Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

37 reviews

arysuh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense 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

3.75

Un livre terrible qui projette de terribles événements dans le 2e tome. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War

k_aro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

Very very good historical fiction/fantasy. I really like the way the book handles gender, the separation of the sexes, and the mirrors that exist within that kind of space.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Child death, Outing, and Abandonment

Minor: Ableism and Animal death

Many questions around these content warnings exist because it's a historical fiction book that pretty violently diverges from real life. Is it transphobia if he's a eunuch?

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.

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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

elizas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

briophyta's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cannibalism

gogglor's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

Good book, but not my kind of book. Very Game of Thrones-y in the ambition and backstabbing and political maneuvering, which is fine but not my cup of tea. Still glad I read it, it was a dope super queer fantasy novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Child death, Abandonment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Outing, and Alcohol

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Slavery, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging inspiring 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? No

3.0

This book has excellent reviews, leading me to believe this is a me problem. I love historical fiction with lgbtqia+characters. But somewhere along the way I started getting confused about the characters and the genders. It led to me not really being invested in the outcome and skimming a lot of the book. I think a lot went over my head too. It’s a strong story with lots of layers, maybe just not for a casual reader. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mnkeemagick's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.0

What a cool read. A dark reimagining of the birth of an empire, holding no punches as it informs along the way. 

There's a substantial amount of cultural and historical information, the harsh realities represented beautifully and without pause, with just enough fantastical elements to make it shine the brighter. Can't wait to check out the next one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Classism