When I posted my review of She Who Became the Sun a couple of people mentioned they were afraid to read He Who Drowned the World. Friends, you are right to be afraid. As Shelley Parker-Chan tweeted recently, “emotional books that feel like a gut punch”—hey, that’s my brand!”
Because we know that this series is a retelling of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, we know that our protagonist, Zhu Yuanzhang, will defeat her enemies by the end of the book, and that her wife, Ma, also survives. And that’s it. That’s all the comfort you get. I cried. I curled up into a little ball of emotions. And yes, I recommend that you do the same. Prepare to be gutted and read it anyway. The very, very, very end of the book gave me a sense of solace that I needed desperately.
One of the things I saw in several reviews of SWBtS was people talking about Zhu not being “likable” or feeling like there was no one to root for. Zhu is no more likable here than she was at the end of SWBtS. But we aren’t rooting for her because she’s a good person, we are rooting for her because she is challenging fate and seizing the greatness that would be denied her because she was born a girl. Shelley Parker-Chan isn’t modeling good behavior for their readers, they are making us look at the hero’s journey with a girl who will do anything and sacrifice everyone as the hero. Zhu is defying heaven. Shelley Parker-Chan is upending our concept of hero.
It’s such a compelling read. Parker-Chan creates moments that make me gasp, sometimes with pain. There’s a moment when Zhu is kneeling in the snow, certain of her own failure, and even so she knows she will lead herself and her whole army to slaughter because giving up on her quest for greatness isn’t possible. In a book full of heart wrenching suffering, that moment is so calm and clear.
I’m copying Shelley Parker-Chan’s own list of content warnings:
Self harm
Suicidal ideation
Marital rape
Pregnancy loss
Drowning
Torture (not overly graphic)
Child harm and death (young teen)
Internalised homophobia
Ableist language
I would add, all the misogyny and emotional devastation.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Tor Books and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.