Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

134 reviews

amberreadsgood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

There seems to be a slight divide of readers on whether they were more interested in the first half of the book and then feeling it dragged on the second half, or the other way around. For me, I was the latter; I found it hard to get invested at the beginning of the book. The world building felt a little too much like a history book, and I struggle to hold those sorts of facts in my brain. I started to enjoy the book more when we move past all of that and Zhu begins to truly chase the fate she wants. She is an interesting character as she is growing up in the monastery, for sure, but I think we really start to understand and know her and she learns herself who she is and what she wants, and the extent she will go to to get what she wants, after she leaves it.

While I did feel compelled by Zhu's character and her ambitions, I also found her oddly emotionally detached for someone who wants so much. By comparison, all the supporting characters felt extremely emotional - which is not a bad thing, in fact I think it was probably necessary given how Zhu was written. She is not meant to be portrayed as a "good" person; she knows she is not, and she is not trying to be, or saying that she is better than anyone else. She identifies what she needs to do to survive, and then thrive, and then pursues it with her whole heart. I think what's better than writing a character that is (morally) good is writing one that is understood. Besides the emotional detachedness (which I think I will chalk up to an adolescence spent in the monastery, in which they practice detachedness from the material world, etc), I completely got why she did/said the things she did, the conclusions she came to even if it hurt the people she loved, and what drove her. 

This reminded me a lot of The Poppy Wars, but on a much less horrifying level. Terrible things still happen and awful choices have to be made - war is war, after all - but it's not as frighteningly descriptive. If you had trouble reading The Poppy Wars for the graphic depictions of war and war crimes, but still want to read something like it, you might do better with this. The depictions of war are matter-of-fact and vaguely described rather than going into extreme detail. This book is also labelled as fantasy however, and I didn't find the fantasy element particularly strong in my opinion. It portrays the idea of fate as something somewhat tangible, proof of the right to rule that you can see with your own eyes. But that is about the extent of it, in this book at least. I think maybe "light supernatural" would have been a better genre tag for She Who Became the Sun, personally.

The queer rep in this book was nice, and done in a way that I didn't think was inauthentic. Zhu and Ma were surprisingly sweet at times, I enjoyed their banter and general interactions, and I could see why they would be drawn to each other as they were. I think their chemistry could have definitely been stronger somehow, but I don't believe that they were chemistry-less either. Also, since everyone is bringing it up as a dislike, I'll weigh in and say I had no issues with

the fisting scene. It was kinda random, sure, but Ma was pretty obviously into it. Zhu made sure she was okay and wanted to keep going, Ma gave her consent clearly and had what seemed like multiple orgasms from it, like what's ya problem??

On the other side of the spectrum, Ouyang and Esen were classic historical tragedy boyfriends. There was a lot of complexity and trauma around them, I'm not surprised or mad it went the way it did. I'm interested in how both Ouyang and Ma will develop in the second book after the events of this one.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Child death and Torture

sonovahades's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

This was incredible. I enjoyed every second of it. I don't even know what to say. The MC was something else. The raw need for survival... I've never seen anything like that. They won't stop at anything to get what they want.... It's beautiful. I also feel like the other characters were realistic, although ofc i can't say i know anything about all the themes we see in that book. I am very impressed by this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Murder

Minor: Slavery

elliya's review against another edition

adventurous slow-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

3.5

This had so many elements that I loved, but I have so much trouble with unlikeable protagonists. And here I am racing into the next book of the series, so 🤷🏻 Good audiobook narration, but the pacing was very slow at times for me — a little bogged down in military strategy and 1300s warfare tactics. But I do appreciate being exposed to historical information (in this case, a re-imagining of the transition into the Ming dynasty) through novels :)

Also this book has a sapphic relationship which gets nearly zero page time — except for a full-on FISTING SCENE that occupies half of the couple’s overall page time??? Honestly though it was tender and I was not mad.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity

river_jean_sterling's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Homophobia, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

literatehedgehog's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

Magical realism historical military drama... That's sort of a genre, right? But who needs to fit into categories anyway?! 
Take the complex conniving of Shogun (with maybe a pinch of the Godfather?), and the military plotting of Ender's Game, and a gloriously queer adult kind of Mulan, and you might get a taste of this sweeping epic. 
I wouldn't have minded a character list with the map, but I eventually turned the pages so fast I couldn't forget who was who. If you have to pick up and put down this 400 pager often, it may be harder to keep track of who is where and how they last betrayed that other person. 

I'm curious about the second book in this duology, but nervous it will be more court intrigue and sexualized power posturing...

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

dreadspawn's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Slavery

jlchabotte's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Outing, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Animal death and Infertility

leannanecdote's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Slavery

crystalisreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense

• 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

Intense.  well written. Compelling.  Wonderful audio narration. Incredibly morally grey characters. Brutal. All the feels. not for the faint of heart. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

This book, like its characters, contains multitudes. It reflects on gender, survival, ambition, society, discrimination, loyalty, identity, and even more than I name here. It also manages to tell an epic story on top of all that. For that I praise Shelley Parker-Chan. My only gripes with this book are that it takes a very long time to get into the meat of the book, that the prose is beautiful at the expense of sometimes distancing us from the characters (who were truly my favorite aspect of this story) and

there is a very interesting connection made with fate and biological sex throughout the story, but ultimately I, as a nonbinary reader, felt wasn’t explored as well as it could have been.

All in all I recommend this book and enjoyed it, though I will say I am not in a rush to pick up the sequel.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism