Reviews tagging 'Outing'

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

22 reviews

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Grief, Animal death, Excrement, 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.

gogglor's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

Good book, but not my kind of book. Very Game of Thrones-y in the ambition and backstabbing and political maneuvering, which is fine but not my cup of tea. Still glad I read it, it was a dope super queer fantasy novel.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Ableism

Moderate: War, Child death, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Sexual violence, Slavery, Alcoholism, Outing, Alcohol, Bullying, and Vomit

abnormal_shadow's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

I absolutely love this book I went into it not knowing what I would get not really expecting anything but it was so good. The characters their motivations the way that the story represents their motivation not only physically but mentally and spiritually also is just so amazing I love the format of the book. The way that characters genders and sexual orientations influence the plot and the way that they speak to not only themselves but others is absolutely stunning.

in the book The main character adopts the name of her dead brother by proxy also adopting the state that a fortune teller gave him which was greatness and renouncing the Fate that the fortune teller gave her which was nothing . Throughout most of the book the main character struggles coping with the fact that she was not born a man and that the heavens May recognize this and see what she had done and renounce her fate and kill her. I love the after the main character gets her arm cut off she becomes a new person . She is no longer in the mental space of I need to be someone I am not or I will die instead she sees herself as a different person entirely not the little girl that was subsequently buried that day not the dead brother that she stole the life of instead she is something else entirely not a man not a woman . I love that her wife except her as who she is physically but has a hard time accepting the fact that she will have to sacrifice the empathy that the main character loves so much so that she can stay with the main character who is just going on a killing spree.

It is challenging and amazing and I love it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Gore, Transphobia, Blood, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content, Misogyny, Alcohol, and Child abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Outing, Child death, and Emotional abuse

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Outing, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, War, Child death, Sexism, and Grief

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Torture

Minor: Cannibalism

jodean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

everyone should read this book

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Body horror, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Dysphoria, Death, Child death, War, Violence, Misogyny, Colonisation, Sexism, Body shaming, and Blood

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Racism, Homophobia, Animal death, Trafficking, and Outing

Minor: Vomit and Excrement

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

---

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

---

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

momo916's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.5

I had a hard time getting into this book at first but by about 1/3 of the way in it had me. I had a hard time keeping track of all the characters at first, but eventually my brain caught on. It was interesting that the author included some Chinese idioms translated literally into English as a way to make the book feel more **authentic** but also I doubt those idioms were the same hundreds and hundreds of years ago when this book takes place. Points for giving some easter eggs to the Chinese speakers, I guess. I did appreciate how the two main characters, Zhu Chongba and Ouyang were crafted so well as foils for each other, and it was interesting to see how their characters became more complex and morally ambiguous over time.

As someone who knows absolutely nothing about Chinese history prior to 1900, the fantasy aspects of this book appealed more to me than the historical aspects, and for me the book was able to capture that fantastical atmosphere despite the fact that there isn't a whole lot of actual paranormalcy or superhuman abilities, just a lot of woowoo about fate and destiny. Kind of confusing since

by the end the conclusion we're meant to come to is that we can manifest our own destiny but ok

. Agree with another reviewer that there is a sex scene that kind of came out of nowhere and felt like things had ramped up to 100 with no warning and no buildup.  

All that being said will be on the lookout for the next book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gore, Death, War, Violence, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Outing

qwerty88's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Murder, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Violence, and War

Minor: Homophobia, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Ableism, Child death, Animal death, Death, Medical trauma, Outing, and Alcohol