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Reading as a Writer: She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the Moon

I got a copy of He Who Drowned the Moon by Shelley Parker-Chan from the World Fantasy Convention, and luckily managed to snag a copy of She Who Became the Sun from the library. 

I drank up She Who Became the Sun in a matter of days. I'd sit down to read for 20 minutes and stand up an hour later, my mind still whirling through the alternating storylines. It's been ages since I've read this type of epic that follows a Hero from childhood through the motions that bring them to greatness, and the familiarity of that structure was comforting and let me sink easily into the story. I also enjoyed how grounded this story seemed to be in real history; unlike some other recent historical-based fantasy that I've read, I didn't feel like my unfamiliarity with the topic was a problem for understanding the story. 

Other than the excellent writing and the fresh take on a familiar structure, I really enjoyed the themes of this book. The focus of the hero on her pursuit of greatness felt like an interrogation of familiar high-school english questions: what is a monster? who is a hero? This book also did a great job of showcasing the myriad ways that gender identify impacts our lives, whether we acknowledge it or not, and makes a clear case for the harms that failing to consider our assumptions of who we can be hurts everyone. 

Finally, I loved how the author used lovable side characters to keep us attached to an often unlikeable protagonist. 

After reading She Who Began The Sun over a period of a few days, it took me nearly a month to finish He Who Drowned The World. I enjoyed the same things about book 2 as I did about book 1, but suffered from the same problem as I did with The Faithless: now I cared too much. If Book 1 was about heroism and making a place for yourself in the world, then book 2 was about the pain caused by the world's inability to cherish the individuals' choices. It was hard to read at times, as each character suffered for their choices. 

The ending was lovely and poignant, and I was able to breathe again knowing which of the precious characters had made it through to the end. 

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