Reviews - Lui che annegò il mondo

3.67k reviews for:

Lui che annegò il mondo

Shelley Parker-Chan

4.3 AVERAGE

cournme's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional inspiring 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

This book was a satisfying end to the duology. The world was just as bleak as in the first book, and the characters just as layered.

This series does a great job of exploring sexuality and gender in a period with rigid expectations. This book in particular delved into using sex for power and manipulation as well as pleasure. It was interesting to see each main character either fight against or come to terms with their varied identities.

Overall, this is definitely not a feel-good time, but a good read!

walenchao's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

darlingfarthings's review against another edition

4.0

Slightly too erotic for me, I fear. It felt as if the characters were having 100 different types of sex, only one of which was actual sex itself, with the others being equally captivating and disturbing. It was still a thrilling read, though, and I enjoyed the explorations of gender (particularly double standards regarding sex work) as well as the ??? interesting central thesis (from my own flawed analysis) that’s something along the lines of “A new paradigm of gender cannot be based in the worship of masculine values and methods of resistance.” Ma Xiuying is a particularly standout character in this series — I really do love her lol and it makes it v believable that others love her too.

There was also a bit too much politically necessary sexual intercourse for my taste.