This book is getting a lot of hype, and it’s just! That! Good! GREAT characters, the politics, the tensions, the character dynamics, the twists and turns, we’re all so spectacular!
The ebook was something like 950 pages, but it was gripping the whole way through; no downtime, no lull, just escalating tension and so many unexpected moments, my jaw literally dropped every couple pages!

She Who Became the Sun is a raw rendition of how desire can be used to chart a path otherwise closed to you because of gender or status. Our main character takes her fate into her own hands in complete defiance to what was prophesied to be an existence of nothingness.

She travels from her impoverished and starving village to the gates of a monastery where she will take on a mantle not her own, apply herself to learning, becoming aware of the difficulties of hiding one's physical gender and identity, and facing misgivings about the path upon which she has placed her feet.

I love that Parker Chan has made this story character-driven without sacrificing any of the intricacies of world-building. The intrigue engrosses the reader in the drive to claim a destiny not one's own; but that clearly should be, not because of any stated destiny, name, or maleness; but because of strength of will, perseverance, and cleverness that one embodies and uses to strive beyond what is expected; subverting the norm. Where one main character has put on the cloak of maleness, the other has had to relinquish that oh so important mark of manhood, become subservient in order to embed themself into an enemy family and through strategizing, climb the ranks to be in the right place at the right time to enact a vengeance for those that were brutally taken.

Parker Chan has vividly depicted Zhu's determination, cunning, and perception that allows her to use situations to capitalize on her desire to rise; upending the destiny cast for her, by taking her brother's name and fate. It was her will, selfishness, and desire to rise as far as possible that had me engaged; despite her gender, in spite of the name she wore, in the end it was her person that accomplished what she set out to do.

Suffering plays an integral role in the progression of plot and character arcs as our two main characters are willing to suffer in order to achieve all they have planned, denied, and schemed for.

Parker Chan also utilizes her minor cast to show how tradition and family can function as a trap, enclosing and shaping sons and daughters as dictated by the head of the family and the dictates of society. They nailed the ways in which power is sought and used at court, the political machinations and stratagems of the mind to elevate and serve a particular purpose and outcome. The confrontation was well executed and ratchets up the expectation of what is to come. A solid debut.

I enjoy authors including details such as how the same room is viewed by different personalities: what aspects are noted and why perhaps it is so, as that serves to add dimensions to the narrative.


Call it providence that this book was being read at the same time that I found a collection of essays exploring women's desire and how that conversation is navigated with regards to their bodies, relationships, and identity. One of the essays even mentioned the Buddhist tenet that drove one of the main characters in this read.

This is the story of Zhu Chongba. Zhu starts this story as a young woman in a peasant village, during a drought. Her father and brother are dying of starvation, as she is, but her brother is given a fortune that says that he is fated for great things, while the fortune teller says that she has no fate. When her brother dies, she takes his place (and his fate) and leaves her starving village to join a monastery.

Fast forward into adulthood, Zhu’s monastery is destroyed by a Mongol army, Zhu joins the rebel army and starts commanding troops and becoming a leader in the army.

I really enjoyed this book. It was fantastically written, and the world was well built. Many times, I felt like I was part of the world. I really liked Zhu as a character, and I found that it was very easy for me to cheer for her to win the day, and the war, and the… well everything else I guess. The themes of gender and gender roles are done very well in this novel, and I had a very hard time putting it down to do things like sleep.

This historical fantasy was immersive and while the fantasy elements were often not in-your-face, I still found it fantastical in many ways, and can’t wait to see what happens in the next volume!

Parts of this certainly shone brighter than others - so much so that getting through the bits told from the perspective I didn't favor became a bit of a slog.

I just really really reeeeeeeeally loved She Who Became the Sun. I’m actually having a hard time writing this review because I’m just like 😀 😀 😀 at it sldfjlsf This was a wonderful story, if filled with hardship and loss, and Parker-Chan’s writing was wonderful to read.

The opening chapter did a great job at setting the tone and introducing us to one of the main characters. I loved how Parker-Chan showed us the core of this character right from the beginning and how that was developed throughout the novel. I was very much attached to Zhu Chongba and their journey, even when they did things I didn’t necessarily agree with.

I did love love love love looooooooooooove all the political scheming and twists and turns. It was brutal and intricate and the way in which Parker-Chan chose to reveal some of those moves was fantastic. I particularly enjoyed Ouyang’s entire subplot and how that was resolved.

The final chapter was so!!! good!!! I did and didn’t expect for Zhu Chongba to arrive where they arrived to and the choices they made so they would get their heart’s desire??? But it fit so so so well with their character and, even so, made it pretty clear to us that things weren’t going to be easy and magical and fine in the aftermath of that.

Honestly, an amazing read!

Wow this certainly kept me entertained with its feudal ideas of dynasties and what it takes to start and actually defend one. Our protagonist is Zhu who from the first page is written as clever and determined. She quite literally steps into her brothers shoes to become not just a survivor but one who achieves greatness. There’s very little character development of Zhu if blunt as she is always a force to be reckoned with but she goes from a girl to something a lot more !
Ok I struggled with the idea of a young female living amongst men and going through puberty unnoticed but do commend the author on how she dealt with certain aspects although honestly I still had doubts. What certainly worked are two characters that impact on Zhu namely the monk who befriends her Xu Da and actually turned out to be the most normal male in the story and Ma, the young woman with kindness inherently in her heart. Both these characters have profound effects on the events in Zhu’s journey but perhaps there’s another character who resonates more. Ouyang like Zhu is a character whose sexuality has been twisted. Whereas Zhu hides her sex until she finds someone she loves Ouyang has had changes forced on him that now colour his every moment. He’s a strong male who is pilloried by almost all and yet he remains true to himself even if that means destroying the one part of himself that tastes freedom. Yes this book challenges what it means to be different as society here embraces LGBT and as much as I was happy to share the joy of Zhu and Ma I did feel the inevitable pain and heartbreak of Ouyang truly resonated.
So definitely not a Mulan retelling but a story of forbearance, deceit and political machinations. I didn’t like all of the actions these characters made but I never once wanted to put this book down so definitely an interesting and entertaining read for me.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

A beautiful, lyrical book. Shelley blew it out of the water for me with their writing. I was enraptured and felt as if I was actually watching a C-Drama while reading it. I love the genderqueer part of the book, as well as the constant theme of ambition and glory. This book will definitely live in my head rent free for a while.

She Who Became the Sun is a fierce story about a young girl in China in 1345 who is told that she has no fate. We follow Zhu as she hides her identity to survive in a world that does not cherish women. I felt like I was there with Zhu on her journey and I look forward to the authors' next work. This book was well written, packed with action, adventure and romance! I will be telling my customers to read this one for sure.

How do I describe She Who Became the Sun?

The official answer is that it is a queer fantasy retelling of Zhu Yuanzhang’s rise to power as the founder of the Ming dynasty, something like Mulan meets The Song of Achilles. It is so much more than that, though. It is about power, morality, fate, gender identity, revenge and even love.

Shelley Parker-Chan reimagines Zhu as genderqueer, assigned female at birth. When her brother, the last member of her family, dies when she’s not even a teenager, she takes his name and goes to study in a monastery. By taking her brother’s identity, she hopes she can achieve his fate as well, one of greatness. And then, years later, the Mongols burn down her monastery, and she joins the rebellion, quickly rising up in the ranks.

Parker-Chan’s prose is at once easy to understand and also extremely beautiful and well-crafted. I don’t always do well with literary fiction, but this was entirely manageable for me. Even in a backdrop of war and battle, Parker-Chan still finds ways to include moments of humor and fun. At the same time, however, there are still multiple depictions of violence; check their notes on Goodreads for a list of content warnings.

Books like this really make you think, especially if you’re like me and mostly read fluffy YA novels with morally righteous protagonists. But I had a great time reading this book, and I was very invested in Zhu’s storyline. (I was particularly invested in her love interest’s point-of-view chapters; Ma Xiuying can do no wrong, in my eyes.) The other main storyline, following a leader of the Mongol army, didn’t capture my attention nearly as much, but that’s entirely my personal taste.

As with any fantasy book I’ve ever read, I already do not remember about 75% of what happened in this book. I do remember the vibes, though, and they are immaculate. I’m thrilled for this book to come out this summer, and I’m absolutely terrified for the sequel.

(Last little bit to add: I found a pronunciation guide on Parker-Chan’s website. Happy to report that my Mandarin pronunciation is pretty solid.)

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

You know when you read a book where the concept and setting are so great that you forget that the main character is kinda one dimensional? This is one of those books.
I wasn't surprised by how good this book was. I heard a lot about it, but let me tell you, it's well worth the hype.
I would highly recommend it and I can't wait for the next installment. Between this book and Black Sun, I found two new favorite series this year :)

There’s a lot to appreciate about this book, so although it was only a 3 star read for me, it’s easy to see why it’s a 4 or 5 for others. The exploration of gender is fascinating and nuanced, and I particularly enjoyed watching Zhu’s own relationship with her physical body and sense of identity develop and change as her understanding of herself deepens. Zhu and Ouyang both are complex, well-written characters whose inner struggles with their fates and gender parallel each other, and though I found the balance between the two a bit off, I appreciated both POVs.

The biggest reason this book wasn’t for me was because of the pacing. It felt like it dragged on while little happened, the chapters were long, and the writing, while lovely, was dense. I also struggled to deeply connect with most of the characters, so while I found Zhu and Ouyang interesting as protagonist and antagonist (or perhaps both are anti-heroes?), Ma was the only one I felt emotionally engaged with for most of the book.

Though it was dense and not a writing style I particularly enjoyed, I think adult historical fantasy readers who like a sweeping, political epic will find this right up their alley.

Very intense book which sweeps you right into the world of Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty China. I really enjoyed the magic/religion in this book, which externalizes forces which in our world are intangible or imagined - i.e., ghosts, and the effect of ghosts on things in the world, and the visible mandate of heaven which makes the transfer of power even more tangible. The main character's grit is their most powerful attribute, with the possibility of their being an overpowered protagonist balanced out by the blows she takes during the progress of the story, and the fact that there are very strong antagonists with their own stories also creating their own waves and changes. Overall, I really want book 2, but also don't want book 2 because, of course, things can certainly get worse and this is the kind of book that doesn't pull punches and also reminds you to be careful what you wish for.

One of my most anticipated and hyped release of this year She Who became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan tells the story of the girl who became Zhu Chongba, the first Ming Dynasty’s Emperor: born poor in the twelfh century China, a unnamed girl steals the fate of her older brother, Zhu Chongba, after his death and tries to archive the greatness her brother was born for. By doing so, she becomes a monk first and a warrior after. Zhu is smart, ambitious, never afraid to speak her mind or sacrifice those who follow her; Zhu desires and wants grateness and wanting greatness often means pain and sorrow, doing terrible and even immoral things. As you can imagine, she is no innocent heroine.
She fights as a commander for the Red Turbants, the rebels that want to defeat the Yuang dynasty (the Mongols), and during this period she meets Ma, a quite but clever girl that will have an important role in the story. Ma has her own pov in this novel and she’s also one of my favourite characters. Her growth is amazing!
Another important character, and my absolute favourite, is General Ouyang: he serves the Prince of Henan (they fight on the Mongol side) and his family as a slave first and as a soldier after. Ouyang is a complex and interesting character: like Zhu, he also follow the path of his destiny and he’s not afraid to do everything he can to have his revenge and to achieve what he believes is his fate. He’s a morally gray and ruthelss man, but at the same time he is fascinating and beautifully written. He is the best one for me, period!

This novel is not alwasy easy to read due to violence and a lot trigger warnings: death, torture, public executions, war themes, plague, child abuse, male castration etc.
If you decide to read She who became the Sun, please be prepared.
I heard that it’s similar to The Poppy War trilogy, but I have to read it still. In spite of this, if you like books with oriental settings and Chinese/Asiatic culture this is the right one.
I simply loved the settings and the worldbuilding: while reading the book you can’t help but notice the work behind this novel. Parker-Chang has done a tremendous job and she archived her goal: write a book that is the perfect mix between History and Fantasy, classic and contemporary, tradition and innovation. Also, she has a very good writing style, the kind that perfectly convey pathos, despair, insecurity but also joy, friendship and love.

The only thing that I didn’t like so much were the chapters’ lenght: every single chapter was at leat 15 minutes long and sometimes it was way to much. This is not necessarily a bad thing – if you like long chatpter than go for it – but from time to time I felt a bit bored. All in all it has been an amazing reading (the last chapters detroyed me, goddamit!) and I really liked the political schemes and the betrayals between the main and secondary chatactes – yes, even when they broke me. Take nothing for granted while reading this book, ‘cause you never know what’s gonna happen next!

Looking forward to reading the second (and last) book and knowing how Zhu’s story will continue.

Epic and sweeping while maintaining a raw edge of intimacy, this is a stunning and memorable fantasy debut

She Who Became the Sun is a mesmerizing and lyrical queer reimagining of the story of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty. This brutal historical epic begins when a young peasant girl in a famine-stricken village learns that her brother Zhu Chongba is fated for greatness, while she is destined for nothingness. However, when bandits attack their home, her brother gives up on his fate and dies. Afterwards, the girl takes on the identity of Zhu Chongba as a means of entering a monastery and securing food to survive. But over time, Zhu’s overwhelming desire to live — regardless of what she must do to protect herself and her secret — transforms into a need to claim the greatness fate had promised. This all-consuming want propels Zhu from the halls of the monastery through the high ranks of the rebel Nanren army, all while she tries to fool Heaven into believing she is the Zhu destined to achieve the unimaginable.

Meanwhile, Ouyang is a Nanren eunuch who has risen through the ranks to become general of the ruthless Mongol army, thanks in large part to his intimate relationship with the Prince of Henan’s son. But while Ouyang fights the empire’s battles, he has his own fate driving him — a path he has secretly walked since the day the cruel prince castrated and enslaved Ouyang and murdered his entire family many years ago. But while Zhu’s belief in the inevitability of her fate gives her strength, Ouyang feels resentful of and imprisoned by his, creating a fascinating dynamic between this pair who may be on opposite sides of the war but whose fates are inextricably intertwined.

She Who Became the Sun is evocative exploration of gender, identity, and the cost of desire set against the back drop of war-torn 14th century China. Featuring a vast ensemble of complex characters, there are no simple heroes or villains in this book; just flawed individuals chasing their desires and getting ever closer to their fates — whether they were predestined by Heaven or forged in defiance of what the universe prescribed them to be.

Set in medieval China with a dash of the supernatural, this fascinating book brings its complex characters very much to life. There is lots of action, unexpected twists and turns, and a satisfying ending. Even so, there are enough loose ends that I suspect it is the start of a series. If so, this series is off to a very promising start.

This story is a priceless treasure. Its themes resonate with my psyche, and I thoroughly enjoy the read.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And enter in the next highly anticipated and probably highly hyped novel of the year: a book whose blurb insists that it is a mix between Mulan and Song of Achilles.

The description is pretty dead-on.

That's some great news for people who want more and more Chinese history (or reimaginings of such) in their fiction diet. I've been blessed with reading Kim Stanley Robinson and Ken Liu, so I've actually rolled around in some lush tales lately.

This, however, is a re-imagining of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and it's very much Silk-Punk without the fantasy (despite my classifying it as such). Even so, I'm ignoring most of that. The tale is the emperor, and for Zhu, a woman who is destined to have no fate, the real story is about spitting in the eye of fate.

I'm all on board for that!

The starvation, the difficulties of being a woman in China, the gender-bending just to survive, and later, becoming a monk-warrior is all very familiar to me. From The Good Earth to numerous kung-fu movies, it's tapping all of that pathos and grand adventure and giving us an epic *fantasy* that is detailed, sprawling, and, oddly enough -- inclusive. But that *is* to be expected these days even if I'm pessimistic about the past.

For pure enjoyment's sake, however, I can easily recommend this for the big adventure and our rooting for the underdog, even if Zhu gets a little dark by the end. It *is* the founding of a dynasty, after all, and these things get rather bloody.

Definitely a good summer read!

What a fantastic story! The world is well written and really fleshed out. It was so hard to put this one down. The plot was fantastic, the characters were amazing. (Also we love queer stories).

It's so refreshing to see more of a push to have non-European fantasy stories because A) we NEED the representation of other cultures and less white people please (I'm white, and it gets tiring seeing all the stories from the same Euro/American POV and lens), and B) it's just cool, OK? It's a fun way to learn a little about someone else's culture. It's a great way to decolonize the fantasy genre.

10/10 recommend for lovers of historical fiction, fantasy, and badassery.

Wow, what a book!

This book gave me very similar vibes to The Poppy Wars, with its dark and brutal retelling of Mulan.

The story follows Zhu as she assumes her brothers identity and attempts to take his fate for herself, a fate that he is designed for greatness.