Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

77 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

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.

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Child death and Torture

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

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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

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed the way Shelley Parker-Chan builds characters who are not necessarily sympathetic, in that they're willing to do terrible things to survive, yet familiarizes them in such a way that readers find ourselves rooting for them. I also really enjoyed watching Zhu's journey with gender, and her shift through the identities she embodies. I was invested in this book from start to finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Misogyny and Medical content

Minor: Pedophilia

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. 

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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

themdash's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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: Body horror, Child death, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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

adamsrib's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

i loved this book, honestly. the prose was evocative and very nicely written, which made the book easy to devour. i loved the setting, and the fact that the magical elements were small enough to add mysticism and intrigue whilst not overshadowing the rest of the worldbuilding.

i do admit that this book would likely not be everyone's cup of tea. it does not shy away from descriptions of war and violence and political subterfuge. the main characters, with the exception of one, are all morally grey: nobody is the "perfect hero" on either side of the war. the end of the novel is good but bittersweet and, in my opinion, suited the novel wonderfully.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Child death, Sexual content, and Colonisation

Minor: Misogyny

galexy_brain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

Such a beautifully written epic about fate, desire, identity, ambition, and duty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

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