Reviews tagging 'Outing'

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

23 reviews

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

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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

zombiezami's review against another edition

emotional tense

• 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

3.75

While I enjoyed the characters and the ways that the author explored gender expressions and identities in this book, the plot lost me several times. I'm learning it's hard for me to pay attention to narratives that revolve around war. I feel like I would have liked this more as a television show or movie. Some aspects were hard to visualize for me. Not sure if I'll read the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Trafficking, Violence, Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Excrement, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, and Vomit

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

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

isleoflinds's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Outing, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: Suicide and Abandonment

lolajh's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective 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

5.0

The main character Zhu is a very strong and interesting main character who takes on her brothers identity to be a monk and goes through a complicated journey of gender identity whilst China goes through a war. There is also Ouyang who she connects with due to his own experiences with gender who I would have loved to see more backstory’s and pov’s of (maybe in the second book??) but still love having Zhu as the main character.

Zhu also romances with the character Ma later on in the story whilst presenting as a man but still comes to accept Zhu when presenting as a woman as well. Their romance on the side of the plot was quite enjoyable

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Sexism, War, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Outing

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

britgirlreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? N/A

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Outing

cait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.25

 An act of kindness that had been met with violence. And, in the end, hadn't made any difference at all. It had been the very opposite of pragmatism... The gesture had been pointless but somehow beautiful. In it had been [the] tender hope for the world as it should be, not the one that existed.

I am very happy that we are seeing more and more Chinese historical fantasy novels in recent years. As someone very interested in Chinese history and culture, I really enjoy the very unique perspectives displayed in Chinese fiction vs. Western fiction vs. Japanese fiction vs. Korean fiction, etc.

She Who Became the Sun definitely delivered on everything it promised to. We follow a clever girl from a poor village who has been cursed with a fate of nothingness while her cruel brother is granted the fate of greatness. When her brother dies, though, she decides that the only way for her to escape her fate is to steal his. So she takes his identity and runs away to a monastery, not knowing that this action would be the one that propelled her fate from destiny into reality.

This story delivers on all that it promises. Parker-Chan does not shy away from the brutality of war or ancient China. Everything is ugly and brutal and fatal and cruel. This is an ugly story. The characters are ugly. The terrain is ugly. War is ugly. The writing doesn't waste its time waxing poetic about shit-filled latrines or dismembered corpses.

So why didn't I give it five stars if it did all that? Honestly? I just don't like corruption arcs. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Death, Toxic friendship, War, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail

cinnamonandpancakes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-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

4.0

This book, this book! What can I say! The scope of this book expands as its main character expands and you don't even notice until the end when it hits you. Shelley Parker Chan infuses this book with beautiful descriptions, the sense of place is magnificent.

I don't want to say too much about the characters, because learning who they are has been such a delightful adventure, but they were all compelling and fully rounded people, they made decisions that make _sense_ for who they are. It was very easy to keep reading, even though I tried to spread it out and make it last longer!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, War, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: Body shaming and Outing

paracosim's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

Dude, Zhu is insane LOL

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Death, Sexism, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Child death, Ableism, and Death of parent

Minor: Outing, Pedophilia, Rape, Transphobia, and Slavery