Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

290 reviews

eener's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Abandonment, Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Death, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Ableism, and War

Minor: Cannibalism

itisnatal's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and War

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. 

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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.

ccccamden's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and War

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.

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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

sundayfever's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.0

I went back and forth on this book. At times it really engaged me, at other times it bored me. It was easier to love and empathize with Zhu as a main character than Ouyang. A stellar world of historical fiction, with queer romance, very well written. Lots of themes of fate, desire and identity. Maybe details of military campaigns just aren't my thing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

Moderate: Dysphoria, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual content, Child abuse, and Death

Minor: Transphobia and Fire/Fire injury

pikalibri's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Violence, and Death

lis4so's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Racial slurs, Violence, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Slavery, War, Blood, Dysphoria, Sexism, Body horror, Gore, Classism, Racism, Sexual content, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Grief, Misogyny, and Murder

blakeandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

I’m so excited to start book 2!!! I feel like it will emotionally destroy me and I am soooo ready.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Child abuse, and Misogyny

4m0r's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-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

3.75

I would have liked this book better would have been fast paced, for my the problem was on the second part, it was too heavy full with nothing most of the time. 

I read this book because people recommend it for the ones who were still grieving the poppy war, so I couldn't help but compare the two all the time. Surprisingly, this book stood as its own, but Zhu and Rin really were the same but different at the same time. Their determination was the same but it felt like Zhu's greed was trying to be excused whereas Rin 's was just embraced.

I believe it would have been better had it been a duel pov: Ouyang and Zhu 1st person each. Because the way povs are writing in this books are really weird, you won't know who pov you're reading until like the character is addressed, and there were so many unnecessary povs, like esen, baoxiamg and even ma (Although I know people might disagree I feel like if Zhu comprehend her so well her body language would have told the same through Zhu's eyes). It was kind of confusing. 

I don't remember a lot of this book, only the big points like the monastery or the confrontations but if you ask me about any other thing I won't be able to answer because there was too many useless information around. If it had been more plot driven I think it would have been better because trying to depict so many characters didn't work at all

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Body shaming, War, Violence, Dysphoria, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Confinement, Grief, and Homophobia