Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

119 reviews

lizzisok's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

I was not expecting that ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Sexual content

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Gore

eener's review against another edition

slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Abandonment, Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Death, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Ableism, and War

Minor: Cannibalism

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.

gogglor's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.0

Good book, but not my kind of book. Very Game of Thrones-y in the ambition and backstabbing and political maneuvering, which is fine but not my cup of tea. Still glad I read it, it was a dope super queer fantasy novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Ableism

Moderate: War, Child death, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Sexual violence, Slavery, Alcoholism, Outing, Alcohol, Bullying, and Vomit

danielleafsordeh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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

The perfect historical fantasy for a reader like me. Complicated enough plot and character arcs without being overwhelming. Such a beautiful book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Ableism

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

pgxpg's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Murder, Emotional abuse, War, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Ableism and Body horror

withlivjones's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book had a really interesting premise and I really liked the political intrigue aspects and not quite knowing which character was one step ahead of the other. I thought it was a masterclass in writing morally grey, motive-focused characters who are so determined to fulfil their goals that it doesn’t matter who or what stands in their way. However, the pacing was kind of all over the place and the author spent so long hiding the significance of the supernatural elements of the story that the final reveal felt a little anticlimactic. Overall it was a very well-written book, it just wasn’t quite for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Ableism, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Murder, Misogyny, Blood, and Death of parent

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, War, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Genocide, Grief, Body horror, Colonisation, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Child death, Slavery, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, and Animal 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,