Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - He Who Drowned the World

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

82 reviews

ka_cam's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

I don’t know if I’ve read a book with so many complex and tortured relationships to gender. Ambition, sacrifice, autonomy, revenge, regret, grief, sadism and masochism, spirits destroyed and indestructible, actual spirits both benign and lethal… plus conquest and war strategy- a lot happening here. Some parts dragged a little for me but all in all a compelling and thought provoking read.

Content Warnings

throwback682's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.5

As I’ll mention in the content warnings section below, this book is much more triggering and more violent in specific ways than the first book (She Who Became the Sun) in this duology.

That being said, I couldn’t put it down. I finished this one much more quickly than the first. It was very gripping. The reason I gave it 1/2 star less than its predecessor is just because of the r*pe scenes honestly.

Re: the title

I wondered if the title of the second book referred to the main character of the first book just with a different pronoun but this book focuses more on a different character, who was in the first book but didn’t play such a major role.

He sort of comes from behind unexpectedly and becomes a major player in this installment.

The backstabbing really gets kicked up a notch in this book too.

I kind of thought at one point that the book was getting a bit predictable/tired and then OPE THERE’S A TWIST and then WHOOPS ANOTHER ONE. Hang in there.

The protagonist of the first book continues to beat the odds in unexpected ways as she did before and again it’s spectacular. Also as before, I found myself rooting for and even loving really cruel, dark, awful characters. The author has a talent for coaxing out empathy for the worst baddies.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Grief, Slavery, Sexual content, Ableism, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Self harm, War, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Violence, Pregnancy, Rape, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Abortion, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Torture, Animal death, Body shaming, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Vomit

There is a lot more triggering content in this book than in the first installment of the duology, She Who Became the Sun. Specifically there are multiple rape scenes: - one is marital

as a punishment visited on a wife by her husband

- one is sort of in the context of a gay relationship but

first of all the “relationship” starts off as a manipulation tactic and is coercive and abusive

and secondly

the specific rape scene itself is forcible and in anger.

- another is in the context of a king/consort relationship, which already means consent can’t apply because of the power dynamic, and then

he is purposely trying to hurt her emotionally with the specific rape.

There are also numerous incidents of self harm (many of them are actually perpetrated by someone else, but still falls solidly in the “self harm” category in this context). Like the last book, there is a child who dies -

murdered by a soldier.

He also

has his blood let as proof of life to send to his father to gain his army’s compliance.

I marked both miscarriage and abortion but really it’s neither of those exactly.

A woman is happy about her pregnancy and then another woman gives her poison that ends it without her knowledge or consent.

There’s also someone who has been mutilated.

A servant has her eyes and tongue removed

so that she can be used in a specific way to test someone’s magical powers. There’s also a man who is executed by

being cooked alive in a bamboo steamer.

Yes, the first book was violent and about war and cruelty. But I think this book takes it to another level in several ways. Read with caution.

mynameisinigomontoya's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

wrenaldreads's review against another edition

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challenging 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? It's complicated

4.0

this was a heavyyyyy read. My goodness. So incredibly complex and moving, much like the first book. There is so much to say - I’ll be processing it for a few days I think. Also def read content warnings beforehand if needed

Content Warnings

ysary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

I loved this book!
The plot is amazing with a lot of twist and turn where you don't expect it. Seeing all the POV of the different Mandates makes you root for each of them and want to scream at the other when they fall into their traps. It's a very gruesome book with a lot of detailed violence that made me sometime have to take a minute before continuing reading.

In the end I knew I wanted Zhu to win but I had no idea how she would do it, everything was against her. Some of her action where more than questionable and some of them I did not understand but all of it is for the greater good. She scarified so much to get her empire but was it worth it? To me it wouldn't and I love that she also as moments of doubt because I was right there with her.

I usually don't like military books but I could not put this one down because more than armies they are people and they aren't just fighting for power but for their future.

Content Warnings

erinreadsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful tense slow-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

Wow. A surprising but also seemingly fateful end to this epic duology. There were several moment in this book that made me audibly gasp in horror at the brutality and gruesomeness of the characters’ actions, but nothing felt out of place or inserted for shock value. The events build on each other until the tension feels almost too much and you are wondering if what you felt was fated to happen this whole time might not actually occur. There were some lulls that felt a bit drawn out but overall I was just as rapt and invested as I was in the first book. It didn’t feel like a second book but rather a natural second part to the first, and the ending was satisfying.

Although the story ending with Zhu on the throne feels inevitable and does not come as a surprise, the path taken and the characters you get to know along the way are richly developed and interesting, which keeps the reading experience interesting and worthwhile.

It didn’t seem to matter that I never truly grasped the movement of the armies or the complete geography—the focus on the characters and their motivations and interactions was engaging on its own and the characters’ intertwined arcs were logical, satisfying, and moving.

Read if you like sweeping political drama and brutal historical fantasy.

Content Warnings

peter_xxx's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

This sequel to She Who Became the Sun (and conclusion to the duology ) is even darker than its predecessor - you've been warned, reader. This is, again, a nuanced exploration of gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, and experiences of dysphoria and internalized transphobia and homophobia - and also war.

Our character foils from book one, Zhu and General Ouyang, orbit each other even more closely in this installment, and I was fascinated to see the ways in which they aided and betrayed one another. I was surprised by how much time we spend with Wang Baoxiang, and didn't anticipate how central his storyline would become, but I honestly loved how the threads came together and how his story intersects with Zhu and General Ouyang. And never fear, because my favorite side character from book one, Ma, becomes pivotal in the final act, and I was so delighted to see how she influences the course of the narrative.

Though this book was exceedingly dark with significant on-page trauma (including rape, sexual violence, miscarriage and abortion, in addition to murder and war), these scenes felt intentional more than gratuitous, as Parker-Chan examines the intersections of revenge, sex, pain and violence in compelling and devastating ways.

I appreciated how Parker-Chan brings into this morally grey, violent hell scape earnest discussions of living authentically. Our characters each have a different vision of what it might mean to rule, and Zhu and Ma offer insight into what it might look like to create new ways of being yourself in a world that wasn't built for you. They dream of a world existing outside the binaries that have restricted them, and have to continually decide which sacrifices are worthy of this cause. The symbolic contrasting lights and shadows of the mandate, and the ability to see ghosts, layer into this vision of remaking new life and new light from death and darkness.

I felt the story was surprisingly well-paced (given its length), and there were significant landmark scenes throughout that will haunt me for some time (sailing through ghosts?! IYKYK).

Because of how graphically violent and dark this duology is, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to all fantasy readers, but I would absolutely recommend for those who love historical fantasy, historical retellings, speculative fiction, gender+bent history, and queer retellings with deeply (deeply) morally gray characters.

Content Warnings

saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

"The most dangerous person in a game is the one nobody knows is playing."

Absolutely GAGGED!

He Who Drowned the World is how you write a fucking sequel! A darker chapter in this duology, it has higher stakes, beautiful writing, and puts the characters into a metaphorical centrifuge that spins around and shows their rich layers. It's also queer as fuck, especially Zhu and Ouyang are playing some 3D levels of gender. Overall, the Radiant Emperor duology is a layered, nail biting, queer, epic fantasy with a full cast of blorbos!

Some spoiler-y semi-coherent thoughts, including spoilers for the ending:

- Ouyang, my poor little meow meow since book one. His arc was the best in this. Beginning still antagonistic and self hating, the latter of which reflects in how he treats other people, especially his misogyny. But through his relationship with Zhu, he grew so much as person and finally saw someone who had similar gender fuckery to himself, but had a sense of pride. It lead to such an interesting redemption arc that made it hurt all the more when he died.

- Zhu is an icon, she is the moment. I found it really interesting how she could see who people actually were and how part of that is because she understands that gender is a social construct, and so sees people for who they are, not who their genders say they are. This gaze in particular is what changes Ouyang, as she treats him for who he really is. With all that said, she also did get a lot of people killed and her loved ones hurt and it made the ending hit so hard, being her choosing to stop this cycle of violence. RIP Xa Du and Ouyang ;_;

- all the book's commentary on gender is so relevant. Internalized misogyny, the way people in the LGBTQ+ community will hate on less visible identities in a sad attempt to seem respectable, the complexity of gender, the importance of seeing people beyond what society says about them, choosing your own name and destiny, etc. This is more than a book with queer representation, it's a book about queerness!

- Baoxiang was a fascinating antagonist. Taking Ouyang's place from book one, he's now the villain who's in love with Esen. And he is so much worse than Ouyang. Though I understand why he did what he did, I can't quite like him like I do Zhu and Ouyang. He kind of boils my blood actually, especially with how he treated Ma. It was so powerful though how at the end he's told to find a new name and how that fits the theme of finding your own destiny and the way that applies to trans experiences. God this book is so queer I love it!

- Ma deserved more page time. She was so important in book one which ended with the grounds for conflict between her and Zhu. She took a backseat for most of this until the ending, but I never felt satisfied by her arc like I did with the others. And though she does get page time towards the end, the last 80 pages aren't as well paced as the rest of the book. It was like the ending was being dragged out but also not given enough time to settle everything.

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shibh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

A bittersweet end to the duology. These books look at gender and the human experience of it in a way that has left me feeling exposed and crying. In a good way though.

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