Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

18 reviews

chickenmidwife's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Ableism, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

bootrat's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, War, Self harm, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Murder, Sexism, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Miscarriage

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

good fucking soup. The way that Shelley Parker-Chan writes about people and the relationships they have is just so delicious. I can’t wait to read more from them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Homophobia, Ableism, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Rape, Kidnapping, Child death, Physical abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Slavery, Sexual content, Transphobia, Pregnancy, Classism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

memelodie's review against another edition

dark emotional tense

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, War, Sexual violence, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Violence, Rape, Mental illness, Self harm, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, Child death, and Homophobia

Minor: Miscarriage and Vomit

stephanelli's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Grief, Ableism, Blood, Gore, War, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Vomit

leweylibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

The deduction is for the slowness which did drag on a little bit in spots, not as much as the first one, but honestly I liked this one so much more than the first one! It's such a good compliment to the first one, it really rounds out a lot of stuff that's set in motion in the first one in such a great way.

I love seeing how the characters have developed and continue to develop, especially Zhu and Ouyung. I love the symbolism with the Mandate of Heaven and it's light and the drowning, and I love how the book approaches and discusses gender identity and expression throughout. 

This one was also definitely much more exciting with the big battles and crazy scenes (I'm NEVER going to forgot

those pickled hands or Zhu convincing her army to drown itself and be resurrected to get through the ghosts to Chu's army

. They really helped keep up the pace of the book overall. Also

Ouyung's ending is so freaking shocking and sad, holy f. He didn't deserve that. But I think it makes sense for the story, like it does really shake Zhu to hear about it and to realize that she could meet a similar fate in not making her own fate come to fruition. </Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Infertility, Blood, Ableism, Gore, Dysphoria, Murder, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Grief, Homophobia, Deadnaming, Child death, Body shaming, Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, War, Physical abuse, Outing, and Violence

alexalala's review against another edition

4.0

The sequel to one of my favorite books, She Who Became the Sun, He Who Drowned the World continues the story of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, who has come from obscurity to become one of the most powerful leaders in an alternate China. She'll go up against Madam Zhang, a queen who has an army that could beat her, and Baoxiang, the scholar son of the late Prince of Henan who has maneuvered his way into the capital. Zhu will have to team up with Ouyang, the disgraced eunuch general who sliced off her arm. Together, they may be able to take the throne and get Ouyang's revenge against the Great Khan.

The good: As before, the writing by Shelley Chan in this book is exquisite. Her imagery and poetic language was both haunting and easy to parse. They masterfully wove the 3-5 narratives together in a way that made sense and built upon our knowledge of the world. The characters were incredibly complicated and diverse, and I was excited to see most of the voices. The author made sure to pull at our heartstrings with heartbreaking deaths, sacrifices, and debauchery which still hurts me after reading it. I loved the complicated relationships as well, between Zhu and Ouyang, Zhu and Ma, Baoxiang with his dead family, and Madam Zhang with her lovers and her own body.

The meh: I felt this book lost some of the charm of the first book, which was mainly communicated through its humor. Though I recognize this was a book primarily about suffering, I felt it didn't quite match the tone of the first book. This may be good for some people but I missed the banter from the first book. I also had a problem with the climax being the very end of the story. I very much wanted to see a falling action and the consequences of some of the decisions made by Zhu and other characters.

I also felt like Baoxiang and Ouyang gave in to Zhu's commands too easily in the last few pages.

It's for this reason that I'm giving the book 4 stars instead of 5, as I was a bit disappointed in the ending.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and read it very quickly. I can't remember the last time a complicated fantasy series like this drew me in so quickly and forced me to read so fast.

You will like this series if you like: complicated relationships with others and self, ambitious people, political intrigue, war, suffering, consequences, and hard questions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Pregnancy, Self harm, Xenophobia, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence