Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

73 reviews

nikenacs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Sexual content, Sexism, Xenophobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Colonisation, Child death, and Dysphoria

Minor: Alcohol

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

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes

4.25

I really do love books that explore the complexity of human emotions. This book picks at the hangnail of your soul and then pulls. It blurs the line between who you were and who you are and who you will become. It features ghosts, monks, fate, revenge, pining, and there’s gender fuckery afoot; what more could you ask for? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Ableism, Death, War, Violence, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death of parent, Child death, Classism, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, and Colonisation

Minor: Alcohol and Animal death

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

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

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.5

This was a huge disappointment. I’ve seen this book hyped so much and it’s not even close to the best sapphic fantasy I’ve read or the best Asian inspired military fantasy I’ve read. 

The most compelling part of this story was the character of Ouyang and his relationships. That being said, I would still cut Ouyang’s story from the book entirely. I see how he works as a mirror to Zhu’s character, but him and his story aren’t necessary. This book is too long with too many POVs that are wholly unnecessary and while technically they come into contact occasionally, they really aren’t that relevant to each other. No POV adds anything to the others. The jumps between POVs are also extremely jarring at times. Overall, I found it difficult to care about any character due to a lack of consistent characterization and constant jumps. 

There’s no real payoff from the magic here. This is heavy on the military and light on the fantasy to the point where for me it drops to more magical realism than true fantasy. This was really disappointing since it had potential. However, almost every time

Zhu’s ability to see ghosts

comes up, it goes nowhere. It’s only really used once, and does very little to further plot, characterization, or themes in my opinion. I felt like I smelled the mouth-watering aroma of baking bread only to walk into the bakery and find they didn’t sell bread at all, just used the scent to attract customers. 

I can recognize the writing in this book on its own is objectively, technically very well done. However, it still reads very dry and drags for about 300-350 pages. The ending was good, but it wasn’t worth the rest of the book. This ended up feeling like an excessively elaborate and unnecessary set up for whatever is going to happen in the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Ableism, War, and Transphobia

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Sexism

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, Animal death, Slavery, Racism, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Colonisation

marsh_mall0w's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, and Misogyny

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Alcohol, Bullying, and Torture

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Torture, Slavery, Sexual content, Child death, Ableism, Racism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, Excrement, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

CW: war, sexual content

I read this book as part of a book club. It was one the club read before I joined but I am playing catch up.
Set in China in the 1300s this was a welcome departure from the Anglo-centric middle ages stories that I typically read based in that time period.

As a girl growing up in the middle of a famine, the main character learns that if you really have the want, you will survive at all costs. It's an exploration of the idea that desire is the root of suffering, and the main character is set up to be one who wants a lot and is thus likely to suffer a lot... there is a lot going on psychologically and philosophically, but I don't think the story gets bogged down by it.

I found myself really excited by some of the cinematic style happenings. An entire army taken out by cleverness and natural forces was a lot more exciting to me than blow by blow battles. I am constantly left under-enthused by battles in general, and this story doesn't make me wade through them unnecessarily. War is ugly.

The relationships in the tale are really nuanced and interesting. Best friends hide secrets from each other, or keep each other's secrets. Rivals respect each other, or feign being dignified. People feel attached to those who have hurt them. It's all a very human dysfunctional mess of trust, betrayal, love, romance, and misplaced presumptions. There's lesbian sex, and homoerotic sexual tension. Love without sex, sex without love. And there's dysphoria and mutilation...

There is a mystical element to the story. It leaves you to wonder about the Fates of the main characters and whose sides the gods are on. I really wanted to love this book more, but it's long and maybe I was just tired.. but I find it hard to root for a main character who is ambitious for its own sake. It's sort of good to have an unconventional main character who gets to be a Boss by sheer savvy and luck.. but I don't get a sense of rooting for an underdog so much as watching someone destroy a whole heap of things and climb a pile of bodies, like military might is the way to get a high score.

I'll be interested to read the second book when it comes out (later this year), and hopefully I might like it more if I take my time to invest in the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Child abuse, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Child death, Colonisation, Alcohol, Animal death, and War

Minor: Homophobia, Cannibalism, and Lesbophobia