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A review by mmikadze
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
2.5
The blurb is a lie, this is NOT Mulan.
But before I get too much into that (because I think it would be mild spoilers), here's what I will say: I think you could like this book if you like unlikable characters and dark, gritty stories. Possibly a story in which you see the rise of a villain. It has politics, war theory, gore, interesting and complex gender exploration, and a ton of queer characters. It is definitely ADULT and not YA.
Now onto why I was disappointed and upset going into this thinking it was like Mulan.
In Mulan, she takes her father's place as a soldier as an act of love and self sacrifice. She doesn't want her father to die, which he likely will because of his injury. On top of that she wants to make him proud, because she feels like she failed him by not being matched. She works hard, and trains, and it's this hard work and determination to do what is right that leads her to success. She fights hard and risks her life for those she loves and for the good of her country.
In this, Zhu 'steals' her brothers fate and continually does what is best for her. If there's a way around hard work, she'll take the easy shortcut, even if it means doing something morally bad. She feels like she is owed greatness, and she will use anyone along the way to get it. Her greed and need for power ruins the lives of those around her, even people she claims to love, but she doesn't care. Spoiler: She literally killed an innocent 8 year old so that nobody else could challenge her political power and y'all have the audacity to pitch this as Mulan?? Get outta here. Plus, Zhu's wife Ma had just told her how she feels an emotional connection to the child and how she would love to care and raise the child as a mother. Zhu's response? Steal the child and kill it behind her wife's back. Try to tell me this girl is not the villain of the story. I dare you. Not to mention, Zhu isn't actually even a good soldier. She sucks at fighting and doesn't even learn how to properly wield a sword until the very end. Smarts wise, yeah, she's smart. But she's not using her brain power for good, I'll tell you that.
Where is the love? Familial or otherwise. Everything Zhu does is out of obligation or selfish interest. Even from the beginning, how quickly she got rid of that monk, and her best friend did not judge her at all, nor did the head monk, but instead praised her for it. If I were the head monk, I would never trust someone who is so willing to throw other people under the bus for their own benefit. And it is just downhill from there with her self motivated actions harming everyone including those close to her. There is so much hate in this book that I just wanted a little bit of sweetness to balance out the bitterness.
Which brings me to my next qualm, the characters.
Starting with our main girlie, Zhu. As someone who likes morally grey characters, I can easily say she is not morally grey, she is just straight up bad. She has no redeeming qualities and never does anything that won't directly benefit her. For more reasons, go ahead and open up some of the spoilers in the Mulan portion of this rant. Better yet, let me take a direct quote from the book that Zhu herself says: "this is the price of her desire [for power]. To ask those she loved for their suffering again and again. So she could get what she wanted. And at the same time, she knew she wouldn't stop." Great. Perfect. She acknowledges that what she does hurts those she claims to love, but she doesn't care because what's most important to her is getting power. I think her actions are almost made worse by the fact that she knows they're bad and will cause suffering, and yet she still chooses to do it anyways.I'm sorry but I wish she failed. She deserves to fail for her hubris. I was actually pretty impressed and excited during her fight with Ouyang because I thought she was going to die, and was happy when I thought that's the way the story was going to turn. But alas, she survives, more determined than ever to rule.
I can't even think of a single character who I like. At some point it was Ma, because she at least seemed to care for other people but even then, <she still chose to stick by Zhu at the end, despite everything she's done>. At another time I had hope for Ouyang because he had a traumatic past, and there's a shred of good in him when there's hints of romance with Yessin, but then he goes and murders Yessin's father and frames his brother. Yikes.
Beyond the incredibly unlikable characters, I had some issues with the writing. We had one POV for 20% of the book only for it to switch to shifting POVs, which is jarring as a reader. Moreover, there were so many time jumps, fast forwarding past years and years. It was confusing and added to the sense that I never felt connected to anyone. Something would happen, then time jump, something else would happen, time jump again, and on and on. We rarely got to see the reaction and rebuilding after the events took place in real time because after each big event we would skip time. So most of the struggling and character growth happens 'off screen' apart from the very end. This was especially evident in the scene where the monastery was burned down. We don't know what happened to the head monk guy or the other monk that she grew up with when the monastery was set on fire. We eventually find out what happened to her monk friend much later in the book, but it's already far past that scene, and we never get closure on what happened to the head monk .
Finally while magic/ fire thing was cool at first, I'm not sure how well it fits into the story. "If you believe in yourself and your abilities, it will be there" is a bit cheesy, especially for such a dark story. And already at least 4 people in this book apparently have the 'mandate of heaven' fire trick so it really doesn't seem that special anymore. I suspect Yessin's brother also has it because I think he can see ghosts too. So if it's not unique or meant to signal who is meant to rule then what's the point?
But before I get too much into that (because I think it would be mild spoilers), here's what I will say: I think you could like this book if you like unlikable characters and dark, gritty stories. Possibly a story in which you see the rise of a villain. It has politics, war theory, gore, interesting and complex gender exploration, and a ton of queer characters. It is definitely ADULT and not YA.
Now onto why I was disappointed and upset going into this thinking it was like Mulan.
In Mulan, she takes her father's place as a soldier as an act of love and self sacrifice. She doesn't want her father to die, which he likely will because of his injury. On top of that she wants to make him proud, because she feels like she failed him by not being matched. She works hard, and trains, and it's this hard work and determination to do what is right that leads her to success. She fights hard and risks her life for those she loves and for the good of her country.
In this, Zhu 'steals' her brothers fate and continually does what is best for her. If there's a way around hard work, she'll take the easy shortcut, even if it means doing something morally bad. She feels like she is owed greatness, and she will use anyone along the way to get it. Her greed and need for power ruins the lives of those around her, even people she claims to love, but she doesn't care. Spoiler:
Where is the love? Familial or otherwise. Everything Zhu does is out of obligation or selfish interest. Even from the beginning, how quickly she got rid of that monk, and her best friend did not judge her at all, nor did the head monk, but instead praised her for it. If I were the head monk, I would never trust someone who is so willing to throw other people under the bus for their own benefit. And it is just downhill from there with her self motivated actions harming everyone including those close to her. There is so much hate in this book that I just wanted a little bit of sweetness to balance out the bitterness.
Which brings me to my next qualm, the characters.
Starting with our main girlie, Zhu. As someone who likes morally grey characters, I can easily say she is not morally grey, she is just straight up bad. She has no redeeming qualities and never does anything that won't directly benefit her. For more reasons, go ahead and open up some of the spoilers in the Mulan portion of this rant. Better yet, let me take a direct quote from the book that Zhu herself says: "this is the price of her desire [for power]. To ask those she loved for their suffering again and again. So she could get what she wanted. And at the same time, she knew she wouldn't stop." Great. Perfect. She acknowledges that what she does hurts those she claims to love, but she doesn't care because what's most important to her is getting power. I think her actions are almost made worse by the fact that she knows they're bad and will cause suffering, and yet she still chooses to do it anyways.
I can't even think of a single character who I like. At some point it was Ma, because she at least seemed to care for other people but even then, <she still chose to stick by Zhu at the end, despite everything she's done>. At another time I had hope for Ouyang because he had a traumatic past, and there's a shred of good in him when there's hints of romance with Yessin, but then
Beyond the incredibly unlikable characters, I had some issues with the writing. We had one POV for 20% of the book only for it to switch to shifting POVs, which is jarring as a reader. Moreover, there were so many time jumps, fast forwarding past years and years. It was confusing and added to the sense that I never felt connected to anyone. Something would happen, then time jump, something else would happen, time jump again, and on and on. We rarely got to see the reaction and rebuilding after the events took place in real time because after each big event we would skip time. So most of the struggling and character growth happens 'off screen' apart from the very end. This was especially evident in the scene where
Finally while magic/ fire thing was cool at first, I'm not sure how well it fits into the story. "If you believe in yourself and your abilities, it will be there" is a bit cheesy, especially for such a dark story. And
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Sexism