Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

82 reviews

peachani's review

adventurous reflective tense slow-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

4.75

Absolutely beautiful prose. I can't wait to read the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and War

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

feyra's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective slow-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: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, War, and Violence

thedambookshelf's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-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

5.0

As many of you have seen in other reviews, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Park Chan is one of the most hyped books this year on bookish social media. I am not one to follow hype really, and it’s been a while since I’ve picked up something that everyone else was currently talking about, and guess what? I was not disappointed. 

She Who Became the Sun follows a girl destined for nothingness who takes on the role of her brother, Zhu Chongba, and spins a way to achieve heaven's favor that has been promised to her brother from the moment he entered the world. You follow Zhu in a cunning game for power, desire, and greatness. And you certainly find it, though Zhu is not the only perspective you get, you get many but the other most prominent is Ouyang. Ouyang is a eunuch general who has risen in power to serve as the right hand to one of the most powerful Mongol princes. He has been forced to serve the people who mutilated him and is in a constant battle between his fate and his desire to be loved. 

SWBTS is a very atmospheric, genuine, and deliberate read. You get to the point from the beginning to end, I never felt as if the plot was lacking nor the setting, characterization was impeccable, and everything just hit. Honestly, I’ve read another review on good reads where they stated comparing this to the song of Achilles is a disservice to SWBTS, and I could not agree more. 

This book is so rich in battle and war, not romance, the political aspects feel so real and despite this story being a reimaging of 1345 china under Mongol rule, I learned more from this than I ever did in AP WORLD. All the characters and I mean this, ALL OF THEM, are anti-heroes/morally grey characters. I found it very hard to dislike anyone, and if that’s not good character building, I don’t know what is. I don’t want to get too spoilery but in terms of romance, this book was just it for me, I’m not a big fan of sappy romances in plots like this. It isn’t realistic I feel? So, the way Shelley went about it, was perfect. Also, I just want to state, Patroclus and Achilles have nothing on my boys in this. 

Something else I really want to talk about is the way gender is structured and spoken about in this book, first off, I am genderfluid so having two lead characters that are genderqueer was a win for me. Especially the situation with Zhu, whose gender was assigned a female at birth but does not identify as a female, and yet she also doesn’t feel quite male either. She’s in limbo between the two. I feel like Shelley did an amazing job constructing such in a fluid and relatable manner, same with Ouyang and his struggles of dysphoria. I will say this story is rich with gender dysphoria which for me helped me feel better about the parts of me that make me experience the same dysphoria but for others, it may not come across that way, so be mindful about such once picking up this book. 

Despite this book just being all-around incredible, I really felt known in Shelley’s writing and there are not many books that make me feel like that, but this was one and I cannot wait for the sequel. This book was a 5-star read for me, and honestly, it would have been higher. Oh! And who wants to join my Wang Baoxiang protection club? Anyone? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Dysphoria, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, War, Violence, Xenophobia, Torture, Slavery, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Gore, Colonisation, Child death, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

Minor: Infertility and Infidelity

achingallover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and War

nefariousbee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring tense slow-paced

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

3.75

objectively a good book, but it was a bit heavy with all the war stuff, not a good fit for me personally. I appreciated the new view in gender in the Zhu character a lot tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Colonisation, Death, and Misogyny

sporemiette's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

sometimes the prose was really good and sometimes it felt clumsy. the dialogue especially was a toss up, although i think it got better as the book went on. one thing that i wasn't a fan of was the cursing in the narration, although that's something i don't like in any book. there were times when i felt like the crass nature of swearing contradicted whatever was going on in the actual scene. other than that the story was good and i especially like how the author handled gender identity and dysphoria ^^

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Cursing, Dysphoria, Gore, Murder, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Outing, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy, Pedophilia, and Excrement

gracewiley's review

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Murder, Toxic friendship, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Death

Minor: Outing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Abandonment, Blood, and Slavery

ganseys's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and War

carochacord's review

dark tense slow-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

3.75

So… first things first: this isn’t like the Song of Achilles. Yes, there’s war and queer characters but that’s about it. It isn’t much like Mulan either. There is no family or honor, it’s main theme is will and what I consider self-fullfiled profecies, and Zhu is not merely dressing up as a man. She struggles with her identity and her body throughout the book. I have mixed feelings about it, but it certainly deserves the four stars I’ve given it. I cannot say I enjoyed the dense descriptions of war tactics of the lack of (wholesome) romance, but it was a good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent and Slavery

for_esme_with_love's review

adventurous dark 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

She Who Became the Sun is a captivating story of defying expectations and creating your own destiny - no matter the cost. Amid the brutal backdrop of war during the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there is a fascinating exploration of gender through characters whose experiences are never shoe-horned into 21st century understandings of queerness. It's dark, its witty, its sexy, and its written so beautifully that you will almost be distracted from the moments of stomach-churning violence as these characters stop at nothing to claim their fate. If you love tragic period epics (Song of Achilles) and morally dubious anti-hero/ines this one is for you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Torture, and Suicide

If you are squeamish about violence, stay away from this book! There is not any sexual violence which is really refreshing for this kind of dark period epic.