Review by ehmannky - He Who Drowned the World

ehmannky 's review for:

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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

If you reject the gender binary and the cycle of vengeance, you too can become emperor of all of China (and I do not think that I am spoiling anything since this is based on the life of an actual person). So much of this book deals with violence and just intense ways to survive in a really brutal war environment, but I just thought it was so funny everytime Zhu approached a situation with the attitude of "How could I possibly fail when I am nonbinary?" This is such a serious and hard look at like the cost at creating a better world and a world where you can be yourself, and it is interesting to see that it's a book that's not even particularly interested in "redemption," but more like how can you survive in a world that hates difference and how can you move on. And in addition to being just a really interesting look at the confining nature of gender roles and cycles of revenge, Parker-Chan's prose is really engaging and it's just a great book all-around.

Content Warnings