Reviews tagging 'Child death'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

375 reviews

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

arysuh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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

3.75

Un livre terrible qui projette de terribles événements dans le 2e tome. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War

kharlan3's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Outing, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Minor: Excrement and Vomit

k_aro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

Very very good historical fiction/fantasy. I really like the way the book handles gender, the separation of the sexes, and the mirrors that exist within that kind of space.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Child death, Outing, and Abandonment

Minor: Ableism and Animal death

Many questions around these content warnings exist because it's a historical fiction book that pretty violently diverges from real life. Is it transphobia if he's a eunuch?

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

persephonefoxx's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture and Death of parent

burnourhistory's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Misogyny, Blood, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death and Child death

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Slavery, Suicide, and 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

nocturne_21's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Misogyny