Reviews tagging 'War'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

535 reviews

mycarefulcardinal's review against another edition

3.5

i really liked ouyang's side of the story, him and esen ... ouch. the characters are all complicated and flawed and i like how all of them connect (ouyang and zhu, ouyang and lord wang, like knows like). i do unfortunately have mixed feelings about zhu's side though.. i liked her story in the beginning but by the end i didn't really believe or quite understand her motivations. i also don't know how i feel about some of the ... explorations of gender ig? it veered a bit into bioessentialist territory imo. 

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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

alyxleaf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism and Sexual content

Minor: War

minryll's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

THIS BOOK WRECKED ME 

VERY GOOD READ

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

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

matcha_pages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

A queer, magical reimagining of the rise of one of China's emperors. It's equal mix of politics and exploration of gender roles in a very rigid society. I'm not sure how much is historical vs fantasy but it was a great hearing stories about China under Mongol rule.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

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

adoto's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

5.0

You know a book is good when you marvel at how well every single aspect of it was carried out and think "I could never do this" like this gave me the same feeling that Percy Jackson did.... absolutely legendary 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Blood, Dysphoria, and War