Scan barcode
A review by throwback682
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
From the publisher:
“Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.”
Phew. This book was so good and I’m ready to immediately dive into the conclusion of the Radiant Emperor duology - He Who Drowned the World.
This book is about human suffering - due to war, patriarchy, religion, etc. It’s not an easy or lighthearted read. I liked so many of the characters in spite of them all being pretty bad people - some of the best characters are power hungry, blood thirsty, and ruthless - and it gets worse from there.
But I’ll be damned if I wasn’t rooting for them!
This book has some very queer elements (both in terms of sexuality and gender) but very much in a way that’s framed by its setting - you won’t be able to neatly cram these characters into 21st century western boxes and labels, though you might be tempted.
Although the bulk of the “adult” content in this book is the violence of war, there’s also one graphic sex scene, FYI. See also the content warnings.
“Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.”
Phew. This book was so good and I’m ready to immediately dive into the conclusion of the Radiant Emperor duology - He Who Drowned the World.
This book is about human suffering - due to war, patriarchy, religion, etc. It’s not an easy or lighthearted read. I liked so many of the characters in spite of them all being pretty bad people - some of the best characters are power hungry, blood thirsty, and ruthless - and it gets worse from there.
But I’ll be damned if I wasn’t rooting for them!
This book has some very queer elements (both in terms of sexuality and gender) but very much in a way that’s framed by its setting - you won’t be able to neatly cram these characters into 21st century western boxes and labels, though you might be tempted.
Although the bulk of the “adult” content in this book is the violence of war, there’s also one graphic sex scene, FYI. See also the content warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, War, Alcohol, Ableism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Grief, Animal death, Excrement, and Outing
The sex scene involves fisting.
A character sustains a battle injury that is significant to the plot. The injury is an intentionally amputated limb.
There is a character who is mutilated. He is a eunuch, and there are references throughout the book to this. He is treated very poorly because of his genital mutilation, which makes him viewed more as a woman than a man.
Two children die one violently and one maybe of a broken heart?
The opening of the book takes place during a famine, and some content could be triggering to those with ED/ARFID I imagine. A child is starving, etc.
Again, it’s a book about war, so lots of blood, swords, bombs, fire, etc etc.
Drowning: A great number of soldiers are washed away in a flood but there’s no description of any drowning.
Many people get sick due to something like food poisoning so there’s a bunch of people having vomiting and diarrhea.
Gender stuff: The main character is a girl who hides her identity and pretends to be a boy. She binds. She has a confusing relationship with her body. I wouldn’t exactly call it dysphoria in the way we’d use it, but I think those parts could be triggering to some in a related way.