A review by elleyena_rose
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

adventurous challenging emotional tense 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? Yes

4.5

Overall, this was a very enjoyable book, with several hard hitting plot points at the end that left me reeling, and I still need to process them. It's going to take me quite a while to process this before I can pick up the 2nd half of the duology. I loved all the different POV, and seeing Zhu's climb from poverty. The POV characters were all distinct and generally lovable even if I don't like all the decisions the characters made.

Honestly (ending spoiler under the tag)
Zhu killing the child of radiance at the end was a shock. Like Ma, I understand why Zhu found it necessary and hate it all the same, and hate that part of her that was willing to go so far for greatness. There had to be another way...At least it was an offscreen death. Ouyang's killing of Esen, while still hitting just as hard, was more telegraphed earlier in the story. I still think he could have found another way too, but understand his motivations. I will pick up the end of the duology, it's just going to take me a while to wrap my head around this ending and how I feel about it.
 
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