Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

26 reviews

ellen_suth's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-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

I really enjoyed this book but can’t help but feel like some of the emotional punches would have landed harder if I had more cause to care for the characters. Zhu and Ouyang are both brilliant but in wanting to hide where the story was going, I think the author maybe lost a lot of what would have made me empathise if not completely agree with them. Ma was a personal favourite and I look forward to seeing how her story resolves in the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, and War

Minor: Child death

heckin_hello's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Blood

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Outing, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, War, Child death, Sexism, and Grief

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Torture

Minor: Cannibalism

teriodvarkova88's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

forget the whole song of achilles crossover with mulan its more like the poppy war - she will do whaever it takes to get what she wants
there is a little bit of romance tho 

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 zhu and ma have my heart<33

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Torture, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Grief, and War

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Grief, Genocide, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Torture, Racism, Gore, Xenophobia, War, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Sexism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Death, Child death, Body horror, Blood, and Ableism

tbd24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual violence, War, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence

splendidmusings's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: War, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Grief

luhreen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense 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 was such an amazing book 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death, War, Slavery, Murder, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Body horror, and Blood

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

jodean's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Body horror, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Dysphoria, Death, Child death, War, Violence, Misogyny, Colonisation, Sexism, Body shaming, and Blood

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Racism, Homophobia, Animal death, Trafficking, and Outing

Minor: Vomit and Excrement

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

2.5

This book has been marketed so heavily as a fantasy but it’s really not. There are only two fantastical elements and they’re not even that important to the story.

This is a story about fate and how the main character seeks greatness with hers. Although an interesting premise, I didn’t really enjoy how the story was told. It’s like the meme about Zuko’s honor except it’s a billion times worse because all the main character talks about is her fate/greatness, it was incredibly excessive (fate was mentioned 145 times, greatness 50 times). I think the main character started off interesting, but something about the way we see her through other POVs made me so unattached to her, and I really didn’t care if she succeeded or failed.

I think one of the worst things is that she wanted Ma as a way to remind her of empathy and to keep her from becoming like the men she hated, but at the end that’s who she became anyways. And I especially hate how Ma feared a life where all her thoughts, feelings, and wants are ignored, yet in the end she stays with Zhu because she loves her even though she knows that means a life of pain. I don’t find that romantic at all; I think that’s terribly sad and love shouldn’t contain so much suffering. A line in the end from Zhu’s POV says “Zhu’s desire propelling them higher and higher, until there was nothing left above them but the dazzling vault of Heaven. And for Ma every moment of that ascent would be compromise and heartache and the gradual erosion of her belief that there was always a kinder way. . .  I’ll make it worth it, for both of us.” I just don’t see how anything could possibly make that pain worth it.

I think maybe a large part of why I didn’t enjoy the book that much is because my beliefs/the way I see the world is so vastly different from the main characters, and so my disappointment might just be a me problem. 

But also, the story moves so slowly it’s kind of hard to read in large chunks. A lot happens but it doesn’t feel like it, and I don’t want to say it’s boring, but it was hard not to zone out. There are also times where parts of a scene happen off screen? I don’t know if this is just a writing style or what, but it was confusing because instead of reading what happens, I have to infer for myself because the author likes to describe emotions first and events second.

For instance during the scene where Ouyang cuts off Zhu’s hand, they’re fighting and all of a sudden they’re not fighting because something is clearly wrong and then “her fingers clenched around the sword in her lower body”, and then on the next page his sword flashes and there’s an impact and every feeling is described and then you’re told her hand is missing.

I just feel like this book was more frustrating to read than it had to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Murder, Child death, Dysphoria, Torture, Death, Body shaming, Violence, War, Death of parent, Grief, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Alcohol, Gore, Slavery, Child abuse, Homophobia, Body horror, and Chronic illness

Minor: Pregnancy