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lightreadsShe Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
4/5. Revisionist tale of the founding of the Ming Dynasty with mild fantasy elements. Revisionist in that our hero – hm. Our protagonist is a nameless peasant girl who assumes her dead brother's identity and steps into his foretold fate of greatness.
This is as good as everyone says it is. I will say that if your gender feelings are like my gender feelings (i.e., that's my gender assignment? Cool, I'm into it) then you may, like me, not find this as electrifying as people with more complex gender feelings do. But I enjoyed the heck out of this regardless (adventure! Politics! Plotting! Hot queer romance!). I will also say that one thing I appreciate about this book and its queerness, gender and otherwise, is that it rejects dualities in all forms. The problem with having a book with one genderqueer person in it is that person becomes the genderqueer avatar. The problem with having two is that they become a duality. This book rolls with two (at least two central ones), and though the ways they exist within their nonconforming bodies while in positions of power over mostly men are contrasted, and the paths they walk to meet their fates are markedly different, the book isn't interested in deciding whose doing it better or more right or what have you. These two are alike in many ways – in having parts of their nonconforming identities forged in violence and loss, for one – and though the book in many respects revolves around the pivot point of their complicated enemy/ally dynamic, the two of them exist to comment upon their circumstances as much as on each other.
Btw, I found this spoilery commentary on relevant linguistic and cultural aspects helpful.
Content notes: Famine, war, various flavors of brutality and death, most in reference.
4/5. Revisionist tale of the founding of the Ming Dynasty with mild fantasy elements. Revisionist in that our hero – hm. Our protagonist is a nameless peasant girl who assumes her dead brother's identity and steps into his foretold fate of greatness.
This is as good as everyone says it is. I will say that if your gender feelings are like my gender feelings (i.e., that's my gender assignment? Cool, I'm into it) then you may, like me, not find this as electrifying as people with more complex gender feelings do. But I enjoyed the heck out of this regardless (adventure! Politics! Plotting! Hot queer romance!). I will also say that one thing I appreciate about this book and its queerness, gender and otherwise, is that it rejects dualities in all forms. The problem with having a book with one genderqueer person in it is that person becomes the genderqueer avatar. The problem with having two is that they become a duality. This book rolls with two (at least two central ones), and though the ways they exist within their nonconforming bodies while in positions of power over mostly men are contrasted, and the paths they walk to meet their fates are markedly different, the book isn't interested in deciding whose doing it better or more right or what have you. These two are alike in many ways – in having parts of their nonconforming identities forged in violence and loss, for one – and though the book in many respects revolves around the pivot point of their complicated enemy/ally dynamic, the two of them exist to comment upon their circumstances as much as on each other.
Btw, I found this spoilery commentary on relevant linguistic and cultural aspects helpful.
Content notes: Famine, war, various flavors of brutality and death, most in reference.