Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

23 reviews

hmatt's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

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

3.25

So, I'm not a fantasy reader, and I think that weighs heavily in my review. If you're used to and like reading historical and/or fantastical novels with lots of characters that span lots of time, you will probably like this. I'm personally much more interested in reading close character studies where not much happens, so this wasn't really my cup of tea.

I persevered because Natalie Naudus, and of course the hype. And also it takes a lot for me to DNF a book, so I just pushed through. 

Some things I wasn't into:

• As I alluded to before, I had a hard time keeping track of all the characters
• This might also be a genre (/part one in a series) thing, but there are so many events that happen one after another that I didn't feel were super necessary to building the story. This and the multiple time jumps made the story seem both rushed and too long.
• So many of the pivotal moments are glossed over? Like I didn't even realize that a lot of them had happened until after?
• The above also fed into my lack of conviction over the characters relationships with each other. There were really only one or two relationships that felt fleshed-out and genuine to me, and these were the rare ones where we spent a lot of time with both characters together. The main character and their love interest was completely blank for me, I didn't feel any of the build up and had no investment in their relationship.

All this said, it's a "fine" story for me. I did like the writing style, despite my thoughts on how the story comes together. The steamy scene that has received a ton of social media attention is incredibly random in the context of the book but like, lives up to the hype and I could have done with more of that honestly? Well done. I really appreciated the book in audio form for its accurate pronunciations of words/names I would read wrong in my head, and I'd love to read more historical fiction focusing on this area of the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Death, Child death, Sexual content, Misogyny, Medical content, Blood, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, War, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, and Grief

Minor: Infidelity

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, War, Child abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Infidelity, Animal death, Child death, and Sexual content

ashurah's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Dysphoria, Sexual content, and Misogyny

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Animal death

zombiezami's review against another edition

emotional tense

• 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

3.75

While I enjoyed the characters and the ways that the author explored gender expressions and identities in this book, the plot lost me several times. I'm learning it's hard for me to pay attention to narratives that revolve around war. I feel like I would have liked this more as a television show or movie. Some aspects were hard to visualize for me. Not sure if I'll read the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Trafficking, Violence, Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Excrement, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, and Vomit

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

storykath's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

The monk Zhu Chongba is swept up in an ongoing war between Mongolian rulers and Nanren rebels, but there is much more to the situation, the adversaries, and Zhu herself than meets the eye.

This book felt longer than its 400 pages, which was both a strength and weakness. There's so much that happens - towards the end, I found myself looking back at the beginning with incredulity about how much the situation and characters had changed. I had truly been taken on a journey with the protagonists. On the other hand, I also found that some parts of this book dragged. When the plot became saturated with politics or an ongoing battle, I found it hard to stay invested, but it was always worth it to power through. Parker-Chan guides us through all the intrigues and betrayals fairly well; there's generally enough context to keep up with the revolving cast of characters and their various motivations, but at times there were intentions that were implied and not totally clear.

The changes in perspectives were engaging, and I enjoyed seeing each protagonist from the others' perspectives. Zhu Chongba in particular comes across very differently depending on whether we see her from her own perspective or someone else's. The characters were all enjoyably complex and morally nuanced, and while I can't relate to the overarching themes of fate, greatness, and vengeance, I could clearly see how those factors drove the characters in their every decision and action.

I'm curious to see what comes next in this series, and I hope that we can continue to explore these characters and see their continued redemptions and/or corruptions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Murder, Sexism, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Violence, and War

Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Slavery

Minor: Alcohol, Medical content, Animal death, Child death, Infidelity, and Xenophobia

justamy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

Great book. Recommend read.

I find that the secondary protagonist of this story is more understandable. His goals are very clear, while the primary protagonists goals are sort of fuzzy. This might be on purpose and I don’t think it takes away from the book.

 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Violence, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual content, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Infidelity, and Slavery

annaledbetter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual content, Child death, and Animal death

reading_gives_serotonin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, War, Sexism, Sexual content, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Vomit

aardwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

5.0

An amazing execution of bright, sharp lives, a mess of protagonists who are none of them remotely good but are painfully themselves, drawn out dooms and tragedies that are no less inevitable for foresight. I love all these terrible people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, War, and Violence

peachani's review against another edition

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