Review - She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1) by Shelley Parker-Chan

 

Title: She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)

Author: Shelley Parker-Chan

Pages: 417

Publisher: Tor UK

Release Date: 27th July 2021

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

 

Mulan meets The Song of Achilles; an accomplished, poetic debut of war and destiny, sweeping across an epic alternate China.

“I refuse to be nothing…”

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.

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My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley*

A boy and girl live with their father in a village in China in 1345. They barely have enough food to survive, but the boy is destined to become great despite his circumstances.

Then one day bandits arrive in the village and the girl finds herself the only living member of her family. Taking up her brother's name of Zhu Chongba, the girl is determined to claim her brother's fate of greatness for herself. As Zhu Chongba, she becomes a novice at a monastery where she is educated and has a home as well as friends, but must hide who and what she really is.

Will Zhu Chongba become great?

How far is she willing to go in order to get what she wants?

Going into this book I was excited to read it, having heard only overwhelmingly positive things about it. However, I was also hesitant to read it as I tend to have unpopular opinions when it comes to hyped books. Unfortunately, this was one of the books that I didn't enjoy as much as everyone else.

From the blurb, I thought that Zhu Chongba would be the only protagonist, and while I would say she was definitely the main character, there were four points of view - Zhu Chongba, General Ouyang, Esen and Ma. Of the four, Ma was probably the character that I felt for the most and liked the most. While Zhu Chongba was a likeable protagonist overall, apart from her ambition I didn't feel that there was much personality to her, but I did find it interesting to read how far she was willing to go to get what she wanted. I liked that we never found out her real name, but I also found it a little sad.

For me, General Ouyang was the most interesting character. A eunuch, Ouyang was best friends with Esen, the son of the man who murdered his family. Ouyang served Esen and his family as a general in their army, but he had originally been Esen's slave. Ouyang's mixed and conflicted feelings for Esen were intriguing.

My favourite aspect of the book was the way it questioned gender identity. Zhu Chongba was a girl pretending to be a boy, and General Ouyang was a man who was also considered not to be a man, who people said was as pretty as a woman. They both struggled with who they were, which I found interesting. However, the duo also had a special connection because of this, which I found to be a bit random and would have liked it to be elaborated on.

The plot was mixed, but it was the pacing what ruined the book for me - I found it to be all over the place, leading to me flip-flopping from enjoying what I was reading to becoming bored. Because of this I didn't feel invested in the characters and the events that happened which should have shocked me didn't. Despite there being several battles in the book there wasn't much action and the battles felt like they were mostly skipped over.

Unfortunately, this ended up being a disappointing read for me. I wish I'd enjoyed it as much everyone else seems to.

Overall, this was a mixed read.