She Who Became the Sun

I saw this book described as “Mulan meets Song of Achilles”, but I think the latter misses the mark. Both these books have gay protagonists, but She Who Became the Sun has something which I felt Song of Achilles lacked.

It has teeth.

Set at the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the book follows a peasant girl as she takes on her brother’s name in an attempt to escape famine and find greatness. Zhu Chongba chases her fate to a monastery, then to the Red Turban rebellion, where she rises through the ranks, eagerly reaching for all she would otherwise have been denied. On the other side, with the Mongols, is General Ouyang, a man just as driven and just as dangerous as Zhu is becoming. From the moment Zhu sees him, she knows the two are linked, and that her fate is intimately tied with his.

She Who Became the Sun is a breathtaking debut that flings readers right into the heart of fourteenth-century China. While there were some rough patches, overall I was swept away with excitement and am eager to see the next book in the series (and, hopefully, more novels about Asian history hitting the spotlight).