Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

7 reviews

4m0r's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I would have liked this book better would have been fast paced, for my the problem was on the second part, it was too heavy full with nothing most of the time. 

I read this book because people recommend it for the ones who were still grieving the poppy war, so I couldn't help but compare the two all the time. Surprisingly, this book stood as its own, but Zhu and Rin really were the same but different at the same time. Their determination was the same but it felt like Zhu's greed was trying to be excused whereas Rin 's was just embraced.

I believe it would have been better had it been a duel pov: Ouyang and Zhu 1st person each. Because the way povs are writing in this books are really weird, you won't know who pov you're reading until like the character is addressed, and there were so many unnecessary povs, like esen, baoxiamg and even ma (Although I know people might disagree I feel like if Zhu comprehend her so well her body language would have told the same through Zhu's eyes). It was kind of confusing. 

I don't remember a lot of this book, only the big points like the monastery or the confrontations but if you ask me about any other thing I won't be able to answer because there was too many useless information around. If it had been more plot driven I think it would have been better because trying to depict so many characters didn't work at all

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Body shaming, War, Violence, Dysphoria, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Confinement, Grief, and Homophobia

anjasshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Gore, Sexism, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, War, Sexual content, Child death, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Racism, Dysphoria, Vomit, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Alcohol, Misogyny, and Racial slurs

Minor: Grief

nicnevin's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Honestly stunning prose

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Ableism, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Slavery, Animal death, Body horror, Alcohol, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and War

jjjreads'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Ableism, Child death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Excrement, Fatphobia, Murder, Outing, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Deadnaming, and Physical abuse

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark sad 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

War epics are not my cup of tea, but if they're yours you might enjoy this one! Set in ancient China and packed with destiny, epic battles, political intrigue, betrayal, the occasional ghost, and clashes between Chinese and Mongol powers, this book tells the epic story of a girl who didn't starve to death claiming a name and destiny that might not have been hers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Death, Dysphoria, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Gore, Torture, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Outing, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Grief, Homophobia, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and War

rowanasm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Racism, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Child abuse, Sexual content, Sexism, Medical trauma, Death, Child death, Animal cruelty, War, Alcohol, Outing, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Grief, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Blood

heartbrekker's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

"Salt is fire, and salt is life, and without it: even an empire falls to nothing."

Note: I will be using she/her pronouns for Zhu because they are the pronouns during her POV. There's a long  complication over her identity since she took her brother's name and has pretended to be him for so long. Zhu constantly mentions how she knows she is not a man but also believes herself not to be a woman. While I am a cis-woman, I do think that her identity was handled with care. This is certainly not another cross-dressing Mulan tale, but  a complex story about identity, especially when your identity is innate to your  survival.

She Who Became the Sun is pitched as The Song of Achilles meets Mulan, and I think that is a marketing genius description. A round of applause for whoever came up with that! Obviously, I think this story is more complicated than that description. The Mulan reference could lead people to think this is simply a crossdressing situation, but it is DEFINITELY not that in the slightest. I mentioned above the complications a bit if you need a refresher. Now I'd personally add The Poppy War as a comparative title because while I don't think this is as grim dark as TPW, SWBTS gets very brutal at times. I'd recommend you look at other content warnings of reviews because it is probable that I missed a few.

Anyway, to be honest, this book was a masterpiece of a debut. Parker-Chan comes in swinging with all of her might, and it pulled on my heart strings in a variety of scenes. It's so interesting to see Zhu take up her brother's identity for survival. From the beginning, we see just how willing Zhu is to live and fight for her life. She's one of the most determined characters that I have ever met, and I cannot wait to see her in action more. Not to mention, the other POVs and side characters are extremely fleshed out. I physically felt like all the characters were visceral and tangible, which I cannot say for many books. Their personalities were completely their own as well as their intense desires.

Going off of the *intense desires* mention, the political game was my favorite part of this book besides Zhu's overall journey. At first, I just wanted to continue on with her story whenever a separate POV showed up, but of course, Ma and Ouyang are quintessential to this plot. I found myself rooting for both of them in different situations. Ma never led me astray because she's such a loyal, gentle soul, and then Ouyang just tugged on the heart strings with his backstory of non-consensual castration. He's constantly torn about his identity and status as a eunuch. He's so damn confused for a variety of reasons (*cough cough* spoilers), and while not all of his decisions are the best, he really needed a hug. It's always a testament to an author's skill when they can make characters on opposing sides enjoyable and sympathetic. Parker-Chan could of very well made Zhu the fan-favorite and left Ouyang out to dry as the evil villain, but she is too good for that. You'll see this world is built off of a foundation of greys, and I certainly prefer my reads that way.

I may add more to this review in the future, but for now, without spoilers, I'll end it here. Thank you to Tor Books for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

"There are no kind solutions to cruel situations."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Gore, Murder, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Physical abuse

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Cannibalism

More content warnings: non-consensual castration (sexual violence), starvation, public execution, depression, mass death (war themes), misgendering, dysphoria, and the physical abuse/ violence partly refer to a life-altering injury. One of the child deaths is offscreen whereas another is suicide.