She who Became the sun

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fantasy / Parker-Chan, Shelley	4-week checkout	Due 04-27-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fantasy / Parker-Chan, Shelley	4-week checkout	Due 05-09-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Fantasy / Parker-Chan, Shelley	4-week checkout	Due 05-03-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Fantasy / Parker-Chan, Shelley	4-week checkout	Due 04-26-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Fantasy / Parker-Chan, Shelley	4-week checkout	Due 05-06-2024

"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. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything. "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 takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Recommended submitted by hjzechar on July 15, 2022, 3:45pm Great plotting. Took me awhile to get a feel for the characters but now set up nicely for subsequent books. Looking forward to part 2

A Sweeping Historical Epic submitted by Meginator on August 27, 2022, 7:22pm This sweeping historical epic takes place during the transition between the Yuan and Qing dynasties in 14th-century China, with a hint of fantasy that amplifies some of the power dynamics without taking the book fully into the realm of speculative fiction. The story is intensely character driven, following the main character (known to the reader as Zhu, although it’s complicated) and her primary foil (General Ouyang of the Mongol army) as they reckon with the fates that each has, in their own way, chosen for themselves. Zhu’s rise to power provides most of the book’s narrative momentum, but by no means all of its emotional power; while Zhu’s actions continually inform General Ouyang’s decisions and even force his hand, the book is increasingly concerned with his own inner turmoil as well, presenting it as a complement to and point of contrast for Zhu’s emotional journey. The book grapples with multiple aspects of self-image and identity, deftly balancing intimate character portraits with sweeping historical movements and crafting an adventure that is as much an individual journey as it is a vast epic. This is a spectacular, engaging journey with a cinematic feel to it, although it never loses sight of what is most important: the people who actually make history, and their reasons for doing what they do.

Fun historical fantasy submitted by rshah on July 19, 2023, 7:39pm She Who Becomes the Sun is a fascinating first book in a duology. It is an exploration of politics, power, history, identity (gender, yes, but also in general), desperation, and survival. Told in multi-POV, we meet several key characters in the battle between the Mongols and the Rebels. The combined voices tell a story of intrigue, revenge, family, and hope. The only question that remains is who will remain when it’s all said and done? I have no idea but I look forward to finding out in the sequel, He Who Drowned the World.

My new favorite book! submitted by Tiksha on August 6, 2023, 9:05pm Every year I hope that I discover atleast one author whose work:
- Complicates my understanding of the world
- Connects me to parts of myself that I never knew existed
- Introduces me to characters unlike any I have met but so real that I feel like I know them
- Transforms my thinking in unexpected ways
- Makes me wish that I had written it
Does it seem like an ambitious ask? It sure is. Yet debut author Shelley-Parker Chan ticks off all these boxes with her historical fantasy SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN, a gender-reversed imagining of the founding of the Chinese Ming Dynasty.
Parker-Chan is a literary force to reckon with. While I fully understand the marketing imperatives of the publisher’s blurb which describes the book as “Mulan meets The Song of Achilles”; that description is a misnomer because this book is in a league of its own.
The central trope is pretty straightforward: protagonist Zhu Chongba vs the world. But, what a well-crafted world! The lazily mounted superhero movies sure could take a few notes. Reading this book IS like watching an adrenalin-packed movie. And I mean that in the best way. My heart was racing throughout. I alternated between anger, anxiety, sensuality, bloodlust, affection - all of it felt with the intensity of a thousand beating drums. That is the power of Parker-Chan’s words. Even though an epic of this scale involves a gargantuan amount of worldbuilding, Parker-Chan never sacrifices the interiority of her characters’ lives - even the secondary/peripheral ones - for the sake of scale. An out and out immersive ride, this one.
The dynamic between Zhu Chongba & her could-be nemesis Ouyang is electric. Both genderqueer, they seem to be drawn to each other, connected as outsiders by the heterosexual tyranny that determines social hierarchies. Yet, there is an antagonism between them, beset by a poetic, raw cruelty that shapes their every move. It is a cruelty born of pain, desire and resistance - never glorified but intimately relatable. Authors who lazily justify their gratuitously violent tales by saying “this is just what happens in the world”, could also learn a lesson from Parker-Chan.
One of my favorite things about this books was its refreshing portrayal of gender identity. The author clarifies “While the two genderqueer protagonists reflect aspects of my own experiences of genderqueerness, this doesn't mean these perspectives are necessarily affirming to any other LGBTQIA+ identifying persons.”
To me, it rips apart Western essentialisms about queer bodies, which are still for the most part trapped in neoliberal ideas of identity-as-choice and/or end up being pretty homonormative. She Who Became the Sun’s queerness depicts the fundamental subversion to the idea of being labeled through a gendered lens, while unflinchingly connecting the aspirations associated with masculinity to the characters’ public erasure of their own humanity. This is the queer narrative I have been waiting for; I didn't even know it.
She Who Became the Sun is the book that you cannot get through fast enough but are also filled with regret when it ends. Rest assured, I am going to be first in line when the sequel comes out!