Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

55 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Sometimes when I hear a bunch of hype for a book, I find that it makes my expectations so high that I can be nothing but disappointed when I read it. Thankfully, She Who Became the Sun well-earned its praise. I was blown away by how immersed in the time and setting it was, as well as the carefully-considered jumps between character perspectives. All of the characters were undeniably bad people... but they were also so easy to understand and sympathize with. And don't even get me started about all the deliciously complicated gender stuff happening for Zhu and Ouyang. I Love This Book, and I can't wait to read the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Xenophobia, Ableism, Violence, War, Homophobia, Transphobia, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Classism, Death, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Alcohol, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Excrement and Vomit

navyredrose's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Vomit, Xenophobia, Torture, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death of parent, Classism, and Sexual content

Minor: Transphobia and Child death

teriodvarkova88's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

forget the whole song of achilles crossover with mulan its more like the poppy war - she will do whaever it takes to get what she wants
there is a little bit of romance tho 

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 zhu and ma have my heart<33

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Torture, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Grief, and War

percys_panda_pillow_pet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

At the time of writing this, I have finished both She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World. I have no intention of spoiling either book in this review; I had just wanted to wait to write this after finishing the duology as I was interested if any of my opinions of the writing and characters would change.

I have heard a lot about this book online. I know it's fairly popular and heralded as a Sapphic masterpiece. It is definitely good, that's for certain. I don't feel like it was too over-hyped, though the Sapphic elements were not what expected. However, I still loved the Sapphic relationship and the dynamics between the two characters. It was interesting to see how they balanced each other.

I really really enjoyed the worldbuilding and characters, both were big strengths for the novel and what drew me in the most. Though sometimes I felt lost in the different cultures portrayed, it wasn't a constant feeling and the writing emphasized the important themes and points that meant that total understanding wasn't entirely necessary.

Zhu's POV was my favorite part of the book. While Ouyang had interesting sections as well, especially as we got to know his character and motivations, I'm a total sucker for "chosen one" tropes and Zhu is very similar to that in the way she chases her fate. Because of this, I definitely felt like there was a bit of an odd balance to the POVs and pacing, in addition to the fact that the book is overall a slow book. But I didn't mind once I got to the end. The end was so perfect to keep readers on their toes and maintain intrigue for the sequel, which is part of the reason I waited to write this: so that I could read the sequel right away!

Reading this actually made me want to reread similar books, like Wesley Chu's The Art of Prophecy and Sue Lynn Tan's Daughter of the Moon Goddess. Anyways, if you're curious about She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan now that the sequel is out, I definitely think it is worth the read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Vomit, Homophobia, Transphobia, Sexism, Violence, War, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Xenophobia, Racism, and Animal death

Minor: Sexual harassment and Religious bigotry

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Torture, Death of parent, Racism, Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Vomit, War, Death, and Violence

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Excrement, Blood, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Animal death, Ableism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Sexual content, Vomit, Sexism, Grief, Dysphoria, and Child abuse

Minor: Medical content, Sexual violence, Body shaming, and Slavery

mal_eficent's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

3.0

This was good – and while I wish I could say it was really good, the last quarter let the rest of the story down for me. While the first third absolutely raced along, and the politics really started to get going in the middle, I found the end tried to be too clever. I felt too much happened off the page between perspectives to care about the sudden plots and connections. 

The story also isn't nearly as romance heavy as the hype suggested – yes, there's romance that means a lot to the characters' development, but it's not the be all and end all of the plot. Instead most of the story was a very slow building political, military fantasy with great characters. Do I wish Zhu had been the only perspective, though? Yes. I'm not the biggest fan of multiple perspectives anyway, but Ouyang interrupted the most interesting moments of Zhu's perspective and felt like he was padding the story out more than offering insight. 

Thanks to only seeing the hype and none of the marketing, I also didn't realise this was a historical retelling at all. If I hadn't looked up how to spell some of the names in the story (the joy of audiobooks) I would not have realised this was based on the founding of the Ming dynasty. Why was everyone talking about the Song of Achilles when the whole Ming dynasty exists? It makes so much more sense why this was shelved in my local bookstores as historical.

If you want a story that embraces its setting and time period, and that has some great politics you don't normally see in Western fantasy, definitely pick this up! If you want only a sapphic romance, the slower moments in the middle of this will drag for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Xenophobia and Misogyny

Minor: Vomit

abitbetterbooks'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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, War, Torture, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Medical content, Misogyny, Vomit, Gore, Violence, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Murder

Minor: Slavery

btwnprintedpgs's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death, Sexism, War, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Bullying, Child death, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit and Torture

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Murder, Toxic friendship, Grief, Genocide, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Torture, Racism, Gore, Xenophobia, War, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Sexism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Death, Child death, Body horror, Blood, and Ableism