She Who Became the Sun

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is a lush, queer reimagining of the rise of Zhu Yuanzhang, the peasant who founded China’s Ming Dynasty. Set in 1345 amid famine and Mongol rule, it follows a clever girl fated for nothingness who, after her brother Zhu Chongba’s death in a bandit attack, assumes his identity and prophesied greatness to survive. Posing as a boy, she enters a monastery, hones her ruthless ambition, joins the Red Turban rebellion against the Mongols, and clashes with a merciless eunuch general, Ouyang, whose own hidden desires mirror her own in a tale blending historical fiction, fantasy, and themes of identity, fate, and power.