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A review by incipientdreamer
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
4.5
4.5 stars!
Marketed as Mulan meets Song of Achilles, She Who Became the Sun is an epic tale about the quest for greatness and the sacrifices one has to be willing to make to achieve their Fate. With deeply woven themes of gender and identity; what it means to be a woman in a man's world, and how to wrestle with the irrevocable idea that you might be destined for nothingness. Disney's Mulan could never!
Believe the hype because this book definitely lived up to my expectations! The characters are complex and multi-faceted, with shifting moralities. Full of politics, backstabbing, desire, and the mysterious ways of destiny, I absolutely adored this book; the deep and difficult questions it posed about gender and social norms, as well as the price and lengths to achieve greatness are. While most of the characters are pretty unlikeable, with their ruthlessness and determination to get what they want, I was still deeply intrigued by them. Ouyang and Zhu Chongba were very unique and interesting characters. One can't simply form an opinion on them, they are far too complex to be assigned emotions such as "hate" or "like". Though I have to say that my favorite character in the book was Ma Xiuying. I do hope she has more screentime and more of an influence on the erratic and ambitious Zhu. Xu Da deserves an honorable mention as well, I am sure he was an instant reader favorite, being the only decent male character!
A delightful, fast-paced read, with twists at every turn, I deeply enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the sequel as well as anything that Parker-Chan writes. My copy is too heavily highlighted and annotated to share my fav quotes from the book.
Second reread 16/08/23:
Rereads can be tricky bastards. More often than not books beloved the first time can be massively disappointing the second time. I've noticed that most times I'd find myself bored and noticing that the initial magic wears off. She Who Became the Sun is not one of those books. I reread this almost 2 years since my first read and I'd forgotten a lot of stuff but I never found myself feeling bored for one moment. I think I gained a better appreciation for Wang Baoxiang this time around, however. I'm excited to see which side he takes and how his and Ouyang and Zhu's stories play out. Most of my feelings have been summarized in my initial review, but I feel like it's worth stating again that I am a strong Ouyang apologist. Sometimes a man needs to be devoured by his desire for revenge, let him thrive.
One minor issue I had though, was that a lot of the plot seems a bit too favourable for characters at times. I get that its all to do with the machinations of Fate and Destiny, but from a writing perspective it does bother me a bit.
Marketed as Mulan meets Song of Achilles, She Who Became the Sun is an epic tale about the quest for greatness and the sacrifices one has to be willing to make to achieve their Fate. With deeply woven themes of gender and identity; what it means to be a woman in a man's world, and how to wrestle with the irrevocable idea that you might be destined for nothingness. Disney's Mulan could never!
Believe the hype because this book definitely lived up to my expectations! The characters are complex and multi-faceted, with shifting moralities. Full of politics, backstabbing, desire, and the mysterious ways of destiny, I absolutely adored this book; the deep and difficult questions it posed about gender and social norms, as well as the price and lengths to achieve greatness are. While most of the characters are pretty unlikeable, with their ruthlessness and determination to get what they want, I was still deeply intrigued by them. Ouyang and Zhu Chongba were very unique and interesting characters. One can't simply form an opinion on them, they are far too complex to be assigned emotions such as "hate" or "like". Though I have to say that my favorite character in the book was Ma Xiuying. I do hope she has more screentime and more of an influence on the erratic and ambitious Zhu. Xu Da deserves an honorable mention as well, I am sure he was an instant reader favorite, being the only decent male character!
A delightful, fast-paced read, with twists at every turn, I deeply enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the sequel as well as anything that Parker-Chan writes. My copy is too heavily highlighted and annotated to share my fav quotes from the book.
Second reread 16/08/23:
Rereads can be tricky bastards. More often than not books beloved the first time can be massively disappointing the second time. I've noticed that most times I'd find myself bored and noticing that the initial magic wears off. She Who Became the Sun is not one of those books. I reread this almost 2 years since my first read and I'd forgotten a lot of stuff but I never found myself feeling bored for one moment. I think I gained a better appreciation for Wang Baoxiang this time around, however. I'm excited to see which side he takes and how his and Ouyang and Zhu's stories play out. Most of my feelings have been summarized in my initial review, but I feel like it's worth stating again that I am a strong Ouyang apologist. Sometimes a man needs to be devoured by his desire for revenge, let him thrive.
One minor issue I had though, was that a lot of the plot seems a bit too favourable for characters at times. I get that its all to do with the machinations of Fate and Destiny, but from a writing perspective it does bother me a bit.