A review by yourbookishbff
He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

This sequel to She Who Became the Sun (and conclusion to the duology ) is even darker than its predecessor -  you've been warned, reader. This is, again, a nuanced exploration of gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, and experiences of dysphoria and internalized transphobia and homophobia - and also war.  

Our character foils from book one, Zhu and General Ouyang, orbit each other even more closely in this installment, and I was fascinated to see the ways in which they aided and betrayed one another. I was surprised by how much time we spend with Wang Baoxiang, and didn't anticipate how central his storyline would become, but I honestly loved how the threads came together and how his story intersects with Zhu and General Ouyang. And never fear, because my favorite side character from book one, Ma, becomes pivotal in the final act, and I was so delighted to see how she influences the course of the narrative.

Though this book was exceedingly dark with significant on-page trauma (including rape, sexual violence, miscarriage and abortion, in addition to murder and war), these scenes felt intentional more than gratuitous, as Parker-Chan examines the intersections of revenge, sex, pain and violence in compelling and devastating ways.

I appreciated how Parker-Chan brings into this morally grey, violent hell scape earnest discussions of living authentically. Our characters each have a different vision of what it might mean to rule, and Zhu and Ma offer insight into what it might look like to create new ways of being yourself in a world that wasn't built for you. They dream of a world existing outside the binaries that have restricted them, and have to continually decide which sacrifices are worthy of this cause. The symbolic contrasting lights and shadows of the mandate, and the ability to see ghosts, layer into this vision of remaking new life and new light from death and darkness. 

I felt the story was surprisingly well-paced (given its length), and there were significant landmark scenes throughout that will haunt me for some time (sailing through ghosts?! IYKYK). 

Because of how graphically violent and dark this duology is, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to all fantasy readers, but I would absolutely recommend for those who love historical fantasy, historical retellings, speculative fiction, gender+bent history, and queer retellings with deeply (deeply) morally gray characters. 
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