Reviews tagging 'Murder'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

307 reviews

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

cass_ward's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Murder, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

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

amazelan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-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

5.0

c'était magistral.

je ne m'attendais pas à être autant transporté.e dans cette histoire, ni à m'attacher autant aux personnages ; pourtant presque toustes sont un peu affreux à leur manière. Zhu en particulier est si intéressante, et son développement est incroyable. c'est l'un des exemples les + magistraux de grey character. pareil pour Ouyang, mais différemment. 
puis même les personnages + secondaires sont tous intéressants, RÉALISTES surtout dans leurs travers et leur cruauté, et leurs relations le sont toutes autant. 
le désir, le destin vs les choix sont trois sujets essentiels à l'histoire et très bien développés je trouve ; ils sont finalement tous intrinsèquement liés et lient ainsi d'une certaine man ère les personnages entre eux, même si les liens se révèlent souvent destructeurs. 
j'ai aussi beaucoup aimé que Zhu soit un personnage assez flou dans son genre, et surtout suivre son développement et sa prise de confiance face à cette non-conformité de genre qui fait partie de sa grande force. on voit assez peu de personnages aussi gnc, et ça fait du bien. 
voir des relations peu cishet et complexes dans un livre comme celui-ci fait du bien. 

les plot twists sont bien placés, l'écriture est magnifique et transporte dès le début - même si elle est assez descriptive et que le début peut paraître vraiment long (moi j'adore les descriptions comme ça donc ça m'a pas rebuté du tout ahah). 
puis le mélange entre historique et fantastique est incroyable.

je pourrais écrire encore plusieurs lignes sur à quel point j'ai adoré ce livre mais j'aurais jamais les mots parfaits je crois, juste lisez-le il est TROP CHOUETTE !!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexism, Violence, War, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, and Grief

livres_de_bloss's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced such a rollercoaster of opinions than I did reading this book!

Part One was 5/5. I really enjoyed the beginning of this story when Zhu escapes her village and her years in the monastery. For a while there, I thought this was going to become a new favourite!

Part Two was where it started to lose me. We got introduced to the Mongol characters and those chapters were so dull! I don’t have much interest in war jargon and strategy which deeply impacted my engagement with this. I was skimming those sections toward the end. Zhu was also becoming more and more of a power-hungry twat which cooled my investment in her character. 

Part Three was a train wreck. I lost all remaining support and interest in Zhu. The book reached its gory peak in this section too and, call me a prude or whatever, but I really could have lived without the graphic (and dare I say violent)

fisting scene

. It didn’t add anything to the story, and I really don’t see why we had to spend so many pages on it… It really grossed me out and shock value in a book isn’t my jam. 
I didn’t understand Zhu’s obsession with greatness and power either. Basically, it consumes her and makes her a nightmare. 

So, while this started off great, it spiraled for me from there. I’m unlikely to pick up the second one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, War, Violence, and Murder

themdash's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, and Sexism

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

4.0

This book, like its characters, contains multitudes. It reflects on gender, survival, ambition, society, discrimination, loyalty, identity, and even more than I name here. It also manages to tell an epic story on top of all that. For that I praise Shelley Parker-Chan. My only gripes with this book are that it takes a very long time to get into the meat of the book, that the prose is beautiful at the expense of sometimes distancing us from the characters (who were truly my favorite aspect of this story) and

there is a very interesting connection made with fate and biological sex throughout the story, but ultimately I, as a nonbinary reader, felt wasn’t explored as well as it could have been.

All in all I recommend this book and enjoyed it, though I will say I am not in a rush to pick up the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Animal death, Abandonment, Child death, Misogyny, Blood, Murder, Violence, Vomit, Colonisation, Medical content, Classism, Excrement, Homophobia, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, and War

jennswan's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

galexy_brain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective 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

Such a beautifully written epic about fate, desire, identity, ambition, and duty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Gore, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit, Animal death, Dysphoria, Body shaming, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Ableism, Colonisation, Bullying, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Grief

hue's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Child abuse, Misogyny, War, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Sexual content, Murder, and Racism