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crystalisreading's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
- 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
Intense. well written. Compelling. Wonderful audio narration. Incredibly morally grey characters. Brutal. All the feels. not for the faint of heart.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Slavery, Torture, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Sexism, Physical abuse, Racism, Ableism, Child death, Classism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, War, Infertility, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence
megnut's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Murder, Misogyny, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Grief
fin_pilot's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Misogyny
secre's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.5
I don't think I've ever read and enjoyed a book before where I ended disliking virtually every character. So there's a first for me, and I've got to give props to the author for managing it what I'd previously have considered as impossible. Even characters that I thought I empathised with to begin with, had me denouncing them by the end. It's a gritty novel where resilience, survival instinct and power struggles are twisted into showing the darkest elements of humanity, time and time again.
She Who Became the Sun is a sprawling narrative, and throws you off course when you switch from Part 1 which is focussed entirely on a coming of age arc for one character into the rest of the novel which spreads across a variety of characters and events. It's not a period of history that I'm particularly knowledgeable about, but I'm reliably informed that it's an alternate re-imagining of the rise of the Ming Dynasty emperor. It doesn't shy away from the widespread horrors of 1345 China, with famine sweeping the land and civil war ongoing, yet also focusses in on the individual power struggles and narratives.
It is certainly beautifully written and conveys a wonderful sense of time and place, drawing even those of us with no prior knowledge of the period and region into the events and struggles of the characters. Character development is cleverly done, with absolutely no character being 'the hero' and by the end, it's seriously debateable if you want any of them to survive let alone win. Talk about a cast of antiheroes. I did enjoy the themes of gender and the religious connotations of destiny and how we can cheat it very interesting though, and they worked well with individual character narratives, never feeling shoe horned in.
I did find the switch from the first single character arc to the rest of the novel jarring and that's probably my biggest complaint with the novel. It sets you up for one thing and it's beautifully written, truly draws you into Zhu's perspective and the challenges of taking her brother's identity and serving as a monk. Then without warning it throws you into multiple perspectives that take a long time to get going. You've invested in one thing and then thrown to the lions, particularly when the second act of the novel takes a long, meandering path through events until it finally picks up again. This switch could absolutely have been done better and the mid section of the novel needed a bit more pace to offset the huge cast of characters that were difficult to keep track of at the best of times.
But, despite that I very much enjoyed the novel and I'd be interested to see what the author manages in the future.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my free review copy of this title.
She Who Became the Sun is a sprawling narrative, and throws you off course when you switch from Part 1 which is focussed entirely on a coming of age arc for one character into the rest of the novel which spreads across a variety of characters and events. It's not a period of history that I'm particularly knowledgeable about, but I'm reliably informed that it's an alternate re-imagining of the rise of the Ming Dynasty emperor. It doesn't shy away from the widespread horrors of 1345 China, with famine sweeping the land and civil war ongoing, yet also focusses in on the individual power struggles and narratives.
It is certainly beautifully written and conveys a wonderful sense of time and place, drawing even those of us with no prior knowledge of the period and region into the events and struggles of the characters. Character development is cleverly done, with absolutely no character being 'the hero' and by the end, it's seriously debateable if you want any of them to survive let alone win. Talk about a cast of antiheroes. I did enjoy the themes of gender and the religious connotations of destiny and how we can cheat it very interesting though, and they worked well with individual character narratives, never feeling shoe horned in.
I did find the switch from the first single character arc to the rest of the novel jarring and that's probably my biggest complaint with the novel. It sets you up for one thing and it's beautifully written, truly draws you into Zhu's perspective and the challenges of taking her brother's identity and serving as a monk. Then without warning it throws you into multiple perspectives that take a long time to get going. You've invested in one thing and then thrown to the lions, particularly when the second act of the novel takes a long, meandering path through events until it finally picks up again. This switch could absolutely have been done better and the mid section of the novel needed a bit more pace to offset the huge cast of characters that were difficult to keep track of at the best of times.
But, despite that I very much enjoyed the novel and I'd be interested to see what the author manages in the future.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my free review copy of this title.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child death and Death of parent
hybridhavoc's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Violence
Moderate: Sexism
lanster's review against another edition
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
3.5
It was a pretty fun read in a pretty rare setting. The exploration of its various themes (fate, desire, gender etc) was surprisingly mature. The characters were well written and stood out.
Towards the end it became a bit too melodramatic for my tastes.
Also I didn't understand the pointfisting scene, felt completely out of tone with rest of the book and didn't add anything, especially because after that Ma & Zhu barely interact .
Towards the end it became a bit too melodramatic for my tastes.
Also I didn't understand the point
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
themdash's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, and Sexism
laguerrelewis's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
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? Yes
4.0
This book, like its characters, contains multitudes. It reflects on gender, survival, ambition, society, discrimination, loyalty, identity, and even more than I name here. It also manages to tell an epic story on top of all that. For that I praise Shelley Parker-Chan. My only gripes with this book are that it takes a very long time to get into the meat of the book, that the prose is beautiful at the expense of sometimes distancing us from the characters (who were truly my favorite aspect of this story) and there is a very interesting connection made with fate and biological sex throughout the story, but ultimately I, as a nonbinary reader, felt wasn’t explored as well as it could have been. All in all I recommend this book and enjoyed it, though I will say I am not in a rush to pick up the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Animal death, Abandonment, Child death, Misogyny, Blood, Murder, Violence, Vomit, Colonisation, Medical content, Classism, Excrement, Homophobia, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, and War
jennswan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Misogyny, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence
offthecarousel_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I wish I could lead or be in a class studying this book. There's honestly too much to unpack. The descriptive prose is so visceral and creative it made me pause at times. The discussions of gender, especially their emotions & internalized phobias about how their bodies and how others perceive them is extremely well done. I rarely see it done to this level in published YA fantasy.
The way Zhu and Ouyang's arcs seemed like each others' road not taken, and yet each of their fates inevitable, fascinates me. In some cases they mirrored each other and others they were completely opposite. Zhu craved the gender she was perceived as while Ouyang was so repulsed by it he rejected all things feminine.
My only critiques are that the pacing felt a bit fast and loose, and the first switch to the new perspective was a bit jarring after several chapters of just one perspective.
Edit: I forgot! The fantasy element, at least in this first book, was either subtle or underdeveloped, depending on how generouly you want to look at it. I'm curious if that will come in more in the sequel, but if you're hoping for a book with a lot of fantasy, this is not the one.
The way Zhu and Ouyang's arcs seemed like each others' road not taken, and yet each of their fates inevitable, fascinates me. In some cases they mirrored each other and others they were completely opposite. Zhu craved the gender she was perceived as while Ouyang was so repulsed by it he rejected all things feminine.
My only critiques are that the pacing felt a bit fast and loose, and the first switch to the new perspective was a bit jarring after several chapters of just one perspective.
Edit: I forgot! The fantasy element, at least in this first book, was either subtle or underdeveloped, depending on how generouly you want to look at it. I'm curious if that will come in more in the sequel, but if you're hoping for a book with a lot of fantasy, this is not the one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Body shaming, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, War, Transphobia, Gore, and Misogyny
The fisting (sex) scene took me a bit by surprise I have to say.