Reviews tagging 'War'

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

542 reviews

vrybs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, and War

galexy_brain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

Such a beautifully written epic about fate, desire, identity, ambition, and duty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

hue's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

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: Sexual content, Violence, and War

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

eelitorr's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-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

3.5

Perfectly good tale of fate, desire, and our true selves. There were points when it was difficult to follow the plot and keep character straight. Third act lull was harsh. The ending didn't really land imo, but glad to have read a different kind of story. I have the sequel but I'm not sure if I'll pick it up 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Transphobia, Dysphoria, and War

waqupi's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death and Misogyny

Minor: Grief and Death of parent

sofipitch'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

This was amazing. I wasn't expecting it to be as character driven as it is, just the cover made me think that there would be big battle scene descriptions but if they aren't relevant to the characters it's summed up in a few sentences. I loved that about this book, because what the author is interested in is this story of a person who came from nothing becoming the most powerful person in the world and what that person sacrificed to get there, mostly morals. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? I guess I'll find out in the sequel. The gender component added to the story is excellent, tackling how it makes a person perceive themselves and how others see them through a variety of characters. Big themes yet the characters are ones I'm tuning in for. Ouyang had to grow on me, his last scene was sooooo good though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Child death, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, and Dysphoria

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

Minor: Cannibalism

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

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

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Animal death, Excrement, Grief, 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.