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Book: She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker Chan
Read From: 10th July - 20th July 2021
Rating: 3/5 stars
Summary: In this Ming Dynasty reimagining we follow Zhu, a peasant rebel, who after the death of her brother uses his identity in order to fulfil his destiny of greatness for herself. Can Zhu claim her own future, burn all the rules and rise as high as she can dream?
This book was an absolute delight to read. It was unlike anything I’ve read before - landing somewhere in the middle of a slow-burn character focused novel and a high fantasy filled with epic battles. Usually, I tend to find that it’s one or the other but She Who Became The Sun had the perfect mixture of both. The characters were incredibly well developed you couldn’t help but become attached to them yet at the same time, the book is filled with plenty of action to also appease readers who dislike character-focused books and prefer an eventful plot line.
Zhu is the most perfect protagonist and takes ‘strong female character’ to another level. Forget the ‘Mulan meets Song of Achilles’ pitch and think The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. Zhu is badass, dedicated and contrary to her destiny at the beginning of the novel, 100% destined for greatness. She is a character you can’t help but love and admire.
Overall, this was a super fun and exciting read. Whilst at times it could be a little difficult to keep up with all of the different names and places, I think this is just testament to how rich the history was within this story (and maybe also the fact that I tend to reach for YA fantasy which requires a lot less concentration)! I’d definitely recommend this book - particularly to lovers of The Poppy War!