She Who Became the Sun

Finished this book for my queer bookclub but it was a slog. It just never grabbed me. I had a hard time keeping track of who was who and never got excited about all the political machinations. What I did like was the theme of making your own fate. Of Zhu's aggressive stance to claim a future for herself and then making it manifest through sheer force of will.

It didn't work for me as a queer book either. Two queer characters, the eunuch Ouyang and the genderqueer Zhu. Neither fitting modern LGBT roles (not a problem for me, but notable). We don't talk about eunuchs in modern life, it's considered an aberration or atrocity. But historically eunuchs operated as a sort of third gender, at least in European society, and apparently Mongol too. Zhu is not transgender exactly, she seems to think of herself as a woman passing as a man more than being a man. (In fact her becoming comfortable with being a woman is a major character development!) But certainly queer, genderqueer, and there's some interesting writing around that.

Just wish I had gotten more engaged with the political story. I doubt I would have finished this if not for the book club obligation.