Reviews tagging 'Child death'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

347 reviews

eclyan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.25

J'ai aimé ce roman mais je trouve toute la recherche autour du genre de Zhu assez esquissée - alors que j'y pensais un développement plus fort-. Au final on se retrouve avec un personnage à la Mulan alors qu'on m'a plutôt vendu un roman avec un personnage queer.
Les intrigues politiques sont intéressantes mais j'ai été perdue par les noms a rallonge. Ne pas hésiter à prendre des notes pour ce roman!! Les deux points de vue sont je trouve difficile a suivre et cela impacte sévèrement le rythme du roman.
Le personnage de Zhu, si je l'ai apprécié au début, je l'ai trouvé vraiment détestable sur la fin. Obsédé par sa quête de grandeur, il deviens effectivement un "véritable homme"... Mais a un prix assez faramineux qui le rend assez imbuvable. Je suis par contre curieuse de lire la suite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, War, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Violence, Transphobia, Sexual content, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

kouya's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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: Dysphoria, Violence, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: War, Child death, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Death, and Body shaming

corbs919's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

Utterly compelling. Curious to see how it all ends. Read it in one sitting.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death

jlchabotte's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Misogyny, Murder, and War

Moderate: Outing, Gore, Slavery, Ableism, Racism, Colonisation, Classism, and Child death

Minor: Animal death and Infertility

leannanecdote's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Mental illness, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Blood, Death, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, War, Bullying, Sexual harassment, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Ableism

Moderate: Slavery

librarymouse'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed the way Shelley Parker-Chan builds characters who are not necessarily sympathetic, in that they're willing to do terrible things to survive, yet familiarizes them in such a way that readers find ourselves rooting for them. I also really enjoyed watching Zhu's journey with gender, and her shift through the identities she embodies. I was invested in this book from start to finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Grief, Animal death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Body horror, Classism, Genocide, Murder, Sexual content, War, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Medical content and Misogyny

Minor: Pedophilia

branthegremblin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Minor: Death of parent, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, and War

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. 

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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

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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

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent