A review by miyalynn06
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book is Mulan if mulan was a psychopathic liar and murderer and nearly everyone else was too. The beginning set up the story perfectly and I think the plot overall was intriguing. War, betrayal and slow burn, painful romance really kept the story going. It wasn’t a bad book by any means but I literally did not like a single character (even the nice ones) and there were a few things that really pissed me off. For being a book about war, the author found a way to skirt around writing any actual fight scenes until the very end. Also with a metaphor every other sentence, the writing felt like it was trying to be beautiful and profound but ended up beating a dead horse to oblivion. Half the time I had no idea what the author was saying and the other times they were just telling you what I would’ve rather picked up on subtly. It got really frustrating and dragged in the middle part but the pacing at the end was really attention-grabbing. Zhu and Oinoing were perfect foils for each other and their characterization was immaculate - but i still didn’t like them or really feel bad for them. 
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