Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - She Who Became the Sun

Although it took me a little longer to get through than some of my other recent reads, I really did end up loving this. If I could give it 4.5 stars, I would.

The only reason I wouldn't rate it 5 stars is just because there was something missing from this that made me want to tear through it. I only found myself able to digest 30-40 pages at a time (50 on a good day). There were some pretty stark contrasts between faster paced and slower paced scenes, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if the slower scenes didn't drag a little. I think I would have been able to read this a lot quicker had the pacing throughout the book been consistent with the pacing in Part One. That being said, Parker-Chan's writing is on the whole concise but evocative.

But pacing issues aside, I absolutely love the characterisation - Zhu is an example of a well-written morally ambigious protagonist. Her character development isn't driven by a gratuitous or shallow desire for glory and power; her desire is meaningful and rooted in suffering. She refuses to be nothing, and assumes the identity of another to instead claim their fate - the fate that the original Zhu Chongba had "given up". It's a story of sheer willpower and suffering; of sacrificing one's morals in the pursuit of greatness and in the defiance of destiny. And in spite of Zhu's more questionable or downright reprehensible actions, I find myself rooting for her.

I absolutely loved the exploration of gender identity and sexuality. Parker-Chan's exploration of gender in particular was suitably nuanced and far from two-dimensional. Although Zhu privately declares herself as a woman, she struggles to reconcile her masculinity and femininity, having to navigate the minefield of gender performance in a patriarchal society. She rejects and hides her feminine traits out of fear of the implications that femininity carries in terms of her potential for power, authority, and greatness. In the same way that Madam Zhang, the true power behind the Zhang family - operates behind the facade of her husband, Zhu can only achieve greatness by assuming the identity of a man, to whom autonomy and authority are freely granted.

But she ultimately eschews her brother's identity which she wore as a disguise from Heaven and a means of claiming greatness: "I've been reborn as myself." And while we can assume she continues to present as a man, her inner conflict subsides as she embraces her newfound identity. In many ways, Zhu can be considered genderfluid. Through her relationship with Ma Xiuying, she finds a way to reclaim and embrace her femininity, to exist authentically in her body rather than at odds with it (if only with Ma). As complicated as their relationship becomes at the end of the book, I hope Parker-Chan continues to develop it in the sequel (and makes it a little less one-sided; I'd love to see Ma's character fleshed out a little more, especially with her difficult choice to remain at Zhu's side despite murdering the Prince of Radiance).

General Ouyang's story parallels Zhu's in many ways, and early on they are established as 'twin flames' (of a sort). Ouyang similarly struggles with his gender identity and is a victim of the patriarchy. However, unlike Zhu who is disguising herself, Ouyang struggles with the shame of being a eunuch and not conforming to his gender. His self-hatred manifests in a loathing for women, as their acceptance and perception of him as 'not a man' only serves to remind him of the trauma and shame he has suffered at the hand of Chaghan Temur and the Mongols. Moreover, he struggles with a repressed love for Esen, which brings with it further confusion over his gender identity (when Esen likens Ouyang's appearance to that of a woman, he feels it's the ultimate betrayal) and makes his revenge all the more devastating. Ouyang serves as a foil to Zhu, as while she rejects her Heaven-mandated fate, he leans into his, believing it to be a path of revenge.

There's so much more I could explore, but all-in-all, She Who Became the Sun is striking, tragic, and masterfully written.

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jodean's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

everyone should read this book

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leonormsousa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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garynoplastie's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced

4.0

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memoriast's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-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

5.0

Truly an epic. Extremely immersive, emotionally devastating in the best way, and an amazing exploration of gender.

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hmatt's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

So, I'm not a fantasy reader, and I think that weighs heavily in my review. If you're used to and like reading historical and/or fantastical novels with lots of characters that span lots of time, you will probably like this. I'm personally much more interested in reading close character studies where not much happens, so this wasn't really my cup of tea.

I persevered because Natalie Naudus, and of course the hype. And also it takes a lot for me to DNF a book, so I just pushed through.

Some things I wasn't into:

As I alluded to before, I had a hard time keeping track of all the characters
This might also be a genre (/part one in a series) thing, but there are so many events that happen one after another that I didn't feel were super necessary to building the story. This and the multiple time jumps made the story seem both rushed and too long.
So many of the pivotal moments are glossed over? Like I didn't even realize that a lot of them had happened until after?
The above also fed into my lack of conviction over the characters relationships with each other. There were really only one or two relationships that felt fleshed-out and genuine to me, and these were the rare ones where we spent a lot of time with both characters together. The main character and their love interest was completely blank for me, I didn't feel any of the build up and had no investment in their relationship.

All this said, it's a "fine" story for me. I did like the writing style, despite my thoughts on how the story comes together. The steamy scene that has received a ton of social media attention is incredibly random in the context of the book but like, lives up to the hype and I could have done with more of that honestly? Well done. I really appreciated the book in audio form for its accurate pronunciations of words/names I would read wrong in my head, and I'd love to read more historical fiction focusing on this area of the world.

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yvonne_cl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

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