She Who Became the Sun (2021)

The female monk Zhu will do anything to obtain the Mandate of Heaven.

Two youngsters are handed two futures in a famine-stricken community on a dusty yellow plain. Success for a boy. Nothing but a female. China was under strict Mongol hegemony in 1345. Greatness is something that can only be found in legends for the impoverished peasants of the Central Plains. Everyone is baffled at how Zhu Chongba, the eighth son of the Zhu dynasty, would fulfill his destiny when he is bestowed with grandeur. On the other hand, it is only fitting that the family’s second daughter, who is smart and talented, received nothing but naught.

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But when a bandit onslaught leaves the two kids orphaned, it is Zhu Chongba who gives in to grief and passes away. The girl steals her brother’s identity in a desperate attempt to enter a monastery as a young male novice and avoid her own predetermined death. Zhu discovers she is capable of doing anything it takes, no matter how heartless, to stay concealed from her fate there, driven by her fierce need to survive.

“She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is a brave, queer, and lyrical recreation of the ascension of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an exceptional new voice in literary fantasy.”

The Book Guide® Editor

When Zhu’s refuge is destroyed for aiding the Mongol uprising, she seizes the opportunity to reclaim her brother’s grandeur, which had been abandoned.