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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Satisfying conclusion, Zhu deals with many situations that ultimately affects her world view. I did enjoy the first one more, and I am looking forward to more form this author.
adventurous
dark
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
Graphic: Ableism
dark
sad
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
"She blazed with desire. She was full with it, and her faith was in herself."
She Who Became The Sun was one of my favourite books of last year and possibly of all time, so I may have screamed when I got an ARC of this. Everything I loved about SWBTS that made it so unique and powerful - the scheming and betrayals, the eloquent writing, the amazing characters - HWDTW had as well. The battle scenes and plot reveals had me gasping and stressed out of my mind, and I can't express how much I admire the way Shelley Parker-Chan writes so movingly, for lack of a better word.
Unfortunately, whilst I was reading this, the good parts were overshadowed by several elements that left me not even disappointed, just horrified, and I was unable to appreciate how masterfully the story was crafted at the time of reading.
My major issue: the plotline of having sex as a tool to gain power was used for not one, not two, but four major characters, all of whom were emphatically not attracted to the people they were having sex with. I was crawling out of my skin in horror at the very many explicit scenes that depicted this throughout the entire book, which all included narrations of how uncomfortable the characters were feeling throughout these scenes. Please look up trigger warnings before reading this book. I can understand how this could have been relevant and realistic given the setting of the story but I honestly did not need to read that many scenes. Writing Baoxiang as a straight man, and making him have sex with a man on page, every time he was narrating, was a choice.
Another slight issue I had was that the POVs felt repetitive, in particular during the first 50 percent of the book. The phrase "she(Zhu) was willing to do anything to get what she wanted" was mentioned almost as many times as Baoxiang being heterosexual and the word "blackness".
Also, I might be nitpicking here, and I don't think this was the author's intention. But the descriptions of Ouyang's appearance and gender felt like the author was invalidating his identity at times, which I felt iffy about despite understanding why the descriptions were necessary.
On one hand I adored this so much - excellently crafted, intricate, clever, heart wrenching. On the other hand my reading enjoyment was severely impacted by the aforementioned issues.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing this book for review. All opinions are my own.
---------------------
"Go into your next life. Live it, and bear its suffering. Do it again with the life after that, and the next, and with each one find it easier. Until one day, in a thousand years, the force of the universe will bring you and Esen-Temur back together to start afresh."
This hurt me deeply. I need Shelley Parker-Chan to write a modern day spinoff where Ouyang and Esen meet again, please.
She Who Became The Sun was one of my favourite books of last year and possibly of all time, so I may have screamed when I got an ARC of this. Everything I loved about SWBTS that made it so unique and powerful - the scheming and betrayals, the eloquent writing, the amazing characters - HWDTW had as well. The battle scenes and plot reveals had me gasping and stressed out of my mind, and I can't express how much I admire the way Shelley Parker-Chan writes so movingly, for lack of a better word.
Unfortunately, whilst I was reading this, the good parts were overshadowed by several elements that left me not even disappointed, just horrified, and I was unable to appreciate how masterfully the story was crafted at the time of reading.
My major issue: the plotline of having sex as a tool to gain power was used for not one, not two, but four major characters, all of whom were emphatically not attracted to the people they were having sex with. I was crawling out of my skin in horror at the very many explicit scenes that depicted this throughout the entire book, which all included narrations of how uncomfortable the characters were feeling throughout these scenes. Please look up trigger warnings before reading this book. I can understand how this could have been relevant and realistic given the setting of the story but I honestly did not need to read that many scenes. Writing Baoxiang as a straight man, and making him have sex with a man on page, every time he was narrating, was a choice.
Another slight issue I had was that the POVs felt repetitive, in particular during the first 50 percent of the book. The phrase "she(Zhu) was willing to do anything to get what she wanted" was mentioned almost as many times as Baoxiang being heterosexual and the word "blackness".
Also, I might be nitpicking here, and I don't think this was the author's intention. But the descriptions of Ouyang's appearance and gender felt like the author was invalidating his identity at times, which I felt iffy about despite understanding why the descriptions were necessary.
On one hand I adored this so much - excellently crafted, intricate, clever, heart wrenching. On the other hand my reading enjoyment was severely impacted by the aforementioned issues.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing this book for review. All opinions are my own.
---------------------
"Go into your next life. Live it, and bear its suffering. Do it again with the life after that, and the next, and with each one find it easier. Until one day, in a thousand years, the force of the universe will bring you and Esen-Temur back together to start afresh."
This hurt me deeply. I need Shelley Parker-Chan to write a modern day spinoff where Ouyang and Esen meet again, please.
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
FORGOT TO REVIEW THIS WHEN I READ JT LOL but as I said in Berry's dms, "The first novel was so good and THIS ONE WAS SOMEHOW BETTER". Insane plotting godd I couldn't put it down by the end
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Better than the first!
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
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
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
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 think this is my favorite book of all time!!!
Everything introduced in SWBTS was cranked up to another level, and all the characters were absolutely unhinged (highly complimentary)!
Gender and sexuality were still a strong focus, but in a more exploratory way in this book. I really enjoyed that no character fit in a neat box with either.
Wang Baoxiang , they could never make me hate you! I wasn’t expecting to find such a favorite in the character, but they were some of the POVs I enjoyed the most.
Everything introduced in SWBTS was cranked up to another level, and all the characters were absolutely unhinged (highly complimentary)!
Gender and sexuality were still a strong focus, but in a more exploratory way in this book. I really enjoyed that no character fit in a neat box with either.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I found this quite difficult to get into and the pacing to be quite a struggle. I love the character development in this story and the ending was great. This felt less heavy than the first book but I still enjoyed it.