A review by lores
He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

challenging dark 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

3.25

I think this was a fitting end to the duology if you can make it to the last pages. I continue to love what Parker-Chan does with gender and power although I think the women do get absolutely pushed to the sidelines here. Unfortunately I found the mid-section to be a bit of a slog of violence and misery. It’s inevitable when you have almost an entire cast of realistically self-hating characters but I still found it really hard to read at times and some of it grew a little repetitive. Zhu, Ma and Xu Da were the lights in the first book and while I found the other characters fascinating; I also think they were drowning too much for me to enjoy following them instead.
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