Reviews tagging 'Murder'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

339 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

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

dianlyyaliz's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Misogyny and Murder

Minor: Child death

madscientistcat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Sexual content

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

mariebrunelm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.5

Une fille grandit dans la poussière d’une terre desséchée auprès d’un père négligent et d’un frère destiné à la grandeur. Lorsque ce dernier meurt avant d’avoir accompli son destin, elle décide que c’est elle qui touchera la grandeur. Elle vole le nom de son frère et se met en route vers la première étape de son destin : le monastère interdit aux femmes.

Il souffle un vent épique sur ce roman de fantasy historique. J’ai bien apprécié la courte introduction éclairant le contexte historique dans lequel se déroule l’intrigue. Sans noyer le lectorat dans les informations, elle donne des repères bienvenus.

A mon sens, le plus grand succès de ce livre, c’est son personnage principal et toute sa complexité. Alors qu’elle n’est même pas nommée au début de l’histoire, Zhu s’impose assez rapidement comme une figure magnétique, dont la volonté inébranlable semble pouvoir déplacer des montagnes. Pourtant, rien n’est aisé. Son parcours est fascinant à suivre et m’a fait tourner les pages à toute vitesse. J’avoue avoir été moins captivée par les autres points de vue, même si j’ai aimé la nuance qu’ils apportaient. Le fait est que la dimension géopolitique du texte et ses nombreux personnages m’ont perdue. J’ai suivi les grandes lignes de l’intrigue, mais au bout d’un tiers du livre je ne savais plus quel personnage secondaire était qui et où allait son allégeance. J’ai pourtant continué, charmée par le personnage de Zhu. La fin, un peu rapide à mon goût, est clairement écrite pour donner envie de lire la suite de cette duologie. Je ne suis pas sûre de poursuivre car les machinations ne vont que se compliquer, mais je recommande chaudement ce roman aux amateurices de fantasy ou de fiction historique qui ne reculent pas devant la multiplicité des personnages.

Rep : personnage principal non-binaire, relation sapphique.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, and War

Moderate: Blood

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

dreamweaver's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: War

Minor: Murder