She Who Became The Sun was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint. This lush, evocative novel expertly combines literary, historical, and fantasy aspects to create a story that'll leave a lasting impact on your heart. This book will live rent-free in my mind for years to come. It reimagines the story of Zhu Yuanzhuang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, with a genderqueer twist. The ambition, longing, and pain on these pages are enough to instate She Who Became The Sun as a book you don't want to miss.

In a poor village, struggling under the weight of famine, there are two children. One, the boy, is given the fate of greatness. The other, a girl, is given the fate of nothingness. People are perplexed at the boy's fate; how could he achieve greatness? But the girl, her fate is to be expected. When raiders orphan the two children, it's the boy who succumbs to his grief. The girl sees her chance and takes her brothers identity. In the beginning, she's focused on survival, but perhaps she could even trick fate itself and reach for something greater.

She Who Became The Sun is a reimagining of the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, with a bold focus on gender and queerness. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant, turned monk, who rose in ranks to conquer China and end Mongol rule. The book inspired me to do more reading of that period of history, and it's so fascinating.

The book balances itself as a perfect literary fantasy. It's gorgeously written, dripping with an evocative, lyrical style that I adored. You could turn to any page in She Who Became The Sun and find a brilliant quote or scene. The writing reminded me of reading a legendary tale; it navigated the realm between intimately personal while keeping enough distance to retain that almost mythological feel. I can't help but be in awe about how talented Shelley Parker-Chan is.

A highlight of She Who Became The Sun was the depth and intricacy of its handling of gender. The book follows two main perspectives. There's Zhu, who believes that to trick fate and reach towards her brother's destined greatness, she must become him, become a man. At the same time, she must hide her body and the fierce understanding she feels for the women around her. She was always not quite a man, not quite a woman, but watching her come to that realisation was wonderful. The other perspective character is Ouyang, a eunuch general of the opposing army. He's a character filled with rage surrounding the mutilation of his body. He struggles intensely with the femininity that's forced upon him and the reminders that people don't see him as the man he is. He was such an interesting character that I can't wait to see more of. The relationship between him and the Mongolian prince, Esen, was nuanced and heartbreaking.

Zhu's ambition is a particularly interesting facet of this novel. I think it would be easy to say that she's merely striving for greatness, and will happily inflict suffering on herself and others to fulfil her desire. Everything she does is calculated to secure her more power, she bides her time, allows people to underestimate her, and then will swoop in with her absolute belief that she will be great. I've never seen a character throw herself into so many hopeless situations, proving time and time again that she can fool the fates and reach for her brother's destiny of greatness. Zhu has this relentless ambition, but I don't think it's necessarily for greatness itself, but rather to avoid her fate of nothingness. Zhu is so desperate to be something that she'd rather die trying than dare to live a quiet, unassuming life. She will be great. She will defy fate, no matter what it takes.

The way disability was handled in She Who Became The Sun was brilliantly refreshing. I'm being purposefully vague here to avoid spoilers, but there is a character who becomes disabled. It's a purposeful act - meant to break them. Instead, the character draws power from their disability. The book doesn't stray away from discussing the difficulties of disability, especially in having to relearn how to interact with the world, but the positivity surrounding it was something I had never seen in this context. I can't say anymore, but if you've read this book feel free to listen to me shout about it.

I could keep writing about the brilliance of this book for a long time, and I'm sure I'll be returning to it in the future. For the moment, I'm going to leave this review here. She Who Became The Sun is such a brilliant book filled to the brim with gorgeous writing and complex, nuanced themes and characters; don't let this one slip you by.

I was interested in this novel because I recently read Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror series, which tells the story of Genghis Khan and his descendants.

She Who Became the Sun begins in 1345, some fifty years after the death of Kublai Khan, and charts the rise to power of Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming dynasty. In this reimagining, though, there is one vital difference. Zhu is a woman.

Zhu grows up in grinding poverty, as the ruling Mongols lay waste to the land of her people. During a raid, her father and brother are killed and she is the only surviving member of her family. She decides to adopt her brother’s identity. Remembering that he was told by a fortune teller that he was destined for greatness, and given that he is now dead, she decides the prophecy must have been meant for her.

She takes refuge in a monastery, where, despite near misses, she manages to keep her secret from all but the monk who becomes her closest friend, the worldly Xu Da. As adults, they leave the monastery and find their way into the rebel Red Turban army, united under the figurehead of the Prince of Radiance. Zhu’s courage and initiative saves them in battle against impossible odds and means that she is put in charge of her own band of fighters.

She finds her nemesis  when the Mongol army comes to the monastery. She sees the eunuch commander Ouyang, and immediately recognises that they share a bond, as outsiders, because of their ambiguous gender identities. Ouyang is also of Nanren, rather than Mongol, origin, so he is serving in the army that subjugated his people. Later, Zhu and  Ouyang fight on opposite sides, struggling to establish themselves, both confronting and empathising with each other.

She Who Became the Sun started really well for me. The sense of place and time is vivid and the voice is distinctive, giving Zhu a believable balance of naivety and insight, confidence and fear. She takes opportunities when they come but is always aware of her perilous position. I liked the idea of Zhu as a woman. There have been documented real-life examples so I’m not bothered about plausibility, and much as I enjoy books by authors like Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell, their focus on military feats means they are inevitably dominated by male characters.

However, after a while the book began to grate on me and I did have to soldier on myself. The difficulty, I think, is that there isn’t enough dramatic conflict. Zhu is preoccupied with her identity and her sense of destiny above all else. Although she does suffer setbacks, there is no real jeopardy. That’s always a difficulty with historical fiction – most readers know how it ends, so you have to create suspense in another way, such as putting your character in a seemingly impossible situation. Then, although we might know she'll survive, we can't imagine how.

In the best of this kind of fiction, there are strategic, political and economic interests, and then there are personal dramas that may run along these lines or may conflict with them. In She Who Became the Sun the focus is firmly on the personal. Zhu and Ouyang act purely because of their identity or childhood experiences or relationships, which can give it a soapy feel as if the historical moment is just an attractive backdrop rather than integral to the story.

Still, She Who Became the Sun is fantastically atmospheric and an impressive achievement for a first novel. I would be interested in reading the sequel as the first book ends at an interesting point in Zhu’s journey.
*
I received a copy of She Who Became the Sun from the publisher via Netgalley.

t/w - mutilation, sexism, homophobia, gender dysphoria

I don't know about you guys but i love me a girl-poses-as-a-boy-to-take-control-of-her-life trope, and this spectacular retelling delivered. With its dazzling writing, nerve-wracking conflicts and stone-cold characters, this quite literally had me on the edge of my seat.

"𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥."

We have our very lovely main (sort-of) monk, ready to shoot down anyone standing in her way to greatness, never accepting her predestined fate of being nothing. This delves into the suffering of fighting for a life she want, through all the blood, sweat and tears (tehe) and all the heartache that comes along unwillingly.

"𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳."

Ouyang, our cold-hearted eunuch general, has been destined a fate that threatens to split him apart, between his loyalty to his family and his yearning love for the prince of his enemy. Struggling with his fate and his heart, this book follows him as he fights back for his honour and plots revenge against those who dared touch his family in the past.

There were quite some war tactics and politics, which i think i can proudly somewhat understand, thanks to all those very informative danmei's i've read (thank you sha po lang), also with much back-stabbing and bloody violence. (please be aware of the trigger warning before reading). The book does take place at times of war, including all the nitty and gritty, however there's an adorable f/f romance that i loved watching slowly develop in between the long chapters. So there's some minimal fluff in here too, which we love.

[3.8/5 ⭐]

So. First of all this isn’t a standalone. I don’t know why I thought it would be - I wish blurbs would say from the start so I know to manage my expectations. It doesn’t end with a cliffhanger, but there are a lot of loose threads and you’ll definitely want to see how the story concludes. This book gave me strong Poppy War vibes so if you loved that like I did, you will enjoy this.

She (who is never actually named in the book) takes on her brother’s name (Zhu) and destiny, and strives to move away from just being nothing as forecast by a soothsayer. This is an epic story of a very strong woman who battles all odds and will do anything t9 survive. There is a very strong feminist theme running through the story as we meet all manner of women who are overlooked or downtrodden, that strive to make something of themselves. Zhu is a survivor by any means. She is very pragmatic and shows signs of becoming very ruthless as her character and power develops. I love her relationship with Ma and hope that Ma is able to temper her ruthlessness with empathy.

Then we have the men. I’m not sure how I feel about Ouyang. He is driven by vengeance and self loathing at what was done to him. He also battles with the fact that he wants and loves Esen. I wonder if he would still have felt the same way if he wasn’t an eunuch. I also found Lord Wang really interesting and I wonder who the smartest/most devious one of them all is.

Overall this is a very interesting piece of historical fiction about the Chinese Emperor who drove out the Mongols. It is very light on the fantasy element - definitely more historical fiction with a heavy military slant. Great world building and introduction to the characters, who are all morally grey and devious (apart from maybe Ma), and constantly trying to outsmart each other. I can’t wait to see how their arcs develop in the subsequent book(s). My only fault is that it is a bit slow in parts and the fantasy element is very light - I’m not fully clear on the people with the mandates, but I expect to see that develop further in the next book. 4/5 Stars.

The sheer injustice that I have to wait for the second book! The book is powerful. No other word can describe the absolute perfection of this book. AND QUEER CHARACTERS IN A FANTASY WORLD, IN A ROYAL COURT? SIGN ME UP FOR THAT.

GENRES- YA, FANTASY, QUEER REPS, ROYAL COURT DRAMA, retelling.
TW- non-consensual castration, homophobia, misgendering.

First of all to the author- I'm horribly in love with you. The world, the vocabulary, the characters, the sheer ingenuity- you are an absolute goddess. I'll read everything this person writes, yes I'm sure of that despite the fact it's their first book(as per my knowledge and research).

All the main characters are all-consuming(except Esen). They will occupy your mind, heart and soul. I felt the joy and fear of the characters. But I felt their humiliation and shame like a physical punch. Bao Xiang and Ouyang are powerful and will light the world on fire someday probably but I'm rooting for them to find acceptance and happiness. They both deserve it. I don't hate Esen but I'm not a fan of him either, which I think was the author's intent. Because he fits perfectly into the political, aristocratic, hypocritical world. He's better than the worst ones but not better than good ones. I think I even hate him a little for not truly seeing Ouyang.

Zhu Chonga, a character I didn't know I needed to meet until I finally met her. She's ambitious, understands people and their greed, and more importantly- she feels. She tries so hard not to but she feels everything around her. Also makes it a point to bring about change any way she can. I want more characters like her, NEED more characters like her. I felt every victory, pain and happiness of her as if my own. Ma was everything Zhu is but more. They fit together, I had goosebumps reading their moments together. I connected more to Ouyang than Zhu, wonder what that says about me lol.

The plot and narration is otherworldly. I'm legit speechless. This is my best read of 2021 and I'll recommend it for the rest of my life. There are so many aspects to the world; the horrors, miracles, and tyranny but also dreams, hope in the darkest hours, people who bear the abuse of the entire world and still come out standing (I'm talking about Bao Xiang and Ouyang), teeth bared and claws out. I'm in awe of the world and it's characters. I'm rooting for every single of them to own their narrative and show the world what they actually stand for and represent; without hesitation or doubt. I realize that this isn't really a critical review but this is what I felt while reading it. My heart is full but at the same time empty. Also I want the black cover paperback but it's not available to me, someone get me to the UK or USA before I loose my mind.

There’s practically no way to spin this epic that doesn’t shout read me now: a tale of two women and a eunuch challenging entrenched patriarchies with the power of their ambition and desire; a tragedy of two men doomed to destroy what they love most; the meteoric rise of a traitorous murder monk.

I’ve been a mess whilst reading this, and if I hadn’t been a mess already it would have made me one. I was admiring it more than enjoying it (but oh, how I admired - this is a virtuoso debut) - until the final act, when Parker-Chan delivered their payload of scene after shivering scene of layered emotion and stunning visuals that will live rent-free in my head.

Bravo. Surely one of the very best of the year.

I really liked the premise of the story but I found the writing to be a little slow in places. It also felt quite dark to me but that’s just a personal preference. Not my cup of tea but I’m sure others will love it.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for this ARC.
This is a novel about morally grey characters who would do anything to achieve their desires. It is quite a slow-paced book with a lot of political intrigue, betrayal, and the quest for power. There are also themes of friendship, family, gender and sexuality.
This book does have alternating points of view, from Zhu Chongba, a peasant girl who has adopted her brother’s name and destiny after his death and Ouyang. A eunuch general who has his own complicated path to take. I enjoyed both POVs however I personally enjoyed reading about Ouyang as a character more and could understand his reasons for certain actions a lot more than Zhu's.
The writing style was beautiful, and I found myself sucked into this world. I am looking forward to the next installment!

*After thinking about this book and the characters a lot in the past 24 hours I think that I'll have to change my rating from 4 stars to 5!

I was really excited to read this book, but sadly I found it too slow paced and really struggled to get into it.

She Who Became The Sun is a masterpiece in showcasing the power of good writing. It takes skill to create selfish characters unafraid of crushing enemies and friends alike – and make you like them! You’ve no idea who you want to win in this complicated web of politics and vengeance.

This is a character-driven book, with the focus on two main characters and how far they’ll go. They’re not heroes though; they’ll do anything to reach their endgame.

Zhu Chongba has a fate. One he’s trying to avoid, and one he’s trying to fulfil. He’ll go through anyone to get what he wants. But you’re on his side: he inspires loyalty and you want him to achieve his goals.

Ouyang has a blood-dept to repay: avenging his murdered family. While Zhu’s emotions remain hidden, Ouyang’s are so raw and vulnerable you want to shield him from the world, even as he takes his revenge on it. There’s no line he won’t cross, but you feel each of those agonised decisions along with him.

Both characters go down dark and twisted paths. But you somehow like them both, and I couldn’t decide who should win, just because I didn’t want either to lose!

It’s the writing that makes this book work. It’s a twisted tale of politics, battles and ever-changing loyalties. I found some of the concepts a touch abstract, and got lost in the details more than once (the only reason this isn’t a 5* read from me).

But this a book where, realistically, you shouldn’t like either of the main characters. It shouldn’t work. Yet it does. You get swept into this world where power is everything and fulfilling one’s destiny takes you into the unknown. The writing draws you into the world, and positions you clearly alongside the main characters.

The pacing felt a little slow at times. There’s a consistent tension throughout, and although it peaks at times, there’s not much change in pace regardless of what is happening.

The battles are on the side-lines – you’re rarely among the action. Instead, you’re holding court: a lot of names and personal goals come in quick succession, which can make your head spin. There were times where I struggled keeping up with who was who.

It works though; the slower pace keeps you invested in the characters. Understanding the depth of their desires is what makes them so likeable.

A thoroughly enjoyable book! A little long-winded in places, with some of the detail making me lose the overall picture of what was going on. But I couldn’t put it down, sometimes with a horrified fascination of just how far these characters would go. A definite recommendation for this one!

She Who Became the Sun has garnered a lot of attention as one of fantasy’s summer must reads. To say there has been a lot of attention is a little bit of an understatement. Along with The Jasmine Throne, it has had praise heaped upon it from many notables of fantasy fiction, and there has been a bit of a superstar hype around the book. Obviously, opinion can go either way as one of the problems with books that have this kind of hype attached to them, they can disappoint as expectations can be quite high.

She Who Became The Sun is the first in The Radiant Emperor duology and revolves around both a reimagining of the story of the rise of the Ming Emperor in middle ages China.

I have to say that the book starts off pretty bleak in all honesty. There is not a shred of pomposity about the main characters or the epicness of the story. It starts with famine and death. We are initially introduced to the girl, who is a resourceful little creature, but is considered worthless by her family. Her father is a harsh, contemptible thing who, after taking the son to a fortune teller, believes that he is destined for greatness. However, things do not go as planned (do they ever!) and fate decides that it is going to have a starring role and when some bandits attack the girl’s family home, killing their father (who happens to be a shining beacon of fatherhood, and offers his daughter to the bandits in the hope that they will take her and leave the hope of their life alive).

Following the death of their father, they are subsequently orphans. Zhu Chongba is totally hapless and has to have the girl looking after him, but he subsequently gives up and dies.

With a burning desire to survive, the girl throws on the mantle of her brothers identity and seizes the fate that was promised to her brother and becomes Zhu Chongba.

With her new determination to grasp whatever fate has set down for her brother, Zhu Chongba takes his place at the local monastery, and after four days of stubbornly refusing to remove herself from the front steps of the monastery, she is allowed admittance, and thus begins the story of Zhu Chongba

Now I have to say that I was perplexed with this novel initially. So much so that I was teetering on the brink of throwing in the towel and putting it on the DNF shelf. There were loads of things that weren’t clicking for me. I am not saying at all that there is a fault with the book, but I just wasn’t getting it…… at all!

Yes, the writing is excellent. The character of Zhu Chongba is good, and she has a case of astounding resilience going on there, but I was not getting the fantasy element or what it was about. At times, I was totally lost as to what the heck was going on and who these people are. I found the sheer volume of people in this book just totally blew my mind and I could not keep up. I mean, I had read the stuff about identity, and thought that this sounded interesting. Another thing was that I was not getting the fantasy element. This seemed to be a historical novel, with supernatural elements, but I wasn't getting any fantasy from it, that ‘s for sure.

However, I did decide to stick with it, got past my reservations that I had with it and ended up enjoying it.

Obviously, there has been a lot made of the main character’s identity in relation to its fluidity but for me I felt that there was a wider discussion happening in the book about the acceptance of role. Whether that is in relation to gender, sex, duty, expectation, marriage, the role that fate decrees etc. Throughout the book, Zhu is constantly questioning if these roles should be accepted and to strive to be more than a role assigned to you. And you can see it highlighted in this quote from the book

“Learn to want something for yourself, Ma Xiuying. Not what someone says you should want. Not what you think you should want. Don’t go through life thinking only of duty. When all we have are these brief spans between our non-existences, why not make the most of the life you’re living now? The price is worth it.”

In addition to this, I found that there was an extremely positive feminist vibrancy to the book. Again, whilst Zhu is constantly questioning roles she is also empowering women to move beyond the constraints of the male dominated power base and to take power for themselves, and there is a really excellent scene in the book where instead of using force and epic battles to get what she wants, Zhu uses alternative methods and empowers a woman to take power in a quiet revolution kind of way.

As you can see, I ended up having a little epiphany about the book and enjoying it more than I first thought I was going to.

We have to mention other characters for whilst Zhu is the star of the show, there is a full cast of characters in the book. And we need to mention Ouyang and Esen. Ouyang is a eunuch in Esen’s army. He was initially a slave, whose father was some kind of traitor to the Mongol Khan and Esen’s father was tasked with deposing of the traitorous family to the ninth degree, and subsequently having Ouyang castrated so that the family line could not go on and also leaving Ouyang to live in shame.

You are never sure about who the antagonist in the story actually is, in all honesty, because every character (inc Zhu) is neither good nor bad. And for me, it again plays with that idea of role, and does the antagonist of the story need to fit into the archetypal role of the villain, and similarly with the protagonist. Again, they shift, and you are as equally fluid in your sympathies to each character.

In the end, after I had got over my difficulties with the book, I ended up enjoying this one.

4.5 STARS

(4.5 stars)

Author: Shelley Parker-Chan
Genre: Adult Historical Fiction


“I’m not going to stop until I rule, and I’m not going to let anyone stop me.”


Official release date: 22th July 2021 (UK) and 20th July 2021 (US)

“Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.” - describes this book PERFECTLY.

I honestly have no words.

Starting Part 1 of this book, the first thing that astonished me was the absolutely beautiful writing. Shelley Parker-Chan’s storytelling skills made everything so much more interesting to read. I loved the way the dialogue, the tone, the atmosphere and the emotions were described.

Part 1 of the book focuses purely on Zhu’s coming-of-age journey and her struggle for survival. I was really enjoying it and the way Zhu’s character was described and developed made me want to know more.

However, when Part 2 started, a second storyline developed. In all honesty, I was a bit confused at times (therefore the 4.5 rating), but as I continued, I found this to be a very nice addition to the plot! Both protagonists of those two storylines were unique and went through meaningful journeys. Despite not fully understanding the switch in POVs and what was happening in the other storyline, I quickly caught on and enjoyed the rest!

What was also very nice to see is that both protagonists were genderfluid! “one is assigned female at birth (but doesn’t identify as female), and the other is assigned male at birth and identifies as male (but is a eunuch with a gender nonconforming appearance). The AFAB character has a relationship with a woman, and the AMAB character has a relationship with a man.” (Shelley Parker-Chan’s description taken from goodreads)


I was very vaguely familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty, so I can assure you, you don’t have to be an expert on this to know what’s going on.

Another thing I loved (apart from the amazingly written character development from both protagonists) was the themes of fate and desire. Those ideas were so thoroughly explored in this book and it was just astonishing.

I think I will definitely need to get a physical copy and re-read it to truly appreciate this masterpiece! It was so hard to pinpoint what exactly made this book such a good read.

Thank you Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for my e-arc of this book, received in exchange for an honest review.

Can a girl destined for nothing defy the odds and fulfill her brother's abandoned fate? The Zhu family's second daughter refuses to be nothing, and so she must do whatever it takes to find out.

This book was truly phenomenal and I can't recommend it enough. It was unique, both in style of writing and form of storytelling, genuinely a joy to read. The story is totally immersive and engaging from the outset as we get to know our characters and the world they inhabit.
It beautifully deals with themes of family and friendship, love and betrayal, self-discovery, gender identity, and sexuality- woven into an epic tale of uprising and rebellion. We can't help but empathise with the characters and the lengths they are willing to go to to acheive the fate they believe they are destined for, even as their various paths entangle and work against one another at times.

For me it more than surpassed the comparisons to Mulan and The Song of Achilles and asserted itself as a distinct and epic tale in its own right. I cannot wait to read more from this world and Shelley Parker-Chan.

I so, so wanted to love this book and am sorry to say that I did not. I enjoyed the first 25% and learning more about Zhu and her (his) life in the monastery but after that point the paced slowed down so significantly that I was struggling to get through it and was having to force myself to read it. Subsequently I had to DNF this at 49%.

This will be the perfect book for anyone who likes a slow paced fantasy with a host of likable and unlikable characters. Rated 3 stars as I think the story had some really strong points and the writing was great for the first quarter of the book.

However tired I am, however hard it is: I know I can keep going, because I'm Alive.

If I could describe this story in one word, then that word would be POWERFUL.

In a rigidly patriarchal time,
where being a woman means you are NOTHING, being a man BUT not being a soilder means you are NOTHING, being anatomically "imperfect" means you are NOTHING,
being even slighty different than the norm (the norm ofcourse is being a strong man) means you will get crushed by your enemies;
in such a ruthless world, our MC dares to carve her own space and go after greatness.

I have seen this book marketed as a Mulan retelling. It's not. While Mulan did address some serious issues, it was also light hearted and fun.
This book is very grim. And Intense.

TW for violence, physical assault, torture, dismemberment, starvation, sexual content (consensual).

We are not given the name main of our MC, and when she takes up her brother's identity, she is addressed by her brother's name. This one point makes us understand how unworthy she was considered in the eyes of the world just because of her gender.

The journey of our MC from being an unimportant peasant girl, to a monk, to then an army general and finally the leader of the people is one filled with bravery and determination and hardships and it left me in awe!
While trying to achieve her own personal goals, she also tries to empower the women around her, and I absolutely loved this!

The representation of gender and sexuality in this book is done in an amazing manner.

This is easily one of the best books I have read this year and I will never stop recommending this.

Beware those who journey further – a fairytale this ain’t!

After a fortune teller destines her brother for greatness and her own life to be worthless, a peasant girl may be expected to resign herself to her fate. However, upon her brother’s premature death, the girl seizes an opportunity to adopt both his name and his destiny.
She Who Became the Sun is a brutal, hard hitting debut to The Radiant Emperor series. Comparisons tend to quote Mulan due to the setting and the nature of Zhu disguising her female birth, but this is honestly where the comparison ends. For me, this novel is as if Mulan was in the Game of Thrones novels: warring factions, political backstabbing and the quest for power, Parker-Chan really doesn’t hold back.

As the debut novel, She Who Became the Sun has a lot of work to do in world-building and revealing the history behind the main characters. As a result, the pace of writing can feel a little slow at times but the final few chapters are well worth any previous perseverance.
Despite the pace in the middle of the novel, Parker-Chan’s writing is lyrical and intense simultaneously. Zhu’s desire to live gives a desperate, raw undertone to every one of the chapters under her POV. This is in direct juxtaposition from our other main character, Ouyang, who exudes cold detachment.
Zhu and Ouyang are both orphans, both queer and, as a girl and a eunuch, are both shunned by society. However, they consistently find themselves facing each other on opposite sides of a war: they may be ‘like and like’ but they are both characters who believe that their path is already decided for them, and neither will let anyone stand in their way!
Zhu and Ouyang are complex, well-developed characters, but they are nothing without their stunning supporting cast! I particularly loved Xu Da, Esen and Ma who never showed any prejudice against our main protagonists and purely accepted them for who they were.

She Who Became the Sun intertwines historical fiction with fantasy, war strategies with spirits and death with fate. This novel manages to be gritty and violent whilst also exploring gender identity in an open and refreshing manner. Morality is blurred and ghosts are rife: I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It has been published in July 2021.

"She Who Became the Sun" by Shelley Parker-Chan was quite different from what I was expecting based on the blurb and marketing.
I was expecting a historical action/adventure drama with a queer spin. What I got was more on the lines of Game of Thrones: way more politics and palace intrigues between these pages than descriptions of battles or historical background. This is not necessarily bad, but it's certainly not my cup of tea.
For my personal taste, there were simply too many POVs, too many storylines to get fully invested in any of them. I don't mind choral novels with lots of characters, but when the POV is constantly changing (and the pronouns used for the same character change with each different POV), it gets tiresome. I get that it made sense, in-story, for the protagonist to be referred to with different pronouns according to the changing POVs, but it did slow me down while I was reading--it kept pulling me out of the story and into my own head, wondering who on earth the different characters might be talking about.
I found the instant, "mystical" connection between Zhu and Ouyang to be pretty silly: the protagonist "sees" the eunuch's hidden feelings by just staring into his blank face, apparently on the basis that "like knows like", and then she wonders why *he* can't read *her* thoughts when he looks at her. What?!
I also found the bits about the ghosts and the magical lights pretty pointless, because these elements didn't fit or tie in with the rest of the story *at all*. Magical realism is about blending fantastic elements into an otherwise realistic setting and making them an integral part of the story, not simply juxtaposing them and that's it.
On top of that, the constant body-shaming remarks made off-handedly by most characters, including the protagonist - didn't help me like this book.
I found most of the characters unrelatable: they're all so nasty, resentful, begrudging, opportunistic, and self-centred that it's very unpleasant to be inside their heads. The only likable character is Xu Da, who sadly plays a very minor role in the story. As for Ma, you can tell her character is supposed to be likable, but it didn't work with me: she's so one-dimensional that she just feels fake.
While I was reading this novel, I got the impression I was reading the nastier, meaner version of "The Story of Silence", by Alex Myers, which has a similar enough plot, but with more adventure, fewer politics, and a good many likable characters (first and foremost the transgender protagonist).
That said, I can see that a great deal of research went into this book and I'm sure people who are into palace intrigue stories are going to love it.
The language is beautifully polished and the idea of using Chinese idioms translated literally into English is pure genius (I don't speak any Chinese, but the idioms were perfectly comprehensible to me, in-context), and contributed nicely to creating the story's atmosphere.
I'm giving three stars for the quality of the book in itself, but palace intrigue novels really aren't for me, so I won't be reading any future installments in this series.

I got She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor #1) by Shelley Parker-Chan from NetGalley for free, for a fair an honest review.

She Who Became the Sun is a cross between historical fiction, fantasy set in China in the second half of the 14th century. This was a time when large parts of China were, ruled by the Mongol Empire.
The story starts when a farther and his two children a boy called Zhu Chongba and a girl, the last surviving members of the family after around 10 years of famine. Along with the war with the chines trying to through the Mongols out.
Shortly after going to a fortune teller when the boy is told that he is set for greatness and the girl nothing. The farther is killed by bandits and the son dies shortly after. The girl decides to take her brother Zhu Chongba’s name and disguises herself as a boy and becomes a Buddhist monk to fullfill his prediction of greatness

She Who Became the Sun, can be described as an historical, novel with a large element of the fantasy genre thrown in for good measure, for example the going through a period of training to gain the skills for her role.
Another trope the novel takes is the chosen one however in this case it is the girl who is taking her brothers fate and his greatness.
As well as being a fantasy novel set in China which it allows the writer to draw from that area for he basis for the fantasy world, rather then European mythology for most western novels. This short of gives a different feel to the novel.
While I do not think the book went into a deep dive, of the fantasy elements, which I hope are expanded in the later books of the series.
Because of the main plot line of the young girl disguising herself as her brother, she has a gay relationship in the story. I cannot comment on the portrayal of the Lesbian relationships of Zhu Chongba.
What I can say is that the writer Shelley Parker-Chan was former diplomat and international development adviser who spent nearly a decade working on human rights, gender equality and LGBT.
Another character in the novel the general in the Mongol army is a eunuch, who is displayed as a fighting soldier instead of an aid to a ruler.
She who becomes the sun while having its feet in the fantasy genre the book is not from the quest side of the genre e.g. The Hobbit. This novel is set in the political side of the genre, think game of The Song of ice and Fire or the Wheel of Time outside the first few books.
This makes the novel anything but an easy read however having said that, once I get used to the style of writing the story was easy enough to follow
She Who Became the Sun as the first book in, The Radiant Emperor series it did have some of those first novel in the series problems, however I can recommend this book for a fantasy or historical novel reader.

**3.5 stars
I want to start off by saying that I am not the target audience for this book therefore my criticisms of this book are probably my own fault rather than the book itself. The start of the book was great and so was the end of the book but it was the middle of the book that knocked a couple of stars off for me. Because of the slow pace in the middle, the book just started to feel like a chore to read and that is something I never want in a book. I think it was mainly down to my intense confusion and lack of knowledge about the history of the book that I got a bit lost. It all got a bit too political for my small brain. However, once I trudged through the densest of the politics, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I would have liked to have more established side characters and more of a warning when the POV changes as I began to get slightly confused when it wasn't just Zhu's POV anymore. I will be continuing this series as I think with a re-read I will better appreciate this book. Thankyou to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for gifting me this ARC in return for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I can honestly say that I have never read a book quite like this, and I did for the most part enjoy it. Parker-Chan takes us on a nail biting adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat and rooting for the characters the entire way through.

I did like our main character Zhu and her adventures in this book, I also liked the supporting characters but would have liked to have seen more of them. I enjoyed the personal journeys that the characters went on in this book and the themes of self acceptance.

I really liked the resilience of the main character and how they would come back from anything that was thrown at them! I think this is a very important trait to have and I like how it was portrayed in this book.

I would have liked to have seen some more combat or hand to hand fighting or training scenes or something along that line as I think that would have just added a bit of something extra to the book.

One of the main issues that I had with this book was that it was rife with sexism, I really struggled with it at some points and yes, I can see why it was there but I don’t think it was written into the story in a particularly tasteful manner. I’m not sure that it needed to be as apparent, or perhaps it is just me I’m not sure.

I also found the book a bit confusing in places and I’m not sure if this is down to me or how the book was written/structured but that is something to bare in mind.

If you can look past the things I have mentioned in this review I would recommend this book because I did enjoy the general story and I do think that I will read the next books in the series to see where the story goes.