A review by reubenalbatross
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

3.75

This book had SO much potential, and unfortunately didn’t quite live up to it. 

Throughout, I really appreciated the discussions on gender identity. I’d never appreciated that eunuch = gender nonconformity. This book made me realise this link within a few lines, and how gender nonconformity really has been around as long as humanity has been in existence. 

There’s also so much subtext, with so many ideas/meanings/comments on humanity in every paragraph - and they're all implied, not said straight out. Almost all of the writing, especially at the beginning, was all show, no tell, which I LOVED. There really is such depth in Parker-Chan’s writing, and her writing style is truly beautiful. 

The beginning section was absolutely amazing, and I had really high hopes. However, as the story progressed, the repetitive fighting and wresting cities from one another got really stagnant and tires towards the end. I lost a lot of interest in where the story was going. 

This also wasn’t helped that as the story progressed, things just kept getting skipped over. I feel like the time jump after the monastery made sense, but other times we were just told important plot developments, rather than experiencing them ourselves. It took a lot of the emotion and impact out of the story. 

I also wasn't completely convinced by Zhu's motivations towards the end. I get that she’s on an evil arc, but we're never told WHY she wants power so much. After it helped her get out of abject poverty, the reasons we were given in the beginning of the book became moot. And then we're never told why she wants to keep going, only that she wants to. Even if it were for nefarious reasons I wouldn't have an issue, but it’s hard to understand why she’s willing to do all this shitty stuff, just to be emperor. No other reason. We're never told what she thinks is so great about power after it’s helped her initially. 
 
So yeah, overall, a promising book that unfortunately fizzled out. I will most likely read the next instalment though. Hopefully it has fewer military shenanigans…