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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
fast-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
This book is EVEN better than the first!!!!! There's more gay sex, pain, betrayal, and unrealized potential. The ending was a little more power-of-friendship than I might have liked, considering how powerfully dark and emotional the rest of the series is, but I know satisfying every reader is an unachievable thing.
This duology was stunning. The twists and turns, the heartbreak, the brutality, all of it. This book felt a lot darker, than She Who became the Sun and I would recommend reading the trigger warnings.
How did Shelley Parker Can make me care for characters I despised? Zhu continues her journey to become the next Great Yuan despite the obstacles in her way and the constant unlikelihood of it happening, she continues to defy the odds. It’s stuffed with sneaky schemes, politics, battles, so much blood, sex as a weapon and grief.
‘Nobody would lift a finger to change the World for us. To make a place for us. What choice did we ever have, but to do it ourselves?’
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.
How did Shelley Parker Can make me care for characters I despised? Zhu continues her journey to become the next Great Yuan despite the obstacles in her way and the constant unlikelihood of it happening, she continues to defy the odds. It’s stuffed with sneaky schemes, politics, battles, so much blood, sex as a weapon and grief.
‘Nobody would lift a finger to change the World for us. To make a place for us. What choice did we ever have, but to do it ourselves?’
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.
dark
emotional
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
medium-paced
dark
slow-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, War
challenging
slow-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
challenging
dark
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
While this did not live up to the greatness of the first book for me, this was still an excellent novel and conclusion to the duology. Much darker than the first book and a bit more unevenly paced. While I typically love psychological explorations of complex characters, it felt like 35% of this book consisted of long monologues of certain characters ruminating in their self-hatred that began to get a bit tiresome and repetitive towards the middle.
I also felt like Zhu kind of took a back seat in her own story, and I found myself not really rooting for or against her. However, I did genuinely enjoy her interactions with one character (Ouyang ), as well as the unlikely interactions between Ma and Wang/Great Khan .
I also felt like Zhu kind of took a back seat in her own story, and I found myself not really rooting for or against her. However, I did genuinely enjoy her interactions with one character (
When I finished she who became the sun I said "how/why is this a duology? I'm satisfied with where book 1 ends and can't really see much further plot happening" unfortunately I was correct and I don't really think this needed to exist..... I had no enjoyment reading it for a variety of reasons but mostly because it was grim.
adventurous
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