Reviews tagging 'Classism'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

63 reviews

elleyena_rose's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Overall, this was a very enjoyable book, with several hard hitting plot points at the end that left me reeling, and I still need to process them. It's going to take me quite a while to process this before I can pick up the 2nd half of the duology. I loved all the different POV, and seeing Zhu's climb from poverty. The POV characters were all distinct and generally lovable even if I don't like all the decisions the characters made.

Honestly (ending spoiler under the tag)

Zhu killing the child of radiance at the end was a shock. Like Ma, I understand why Zhu found it necessary and hate it all the same, and hate that part of her that was willing to go so far for greatness. There had to be another way...At least it was an offscreen death. Ouyang's killing of Esen, while still hitting just as hard, was more telegraphed earlier in the story. I still think he could have found another way too, but understand his motivations. I will pick up the end of the duology, it's just going to take me a while to wrap my head around this ending and how I feel about it.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Murder

starsmakenoise's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lady_valhella's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Sexual content, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

leonoor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

What a beautifully written, epic story full of interesting and complex characters. I absolutely loved this book. I'm a sucker for historical novels and I felt so immersed in 14th century China, even though I didn't know anything about this time period before. Apparently it's based on real events, but I don't want to research them just yet because I don't want any spoilers for the second book. Some fantasy aspects were added to the book, but very sparingly, and the end result is a beautiful Chinese drama.

The book explores some very complex themes that aren't often discussed in books, such as the dark side of ambition, self-loathing, the relationship with one's body after a medical procedure, and figuring out gender issues. The queer relationships added extra suspense to the story.

Zhu is an intriguing protagonist, and a bit of an anti-hero. While it's clear that she won't let anything or anyone stop her on her quest for greatness, she still manages to be quite likeable. I enjoy the parallel with Ouyang, who is dealing with similar issues but lacks Zhu's optimism and charm. I'm glad the story switches from Zhu's point of view to that of others regularly, since it adds more depth to the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Body shaming

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Classism

bookworm513's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Slavery, Grief, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Cannibalism

amberreadsgood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There seems to be a slight divide of readers on whether they were more interested in the first half of the book and then feeling it dragged on the second half, or the other way around. For me, I was the latter; I found it hard to get invested at the beginning of the book. The world building felt a little too much like a history book, and I struggle to hold those sorts of facts in my brain. I started to enjoy the book more when we move past all of that and Zhu begins to truly chase the fate she wants. She is an interesting character as she is growing up in the monastery, for sure, but I think we really start to understand and know her and she learns herself who she is and what she wants, and the extent she will go to to get what she wants, after she leaves it.

While I did feel compelled by Zhu's character and her ambitions, I also found her oddly emotionally detached for someone who wants so much. By comparison, all the supporting characters felt extremely emotional - which is not a bad thing, in fact I think it was probably necessary given how Zhu was written. She is not meant to be portrayed as a "good" person; she knows she is not, and she is not trying to be, or saying that she is better than anyone else. She identifies what she needs to do to survive, and then thrive, and then pursues it with her whole heart. I think what's better than writing a character that is (morally) good is writing one that is understood. Besides the emotional detachedness (which I think I will chalk up to an adolescence spent in the monastery, in which they practice detachedness from the material world, etc), I completely got why she did/said the things she did, the conclusions she came to even if it hurt the people she loved, and what drove her. 

This reminded me a lot of The Poppy Wars, but on a much less horrifying level. Terrible things still happen and awful choices have to be made - war is war, after all - but it's not as frighteningly descriptive. If you had trouble reading The Poppy Wars for the graphic depictions of war and war crimes, but still want to read something like it, you might do better with this. The depictions of war are matter-of-fact and vaguely described rather than going into extreme detail. This book is also labelled as fantasy however, and I didn't find the fantasy element particularly strong in my opinion. It portrays the idea of fate as something somewhat tangible, proof of the right to rule that you can see with your own eyes. But that is about the extent of it, in this book at least. I think maybe "light supernatural" would have been a better genre tag for She Who Became the Sun, personally.

The queer rep in this book was nice, and done in a way that I didn't think was inauthentic. Zhu and Ma were surprisingly sweet at times, I enjoyed their banter and general interactions, and I could see why they would be drawn to each other as they were. I think their chemistry could have definitely been stronger somehow, but I don't believe that they were chemistry-less either. Also, since everyone is bringing it up as a dislike, I'll weigh in and say I had no issues with

the fisting scene. It was kinda random, sure, but Ma was pretty obviously into it. Zhu made sure she was okay and wanted to keep going, Ma gave her consent clearly and had what seemed like multiple orgasms from it, like what's ya problem??

On the other side of the spectrum, Ouyang and Esen were classic historical tragedy boyfriends. There was a lot of complexity and trauma around them, I'm not surprised or mad it went the way it did. I'm interested in how both Ouyang and Ma will develop in the second book after the events of this one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Child death and Torture

river_jean_sterling's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Homophobia, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

jlchabotte's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Outing, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Animal death and Infertility

leannanecdote's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Slavery

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed the way Shelley Parker-Chan builds characters who are not necessarily sympathetic, in that they're willing to do terrible things to survive, yet familiarizes them in such a way that readers find ourselves rooting for them. I also really enjoyed watching Zhu's journey with gender, and her shift through the identities she embodies. I was invested in this book from start to finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Misogyny and Medical content

Minor: Pedophilia