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aileron's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, and Dysphoria
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Slavery, Excrement, and Death of parent
tiernanhunter's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail
dananana's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, and Pregnancy
Minor: Slavery
displacedcactus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I'll admit that of the Sapphic Saffron Trifecta, I found She Who Became the Sun to be my least favorite. As such, I was really on the fence as to whether to read this one, but I figured hey, it's a duology, I might as well see things through to the end!
This started out as kind of a mid read for me, but I felt like it could get better. The thing is, I do like Zhu as a character. Yes, she does terrible things. But I found her drive and her absolute joy and confidence in her drive to be refreshing. Too often, we have characters who have to be forced to take action, who constantly whine and complain about it...
Like every single other character in this book. Ok, I exaggerate, but I got tired of the constant moping of Ouyang and Wang. Oh, woe is me, life is pain and darkness, I will make the world hate me as much as I hate it, etc etc etc. On and on and on. There were far too few Zhu chapters to make up for it.
At its heart, this is a story about how messed up toxic masculinity is and how people who fail to live up to a culture's idea of manly virtue can be used, abused, despised, and pigeon-holed.
At its heart it's also a book that is just absolutely chock-full of degrading sex, sado-masochism, torturous death, and long internal monologues about anger and self-hatred.
If you like to watch characters suffer, you will enjoy the heck out of this book. The pages are absolutely soaked with suffering. Personally, I just found it exhausting.
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Miscarriage and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death