As much of a slow burn as this book started as, it really turned epic by the end. A story that weaves historical fiction, the exploration of gender identity and sexuality, and the beginning of the Ming dynasty isn't written to appease an impatient reader.
Admittedly, I came into this book fairly blind. I had read the summary and thought "A fantasy with Mulan-like elements? Sign me up!" But what I got when I started was quite different from what I was expecting. For one, there isn't that much fantasy in it, and that was disappointing. I was expecting magic to fly everywhere, and it wasn't really about that. Instead we follow the character Zhu Chongba, who was born a female, embark on a journey to greatness only men were allowed to acquire in that time.
Zhu is intelligent and patient. Calculating and wise. And also a stubborn person who refuses to accept anything less than success, even while muddling through her body dysphoria throughout the book. The supporting characters of the story are all as equally compelling, and the author's use of pronouns was incredibly smart.
I'm giving this four stars, because even though I thought it was a bit slow-paced until the last 150 pages and there wasn't as much fantasy as I was expecting, it was still a very good read.

It's taken me a while to find the words to review this book (5 months, in fact). This book was breathtaking, and I'm still honestly reeling from some scenes in this book. I've loved the rise of Asian mythology and authors in fantasy, and found so many great books since I've started reading more and more adult fantasy. This book, at times, hit me like The Poppy War did, and can't wait to read the next book in this series.

I was ecstatic when I was approved for the advanced copy of this book, and overjoyed when I found out Illumicrate would be putting it in their monthly box. While it took me a bit to read, even after both of these things, my eyes were constantly drawn to the bright colors of this book waiting on my shelf. Finally, after a few rounds of just barely not winning the book club bracket for my book club, it finally won, and it was time for me to read.

I read the first portion of this book with my eyes, and found myself quickly caught up in Zhu's story, in both choices she's forced to make and the path she chooses to fight for. Her tenacity and unending desire to be great could have easily come off as arrogant, but instead she's just a person who wants what the world was never going to easily give her. She's so sure of herself, of this path to greatness that she carves out for herself, piece by piece, that you can't help but be swept up by her bravery and her strength. She's not even a good person by the end, but she is a great one, and honestly? She deserves the greatness she's taken for herself.

At some point while I was reading, I found out that the audio of this book was actually narrated by one of my absolute favorite narrators, and I quickly found myself switching to see if the book was just as enchanting when read aloud. Somehow, I found myself enjoying the story even more, and the way it was brought to life through narration. The combination of expressive narration and breathtaking writing just blew me away, and in the end, this book was one of my favorite books of 2021.

I really enjoyed the additional point-of-views we had throughout the story, and the other angles it gave on both the world, the plot that was unfurling, and on Zhu's rise. It's easy to follow along blindly with Zhu's journey to greatness when she's the only voice you see it from, but adding in the additional characters changes your perspective on that rise. I loved seeing her through the eyes of someone who at first thought she was just a lowly monk, and then seeing her as so much more. I also found it extremely intriguing to see her posed as the enemy, and how her actions are perceived by someone threatened by her. It all tied together in such a strong way, and I found myself enjoying every point of view, both for the additional insight they gave into the world and for the characters themselves, as even they felt fully fleshed out, with their own desires and dreams.

Overall, I devoured this book, and I cannot wait to see what comes next.

There is no doubt that this is a 5 star fantasy read. This story is filled with twists and turns, characters you love and admire, characters you want to fight in the street and characters that are somehow both. Shelley Parker-Chan does an outstanding job bringing this world to life and though there is less obvious magic you can still feel the magic in the air. This book definitely is more focused on the war and politics of this world, but you do get some queer love and representation which are continually refreshing. Absolutely will be reading again and again and again.

I really enjoyed this book. However, I think there are some significant pacing issues in the middle of the book that made finishing it a struggle. I'm excited to see what else this author has in store and will most certainly pick up the next book they publish.

Oh, wow. This is phenomenal.
It is 1345 China and the Mongol's rule with an iron fist. Out in the Central Plains of China, peasants toil away and only dream of the possibilities of greatness - something found in prophesies but not real life. Until, that is, the eighth-born son of the Zhu family, Zhu Chongba, is prophesied to come to greatness. How he'll do that is a mystery to everyone since no one from the Plains ever comes to greatness. The family's second-born daughter is expected to become just what every daughter will become ... nothing.

A brutal raid on the village leaves Zhu Chongba and his sister orphans. Zhu Chongba doesn't take well to this and he falls into a deep despair and dies.

His sister on the other hand, shows a remarkable will to survive at all costs and decides to assume Zhu Chongba's identity. She, now posing as a young boy, enters a monastery, finding it easy to be a boy when there are few expectations other than obedience. But her nature is inquisitive and challenging and she is still willing to stop at nothing to protect her true identity.

When rebels to the Mongol horde seek help from the monks at the monastery, Chongba agrees to serve as their advisor, which she does extraordinarily well. And later, when the temple is razed because of the help they offered to the rebels,, Chongba sees another opportunity - to take her brother's prophesy for greatness for herself and lead an army against the fiercest warriors in the land while maintaining the secret of who she really is.

This book is just ... it's truly wonderful.

Chongba's will to survive, her drive to succeed, and her fierceness are so very powerful. It is, without a doubt, the over-riding arc of the book. I might normally find it too obvious, but author Shelley Parker-Chan manages to couch the themes within a great story and around exceptional characters. We want to follow Chongba and we want to see her succeed. But even her biggest foe becomes someone that we find a way to respect - or at least someone we want to know more about.

Parker-Chan never lets us forget that Chongba is female and while it is never acknowledged (because no one else knows her true gender) we also never lose sight of the fact that what she achieves is extra remarkable because of her gender (and that, according to prophecy, she was destined for nothingness).

Of course we also can't help but wonder if both prophecies have actually come true. Chongba has left her female-ness behind. The girl is no more. She is nothing. But Zhu Chongba is slowly becoming increasingly 'great' - as according to prophecy - even though it is now the female Zhu Chongba.

This is not a light, easy read. Chongba will grow vicious, even very early on, and it is almost as though she will thrive on her aggression. Almost. When she has the best opportunity to truly become ruthless, she lets up, just enough to remind us why we like her so much.

I really got pulled into the story very quickly and on the strength of Chongba's character, I was held to rapt attention all the way through. It combines adventure, mythology, and a strong sense of ancient Chinese legend, told in a classic Chinese fashion but for modern audience.

Looking for a good book? She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is a powerful, motivating adventure story of a strong-willed girl who's will to survive is a driving force that will be felt all across China.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I finished this and my internal monologue is "AHHHHHH!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!! :keyboard smash: :keyboard smash", which is truly the greatest praise I could give a book.

I was really enjoying Part 1 of this book, up until about page 80, and now we've skipped some time and introduced several new characters who are constantly talking about winning battles. It's very dry and boring. I am putting it aside at page 192; will update if I decide to continue.

Me when I started this: “I need a new war-centered fantasy in my life”

Me halfway through reading it: “wow this is a lot of war 💀”

So clearly what I learned from this is that nothing I say should be taken too seriously because I don’t really know what I want. What I *actually* think I wanted to read was The Poppy War trilogy again for the first time. And it’s not like the two books don’t have some things in common. They take place in a historical Chinese-inspired fantasy world, feature a number of battles (obviously, because of the war) and have protagonists you see struggle in poverty during their childhoods only to rise up through the ranks and gain power while suffering immense personal loss.

But even in these main characters, there’s some pretty big divergences. Where Rin is haphazard in her decision making, Zhu does not have the luxury to be. From the moment Zhu was left alone as a child, to fend for herself in a famine, then a monastery, there was no room for failure at that level. Every mistake she made had to be corrected with haste or the result would be a quick and final death. For Rin things seem like they’re going well until they suddenly aren’t, Zhu seems to be on to edge of catastrophe up to when she deftly seizes the upper hand.

There’s also way less magic in this fantasy book than I was expecting. For some people this will be a positive and others a negative. I think in place of that there’s a much deeper exploration of characters’ identities. All the main and secondary characters are struggling with something, whether it’s balancing masculinity and femininity, gender roles and gender identity, sexuality and desire, etc. All of that personal discord while fighting a major military conflict and navigating cutthroat political waters.

I think what’s important to remember going in to She Who Became the Sun is that while it accomplishes many things—LGBTQ rep, some humor, romance—it’s primarily a book about strategy and ambition. It’s characters clawing their way from the bottom to the very top, and crushing what they must during their ascent. The two main perspectives are foils in some ways, but mirrors of one another in others. Zhu, Ouyang and most of the rest of the cast are going through extensive trauma, but don’t get to express that outwardly. In many cases they refuse to acknowledge their pains internally as well, which can make their reactions seems stunted. This isn’t a flaw in the writing, just the way these characters have learned to behave in order to survive.

I’ll be honest and say the first half was a bit of a struggle for me just because it was not the book I was expecting. But by the end I was completely invested in Zhu’s arc and the rest of the upcoming series. She Who Became the Sun is a glorious and ruthless trek that asks a lot of you upfront, but repays all of it and more by the end.

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN starts off by dropping you in the middle of China under Mongol rule in the 14th century. A world that is entirely unfamiliar to most of us, but that, weirdly enough, doesn’t feel foreign. How is that possible, you ask? The author is masterful at introducing the world, characters and events as they unfold. They do not take the time to set the setting first, they trust you to trust them to take you along this ride. And you should trust them. Because as complex as this piece of history – The Rise of the Founding Emperor of the Ming dynasty – is, the way Shelley Parker-Chan reimagines it, lays it out and explains it manages to be both easy to follow and to convey just how intricate it is.

At the beginning of the story, we find ourselves following a nameless girl who soon after the beginning of the book is orphaned. Losing her father and soon after, her brother. And it’s only once she takes on her brother’s name to take on his destiny do we finally have something to call her. Zhu Chongba. And this fact alone drives a very powerful albeit heartbreaking message. As a girl, Zhu didn’t matter. Everyone and everything else mattered more, at the time. She could be starved, sold or even killed if it ments her brother’s survival.

Zhu is most definitely one of the most interesting characters I have ever had the chance to read about. I could write an essay about her, the things her character means to me and the things the author was able to achieve with her. First, and most importantly, so we can talk about her in an accurate manner: Zhu is not a woman. Nor is she a man. That is relevant to her and her character because the way the author explores gender through her is intrinsicate to the story.

The gender feels and exploration are barely if ever named in the book, never pointed out, but the way they are woven into the story makes them an integral part to it. She who Became the Sun would not be She Who Became the sun without its genderqueerness. It is sometimes so big and so prevalent that it feels like it spilled from the pages of the book, directly into my chest, squeezing my heart. It felt too big to be contained. The way Zhu came to acknowledge she was outside the binary, her relationship to her body and her rejection of womanhood were brilliantly portrayed. I found the latter particularly interesting in the way where, once she had made peace with who she was, it wasn’t as visceral anymore. And that, although not a universal experience (nothing is), was an important one nonetheless.

On the other side of this same exploration, we had a character whose rejection of womanhood is cutting. Not only in relation to himself, but to women. Ouyang. Who saw in women reminders of all the things he hates about himself. Whom upon seeing him, before she even acknowledged her own gender, Zhu felt an immediate pull and connection. Like calls to like. Ouyang, who although also not a man nor a woman, has an entirely different relationship to his gender. His experience was steeped in trauma and self-hatred. Not being able to talk, think or even live with himself without suffocating pain and self-loathing permeating every interaction, every breath. So much so that Zhu describes his as being nothing but pain.

Between the two of them, there is such a vast and unspoken exploration of gender that makes this book, and every single theme it explores, as a result inherently queer. And this is a thermatically rich book. But the one thread that holds it all together is the notion of desire. Both characters are driven by their desires. Zhu desires greatness. Ouyang desires revenge. And both will stop at nothing to get what they want. And I mean nothing. Neither one of them is Good. But both are very human. And through them SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN asks: How far are people willing to go to achieve their desires? Where are they willing to stop? What is a step too far? When do they become irredeemable?

And these characters are willing to stop at nothing. They are willing to sacrifice everything. They are consumed by their desires. But in different ways. Time and time again, Zhu and Ouyang are similar enough but widly different to the point of posing a stark contrast. I know it sounds like a contradiction but it works. Had they not had those similarities, their differences wouldn’t be as obvious. They both do hainous things. Things that would make them villains. But they are deeply sympathetic in all the ways they are flawed. I could never bring myself to hate them because hating them felt sometimes like hating parts of myself.

By definition, both of them, as well as most characters in SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN, are monsters. But that doesn’t really surprise anyone who knows anything about anything, does it? Queerness and monstrousness are historically linked. Queer people have been deemed monsters for years, decades, centuries. Monstrous, shameful, undeserving. These characters reclaim. This book reclaims that. This book reshapes the definition of monstrousness. It retakes back that control and puts it in the hands of queer people. They get to definite it, use it and even weaponize it.

These characters are monsters. But not because of their queerness. Despite of it. Regardless of it. They are monsters because they chose to be, chasing their desires. Not because other people decided that for them. They are monsters because they have decided they didn’t want scraps anymore. They didn’t want to be confined to a box defined by their difference. Their marginalization. They wanted more. And so they are going to get it.

I think I’m drawing a pretty clear picture, but just in case: This book is hard to read. It is violent. It is gritty. And it does not hold back its punches. Besides all the hate, adversity and hardships these characters face, SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN is set in a war. Not only that, but Zhu and Ouyang are seemingly on opposite sides of it. But what this book really shows is that is times of war, there really is never just two sides. Often there are ten sides inside the one. People in situations of power, the ones leading these wars and moving the pieces are terrible and power-hungry. It shows people choosing sides, switching sides, all in the name of power. And chasing that high is procures. Some people are in it for heroic purposes, some for selfish purposes and others for the sake of survival.

War isn’t as clear cut as two sides. It isn’t as clear cute as good and bad guys. It is as complex and complicated and mess as humans are. Because war is humanity at its worse. The book forces you beyond the binary of picking sides, it pushes you into the uncomfortable space where you really have to examine war. Its effects, consequences and the reasons behind it. Which are often times deeply selfish and rooted in pride.

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN isn’t a fast paced book, which you might think knowing that it’s a historical war fantasy. On the contrary, it is slow in a way that really depicts the realities of war, how they span over years and decades, chipping away at people’s livelihood and stability. It’s also focused on politics of it all, the scheming, backstabbing and strategizing. It is extremely smart, but in a way that is still accessible to readers. Leaving us gaping in admiration at the book and Shelley Parker-Chan’s mind.

There are many characters, many sublots, and many threads to follow. But all these tiny pieces crescendo by the end of the book to form the explosive ending. While reading the book, you know it’s good, but you only come to understand its sheer brilliance once you read the end. And have to sit staring at the blank wall for thirty minutes just letting it all sink in.

The most surprising thing to me about SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN are its little pockets of tenderness. They would take me by surprise in small moments of quiet acceptance, in achingly sweet moments, in silences that can be filled by loving words. Those had me deeply yearning for more, and understanding just how important they are and how cherished they should be.

This politically driven, high fantasy novel is well loved and celebrated for a reason. It’s unique, in so many ways; yet has great pacing, cast of characters, military strategy and iotas of magic that define many great high fantasy novels. While there is a lot of talk of army, wars, battles, etc. (and many of our characters eventually end up on the battlefield) this is not a military fantasy. There is little description of the actual battles themselves; and almost no hand-to-hand combat prose (except for a moment when it really really counts).

Based on Mongolian-esque culture and history; She Who Became the Sun has a setting that is less likely to be familiar to most of Western culture. Not unlike Marlon James fantasy series, I love this nod and inclusion to help educate myself on the religion, beliefs, culture, and politics of different places and eras in time. It also means it’s much harder for me to anticipate what might happen next. And if nothing else this book is excellent at keeping you shocked and on your toes.

At its core, Shelley Parker Chan, has given us a novel that is about being an outcast. From our eunuch military commander to our enigmatic (girl posing as a boy) monk we see the similarities of being stigmatized by the people around you. Be it for a lack of sexuality or gender; or because you are marked as being sworn to Buddha (even as you swing a sword in battle). There is a lot of internal monologues that brilliantly bring together how being an outcast feels the same to almost everyone. The reasons, nuances, cutting words, or shunning gestures may vary to each situation; but at the end of the day being excluded, dismissed, or intentionally insulted feel the same for most people. Awful, heart-breaking, and rage inducing; perhaps all dependant on the day, time, and person whom is signalling (loud and clear) that they are above you. I think a lot of us big-time readers will really connect with this feeling of being unwanted or a bit of an outsider to our own society.

I don’t want to say too much more here as it’s best to go into this story with minimal knowledge and let it take you on its magnificent ride. But I do want to point out there is little gore (although awful things happen, they are not described in extreme detail), there is one intense love making scene that is described openly, and certainly a lot of guilt and shame moments that may make the reader squirm or feel embarrassed on behalf of the character. This makes this an excellent , easy to recommend, fantasy story. I don’t need to add a bunch of disclaimers about it being too gory, depressing, sexual, etc. Especially an ideal recommendation for those whom you may not know super well or are unsure of their tolerances.

There is a lot of good queerness! Not overly in your face at times; but how can you not have gender discussions with an eunuch as a primary character. I really appreciated the time and nuance put into the thoughts of sexuality and gender that Chan gives us. This is, for me, what makes this book truly special. It talks of the idea that you are not just your gender or lack thereof. We are all what we believe and make ourselves to be. Our two primary characters truly show this throughout the story.

So what more can I say? If you love high fantasy, want an Eastern setting, or need to know how women survive in an extreme patriarch this is probably for you. If you are newer to fantasy this is a decent place to start. It’s got some slower moments but the politics make the story. Additionally I guarantee you will be stunned by the twists and turns those same (occasionally dry) politics result in at the end.

This is a top selling novel and is often highly recommended for a very good reason. My only regret, that it took me this long to finally read it.

I LOVE this book!!! I recently finished reading this with the Boundless Book Club and.... words cannot express my love and appreciation for this book. I could go on and on about the atmospheric setting, the history, the plot, etc, but I feel like the best way to express my feelings is just to share highlights/bullet points, so here we go!!!

- zhu and ma's relationship was so unbelievably tender and pure in a book that is full of brutality, hardship, and loneliness. I loved the sapphic representation and this couple made my heart explode, I truly just love them. they support each other through everything, listen to each other with so much care, and help each other to grow into who they have always wanted to be. AND THEIR BANTER!!! 1000000/10, I would die for them

- there were SO many characters in this book, which usually I am not a fan of, but each and every one of them was fully developed. you know everyone's personality and motivations and it never gets confusing or hard to understand. I think this is remarkable and I literally stopped in the middle while reading because I just couldn't believe how many characters were flawlessly incorporated.

- the unique take on gender norms and gender identity in this book was brilliant and very interesting!! which also leads into the parallels drawn between ouyang and zhu, which were just GENIUS!!! they are both chasing their fates in such different ways while continuously crossing paths and becoming catalysts for each other and just UGH!!! *CHEFS KISS* SO SMART AND AMAZING!

I could go on forever, but ultimately I am just begging anyone who sees this to READ THIS BOOK!! I am in awe of shelley parker-chan's writing because it was honestly so beautiful while also being so intelligent and literary. this has become an all-time favorite for me and I just... I just love it with all of my heart!🥺💛

oh. my. god. this book y'all. Absolutely stupendous. I had high hopes when I saw it described as "Mulan" meets "The Song of Achilles" but it blew those hopes out of the water. I absolutely cannot wait for the next one.

She Who Became the Sun is, simply put, a masterpiece of a debut. It’s a powerful, evocative, and brutal high fantasy that will leave you utterly wrecked and begging for more. Parker-Chan blends history with fiction in this sweeping story that chronicles Zhu Yuanzhang’s ascent to power and the rise of the Ming Dynasty in 14th century China. It’s the perfect novel for anyone looking for complex characters set amid a backdrop where loyalties are tested and the stakes are high. The lyrical prose paints a vibrant picture of a war-torn period, reimagined, but ultimately true to its roots. Right from the get go, I was pulled into the ambitious nature of the narrative amidst its definitive passion and decisive action. I straight up devoured this in under a few hours and then realized I would have to suffer in silence since none of my friends had finished reading. What it means to be an arc reviewer am I right? The exploration of gender and gender identity, tied up in a story that is so brilliantly queer, is the true hero of all of this though. There was a very nuanced conversation taking place within the novel, that I appreciate and can tell will be carried over into the next installment. To see a character that was not only flawed and determined, but honest with themselves about their own identity and who they are, was incredibly powerful to read. Looking forward to seeing just how that evolves in the next book. And my God, that ending. So devastatingly beautiful it may just keep me up for the next few nights. If we're lucky, otherwise I may not ever get to experience sleep again.

She Who Became the Sun is pitched as a Mulan meets Song of Achilles style book, but I would say it focuses more on the Mulan side of that comparison. This book really had me gripped at the very beginning. I loved seeing how our lead character navigated all of the hardships being thrown her way and how she came out stronger because of it. I feel that in the middle of the book, the plot shifted focus and introduced more POVs when I just wanted to be with our main character. The middle definitely dragged for me, but there were a lot of twists and turns at the end to make up for it and make me excited to see what will happen in future books.

This book is such a beautifully written story set in China in the 1300's, and the prose is just so pleasant to read. From the precis: "In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…" I guess that doesn't come as much of a surprise considering the setting, both time and place. The Zhu family experiences hardships and sadly Zhu's father and brother die and that is when she decides to steal her brother's identity and become Chongba because she believes it will bring her greatness if she is a boy. Nothing gets in Zhu's way, and I mean nothing, of her perseverance and tenacity to reach that goal.

In my opinion, this book is much more character-driven than plot driven although both are vital and well-done. There is the eunuch Ouyang who is one of my favorite characters from the story but at times I don't understand him. He saves a life for which he gets little to no thanks. And there's Baoxiang whom I despise. Even the "good" characters have their flaws and reasons to hate them. But I admired Zhu for her tenacity and for her strength not to let anything stand in her way of going for greatness!

I highly recommend this one, but I'd also recommend taking your time with it if you're like me and are unfamiliar with Chinese names and places. Many different characters and places make remembering who did or who is what is my only reason for the 4 stars rather than 5 but that's just me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my opinion.

This was a truly fantastic book and I am so glad that I gave this book a second chance
When I initially picked this book up I found myself a bit disconnected from it, so I took a step back. This past week I picked it up again and I loved it so so deeply and I found myself so connected with it, so obsessed with the characters, the writing, the plot and the complex dynamics between the characters, that I look back on my past self in horror because how on earth did I feel disconnected on the first go round and now it is one of my favorite books?

The prose is this book is so phenomenal and evocative, the use of repetition is masterful. The characters are so vibrant they jump off the page. I mean it's just a truly excellent book and Zhu is a master of manifestation. And if you love a fictional sad boi, Ouyang is the one for you. This story has really interesting depictions of gender and sexuality, love and yearning, politics and schemes and passion. It's all so engaging and I think this book will work for you if you don't go into it expecting some super action heavy narrative, this is very much a character study and the fantastical elements are a bit limited. It leans heavily on the historical side of historical fantasy. Anyways I loved it! Highly recommend it!

Think Mulan but in a much more sweeping scope, this is a perfect saga that examines gender roles in a retelling of the rise of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu is a girl, so considered worthless, while her brother has been told he will rise to greatness. When bandits come to her village and kill her father and her brother dies as well, Zhu determines that she will not be nothing, that she will take her brother's destiny as hers.

I really enjoyed this book!! The worldbuilding was fascinating and immersive, the character work was great, and I found Parker-Chan's writing really compelling. Looking forward to more from Parker-Chan in the future!

The most amazing feat is that I felt like I was reading in Chinese. I especially adore all the cussing (yes), including “turtle egg,” “white-eyed idiot,” “water leaked into brain,” “fuck eighteen generations of that bastard’s dog ancestors,” and other non-vulgar phrases like “blowing up the cow skin” (boasting), “chicken-skin” (goosebumps), “eat tofu” (sexual harassment), etc. The language aspect of the book was wonderful.

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN is essentially the genderbent story of Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋), the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1662). The main character Zhu (sapphic), stole the identity of her dead brother Zhu Chongba (朱重八, Zhu “Double Eight”) who was promised a great future. She spent her childhood and early teens at a monastery and subsequently joins the Red Turbans, a band of rebels fighting against the ruling Mongols. One of the Mongols’ general is the eunuch Ouyang (achillean). Despite fighting for the Mongols, Ouyang holds a deep hatred again them because they were the reason his family was slaughtered and he castrated. The complicated relationship between Zhu and Ouyang continues to play out through the story.

I have to admit that if not for my familiarity with the language and Chinese history, I might not have enjoyed the book as much. The first part of the book was engrossing, and I flew past the pages. But then it took me several months to pick up the story again after putting it down some 30% into the book. There were two other POVs that I find somewhat redundant—Ma Xiuying and Chang Yuchun (both are real people in history). And the magical realism of Zhu seeing ghosts and her Mandate of Heaven also made the metaphors of haunted by ghosts and burning as bright as the sun too on the nose. I believe SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN would be even more epic without these elements.

That being said, I am in awe of Parker-Chan’s (she/they) storytelling. They brought all these historical characters to life, and it’s like reading Jin Yong’s wuxia novels but with little martial arts scenes. The following is a non-exhaustive list of real people: Chen Youliang (陳友諒), Liu Futong (劉福通), Zhang Shicheng (張士誠), Chaghan-Temur (ᠼᠠᠭᠠᠨᠲᠡᠮᠦᠷ, who had an adopted son called Wang Baobao), Xu Da (徐達), Chang Yuchun (常遇春), Guo Zixing (郭子興), Guo Tianxu (郭天敘), Ma Xiuying (馬秀英, who was Guo Zixing’s adopted daughter in history), and of course, Zhu Chongba (the birthname of Zhu Yuanzhang).

I love that racism is addressed in the story, as in Yuan Dynasty, there was a caste system that separated people into four races (from “high” to “low”): Mongol, Semu (meaning “colored eyes”), Han, and Nanren (meaning “southerners”). All the other details like the name of the cities Bianliang (汴梁, now Kaifeng), Anfeng (安豐), Anyang (安陽), etc., just brought me back to 1300s China perfectly.

As for the plot, I like antiheros Zhu’s boundless ambition and Ouyang’s warring thoughts. I wondered why the characters were mostly addressed in their family names until I realized we never learned Zhu’s name. I don’t remember reading Ouyang’s either. Maybe the author used family names because Zhu is finding who she really is without trying to live her brother’s life and that Ouyang represents his whole family since he is the only person left alive.

Playful Zhu is really endearing. It’s like reading about those urchins in Jin Yong’s books. The scenes with the sapphics are very cute as well. Yet despite Zhu’s usual lightheartedness, her storyline is still dark, much like Ouyang’s. Be prepared for the huge amount of torture and deaths in the story.

THE RADIANT EMPEROR duology is an alternative history in which the real Zhu Chongba died and his sister took his place instead with some fantastical elements sprinkled in. I am glad to see this Chinese historical fiction written in English and reaching a different demographic of readers from wuxia novels. I didn’t listen to the audiobook for SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN this time around, but since the narrator is Natalie Naudus, I just might listen to it before the next book comes out.

[content warnings: mutilation (past castration, arm), nudity, death from starvation, death of parent, death of sibling, murder (including child), arson, manipulation, plague, dismemberment by five horses (五馬分屍), skinned alive, animal deaths (in battle, illness, poisoned), bound feet, sexism, misogyny, burning books, poisoning, graphic sex, explosion]

I had a wonderful time reading this book -- deliberately paced and fantastically realized, this is an alternate history in an alternate world of royal magic and personal determination that made for a believable and enjoyable read. brutal and sexy, all the characters are extremely interesting, capable, and readable, which is a feat considering the span of politic in the novel.