Reviews with content warning for Rape - Lui che annegò il mondo

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Lui che annegò il mondo by Shelley Parker-Chan

243 reviews

pixelpigeon's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

It is absolutely wild that these 2 are the author's first books cause holy fucking shit. I just blew through the last third of this book and stayed up WAY too late.

A personal character flaw of mine is I secretly always hope for happy endings. What you get with this book is an ending as complex as the rest of the story. But I will say the ending does feel satisfying.

Anyway I will probably be thinking about these books forever. Shelley Parker-Chan please write more books, this unworthy reader begs of you!

Content Warnings

saltyseakitten's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

zaferino's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging 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

Content Warnings

hanz's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

rachelandrews's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

definitely went some very weird ways, devastated me and strayed into implausibility a bit too much icl

also

ouyang’s death was such an injustice to the character im sorry i cried for an hour

but the zhu/ouyang duality was really giving and the ending slayed

Content Warnings

tayrod4594's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is beautifully written, but I'll be honest - the sheer emotional and physical torture each character faces is very difficult to wade through. I still love the way gender dynamics are put into play here, but the constant weaponization of and disgust toward feminity started to feel very heavy-handed by the end. There was still satisfaction to ve found, however, in the well-charted character arcs that feel both earned and complete by the novel's finish. I don't think I'll reread it, but I'm very glad I read it once.

Content Warnings

leonoor's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I loved the first book of this series, so I expected to love the sequel as well. And I did, but it wasn't what I expected. Like the first book, he who drowned the world is a historical war novel, but the plot is much more violent. There are graphic descriptions of murder, rape, cruelty, and (self-)mutilation. It's a story full of betrayal, pain, hate and anger. We don't see as much of the loveable characters in this book. We are confronted with self-destructive hate, and most characters in this book do unspeakable things to achieve their goals. Yet Shelley Parker-Chan has written about it in such a beautiful, elegant and vulnerable way, that I found myself feeling empathy for these characters.

I debated giving this book 5 stars, since I found it very well-written and intruiging, but I decided on a 4.75 only because the pace of the beginning and middle part of the book is a bit slow. This, combined with the fact that some chapters are very dark and heavy to read, made me put the book away quite often. However, I always enjoyed returning to this beautifully intricate world the author has described.

Content Warnings

bitofadisgrace's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional 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

Phenomenal historical fiction that manages to portray characters that are achingly real and complicated. The author manages to pack in tons of historical and cultural information that add to the story instead of distracting or boring the reader, and adds magic and ghosts without making this very serious story silly.

Apart from that, the author's explorations of gender, family betrayal, revenge, and hunger for power were unique and very moving.

Content Warnings