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A review by anastasia_sherman
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
If you (a nameless girl main character) was given a fate of nothing, while your brother Zhu Chongba is given the fate of greatness by the Heavens, what will you do to change your fate? Accept it without question, or do whatever you must to ascend to greatness?
That's what our main character Zhu did: not only survive, but ascend to greatness.
Taking her dead brother's identity as her own, on the steps of starvation, Zhu did what she needs to do: SURVIVE.
She was Zhu Chongba, and she was going to achieve greatness, and the only thing she had to concern herself right now was making that happen.
Zhu is one of the most resilient and determined characters I've met, and she truly paved her way to greatness from having nothing. She does whatever it takes to LIVE, and by whatever I mean it. Whatever that NEEDS DONE.
I just love how the author wrote her fate entwined or mirrored with the enemy's eunuch general: General Ouyang, a man who has his own fate to serve. After having his family killed by the Mongols, he was made a eunuch, and a slave, and then he rose to be a General in the Mongol's army.
He too, does what he MUST DO to live.
His POV in the novel is mostly heartbreaking and raw, especially the angst and the yearning towards his Prince Esen, and how he knows he could never have it, and how much the betrayal would hurt him more than the receiving party.
The sight made Ouyang feel that he had broken something beautiful and perfect. Chaghan's death had been unavoidable, it had been written into the fate of the world from the moment Chaghan had killed Ouyang's family. In that respect, killing Chaghan hadn't been a sin.
But breaking Esen felt like one.
This novel has nothing of comfort and fuzzy feelings, but it's a well written high stakes of war, strategic and political maneuvers, betrayal, unlikely alliances, complex and flawed characters and coming to terms with gender identity.
To sum it all up, it's brilliant.
I haven't read a brilliant queer historical fantasy in a while, and I think this book just gives exactly what I wanted.
The second and final book of this duology titled 'He Who Drowned the World', already giving me vague ideas on where this story is leading to (I hope I'm wrong), but yet I'm excited to start and see where the story takes our characters.
That's what our main character Zhu did: not only survive, but ascend to greatness.
Taking her dead brother's identity as her own, on the steps of starvation, Zhu did what she needs to do: SURVIVE.
She was Zhu Chongba, and she was going to achieve greatness, and the only thing she had to concern herself right now was making that happen.
Zhu is one of the most resilient and determined characters I've met, and she truly paved her way to greatness from having nothing. She does whatever it takes to LIVE, and by whatever I mean it. Whatever that NEEDS DONE.
I just love how the author wrote her fate entwined or mirrored with the enemy's eunuch general: General Ouyang, a man who has his own fate to serve. After having his family killed by the Mongols, he was made a eunuch, and a slave, and then he rose to be a General in the Mongol's army.
He too, does what he MUST DO to live.
His POV in the novel is mostly heartbreaking and raw, especially the angst and the yearning towards his Prince Esen, and how he knows he could never have it, and how much the betrayal would hurt him more than the receiving party.
The sight made Ouyang feel that he had broken something beautiful and perfect. Chaghan's death had been unavoidable, it had been written into the fate of the world from the moment Chaghan had killed Ouyang's family. In that respect, killing Chaghan hadn't been a sin.
But breaking Esen felt like one.
This novel has nothing of comfort and fuzzy feelings, but it's a well written high stakes of war, strategic and political maneuvers, betrayal, unlikely alliances, complex and flawed characters and coming to terms with gender identity.
To sum it all up, it's brilliant.
I haven't read a brilliant queer historical fantasy in a while, and I think this book just gives exactly what I wanted.
The second and final book of this duology titled 'He Who Drowned the World', already giving me vague ideas on where this story is leading to (I hope I'm wrong), but yet I'm excited to start and see where the story takes our characters.