Reviews tagging 'Death'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

413 reviews

mycarefulcardinal's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Misogyny, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

Turns out political intrigue is interesting when it’s not white people in castles!!! should’ve known 

what can I say about this: deliciously ruthless, so many characters to love and hate and root for anyway, SAPPHICS!!!!, ~gender~… 

that “support women’s rights and women’s wrongs” meme was made with this book in mind. incredibly fun and so hard to put down, sorry to the author for waiting this long. buying the next one asap 🫡

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

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

klbreyfogle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed it and am going to read the second one! The characters are super morally grey, which can be frustrating when you want to root for them and they do something awful, but it also makes them really interesting to think about! I enjoyed both main characters - I have a little more sympathy for Ouyang’s moral greyness because of his traumatic past but I think I have too much Ma in me to get on board with everything Zhu does. Lots of compelling queerness, which I deeply enjoy! Plenty of action, also lots of politics. Clearly inspired by c-dramas, so if you like those you’ll probably like this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Slavery

saltyseakitten's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

nusta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring 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 and War

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, and Sexual content

chrisb913's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

This book was everything I was expecting and more.

From page one I was hooked and could not stop turning the page. I absolutely loved the darker tones in this book. I couldn't help cheering on the main characters even though I wasn't sure if they were the hero or the villain.

I also really loved the way Shelley also talked about the social construct surrounding gender not only with Zhu but also Ouyang.

I will definitely be picking up book 2 and looking into future works by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Child death and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death, Slavery, and Death of parent

hufsatee's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and War

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

rynaissanceenby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

An interesting and thoughtful exploration of gender and fate. It has the makings to be a real classic that is read in English classes for decades (though society isn't probably ready for it quite yet). I listened to the audiobook, which I think made it harder to keep track of the different characters and settings, which detracted from the story, but it was still enjoyable and I caught the major plot points. I'm excited to find out what happens in the next book. I also get the sense that there's a lot more layers to this story than at first glance if one were to put in the time to dig into it and think about the symbolism and themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death and Dysphoria