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

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I loved the premise of She Who Became the Sun. A woman who takes on a fate of greatness during a landscape of war in Mongol ruled China, examining gender and concepts of power. Unfortunately I found the execution dry. In the first section I was gripped by Zhu's journey from village peasant, to claiming her fate. But the pace takes a sharp turn towards politics and battle after this initial set up, which rather than being dramatic and engaging, was presented as mostly internal scheming, while the action was skimmed past. I found the remainder of the story had moments that snapped me back into it's world, but was mainly underwhelming. 
While I loved that this book has no obvious "good side", I found almost non of the characters likeable. Obsessive self-interest, greed, and anger is what drives most of of Parker-Chan's cast, and because of that I found myself quickly loosing interest. Ma and Xu Da were some of the only characters I genuinely felt for, and as they're engulfed in Zhu's race to power, they feel increasingly doomed as the book goes on. Unfortunately, not a book for me. 
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