middle, which, honestly, for me was just a swamp of “meh.” Endless political intrigue, plots, deaths, battles (or just threats of battles), and scheming so drawn-out I nearly forgot what Zhu was even fighting for. It dragged. On and on and on. I was way more invested in the moth on my ceiling than in the fate of the empire.
I think the problem for me was when the story shifted from survival to pure power-grabbing. Zhu goes full morally-grey warlord, not because of some grand cause, but basically just because she’s decided “I will have greatness”. And honestly that’s not really the kind of character I root for.
That said, Shelley Parker-Chan’s writing is beautiful. The world felt rich and immersive; I really was transported to 14th-century China. But beautiful writing couldn’t disguise the fact that, for me, this was a slog.
Not a bad book. Just not my book.
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
this book was fine? not my thing personally, but i stuck it out till the end. it did drain me of all my motivation as a consequence, so that's why it took approximately 6 months to finish.
the characters were cool and i enjoyed most of them, I just found the style of writing quite bland and I couldn't engage properly.
the characters were cool and i enjoyed most of them, I just found the style of writing quite bland and I couldn't engage properly.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It took me a while to really get “into” the story and unwind the characters. However I did find it intriguing enough to read the second and last book in the series. “He Who Drowned the World”.