Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

40 reviews

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.5

This book had been on my tbr list for a while before I read it. While I had high hopes for it, it ultimately didn't live up to them.
It's difficult for a book this long not to feel slow paced. There was plenty of action that got me through, but it still overall felt a little slow.
I also struggle with the main character and her actions/choices at times. I understand her motivations and that her situation is complex, difficult, and influenced by significantly different cultural beliefs. And, at the same time, it is painful to see her grow into the person she becomes. The parallels with the eunuch general are fascinating, and I do plan to at least try to read to sequel to see where that thread goes. His story and decisions are painful to follow, though, too. Overall, it is a difficult read, one that offers little reward for the suffering and pain it puts the reader through. It is not a happily ever after story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Death, Infertility, Torture, Blood, Abandonment, Murder, Homophobia, Bullying, Child death, Xenophobia, War, Child abuse, Genocide, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Body horror, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Sexism, Misogyny, Violence, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit and Excrement

queerandtalkative's review against another edition

DNF after chapter 2. read like trauma porn, the main character could not catch a break. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Death, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation

readbyella_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Murder, Sexual content, Misogyny, Homophobia, Death, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Slavery, Cursing, Vomit, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Animal death

errie's review against another edition

dark

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Transphobia, Child death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Body shaming, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Body horror, War, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

meganparfitt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Torture, Vomit, Excrement, Medical content, and Sexual content

aileron's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Gore, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Death, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Cannibalism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Classism, Excrement, Racial slurs, and Racism

emhromp's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense 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

5.0

To give this book anything less than 5* would be an insult. This was so intricately written, with so many details, and so much passion....
At no point in the story could I predict what was going to happen next and although this took me more than a week to finish (which must be some kind of record), I was never bored and continually intrigued. Wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Slavery, War, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

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

aellwy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring 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

3.75

I was initially very excited about the premise of this book and hooked by the beautiful writing at the beginning. How we meet and come to know the desires of our main character, Zhu, is a masterclass. 

My main issue with the book is the middle. The beginning and end are deftly composed and tug at the reader's humanity. However, there was a point in the middle that it began to feel like a chore to read. I am not sure if it was a me issue or an issue with the storytelling. So please, give this book a shot. The payout at the end was so very worth it. I am glad I listened to a dear friend and stuck with it.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Body shaming, Death of parent, Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, and Slavery

julesxyz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

this book had me hooked from the first page, it’s now my favorite istg this book is liquid gold to my eyes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Transphobia, Vomit, War, and Violence