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She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor Duology, 1)

Shelley Parker-Chan

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Two-time British Fantasy Award Winner

Astounding Award Winner

Lambda Literary Award Finalist

Hugo Award Finalist

Locus Award Finalist

Otherwise Award Finalist.

“Magnificent in every way.” —Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree.

“A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal.” —Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister.

She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything. “I refuse to be nothing…”

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness….

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.

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Posts about this title from Boundless Press

Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Dec 31 2022

every book i read in 2022 rated & reviewed in 1 sentence

join as a channel member to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJn0v3OAEAX3-V4crjcHtRA/join

socials 🤍 instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisstoryaintover/ 🤍 twitter: https://twitter.com/jananiekvelu 🤍 tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisstoryaintover?lang=en 🤍 goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/thisstoryaintover

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faqs 🤍 how do you pronounce your name? - my name is Jananie—pronounced JEN-nah-nee (like a knee!)

🤍 what's your background/ethnicity/etc? - both my parents are Sri Lankan Tamil, and I was born and raised in Canada!

🤍 what is your job? - aside from youtube I also work in product marketing!


63 books

Posts about this book from across Bindery

Infinite Realms Book Club \ \ Nozomi \ \ • Jun 2

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Happy June Everyone! We have some verrrryyy exciting picks for this month! \ \ So for our fantasy book you guys voted for She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan.\ \ The thriller winner is You Did Nothing Wrong by CG Drews\ \ Make sure you join the discord to discuss!!

June Reads


2 books

5

Infinite Realms Book Club \ \ Nozomi \ \ • May 25

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Poll:\ \ June Voting\ \ Hi everyone! It’s time to vote for the books we will be reading in June :) as always we will have three fantasy and three thriller/horror reads to choose from. Everyone will get two votes, one for each category. Voting will end on May 31st! \ \ Join for free or login

June Voting


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Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Mar 16

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Sapphic Speculative Fiction Expands the Imagination\ \ Many people approach queer romance through familiar frameworks. Modern settings. Recognizable social rules. Families that resemble the structures most of us grew up around. I wrote about this a week or two ago, about looking beyond contemporary romance for great sapphic stories.\ \ Those stories matter. They reflect lived experience and present-day struggles.\ \ Yet some of the most thought-provoking sapphic stories appear in places where the rules look completely different.\ \ Speculative fiction offers writers a simple but radical tool. The ability to ask what happens when the world operates under different assumptions?\ \ What happens when gender does not function the way our societies expect?\ \ What happens when colonial hierarchies collapse or never existed in the first place?\ \ What happens when family and community follow different structures?\ \ Sapphic speculative fiction thrives in these questions.\ \ What counts as speculative fiction?\ \ Speculative fiction serves as an umbrella term for stories that imagine worlds different from our own.\ \ Fantasy explores magic, mythology, and alternate societies.\ \ Science fiction looks at future technology, space exploration, and evolving social systems.\ \ Alternate history reimagines historical timelines.\ \ Dystopian and utopian fiction examine political systems taken to extreme outcomes.\ \ Magical realism blends ordinary life with elements that challenge reality.\ \ All of these genres share a common feature. They build worlds where the assumptions we treat as natural begin to shift.\ \ When those foundations move, storytelling changes.\ \ Reimagining gender systems\ \ Many speculative worlds question the rigid gender frameworks common in contemporary culture.\ \ Some settings include fluid understandings of gender. Others remove the strict gender hierarchy. Some societies organize identity through entirely different categories.\ \ When gender works differently, relationships evolve as well.\ \ Characters express attraction without the scripts that dominate many romance narratives. Partnerships develop around compatibility, trust, or shared goals rather than predetermined roles.\ \ For readers, this shift opens new ways of thinking about identity and connection.\ \ Challenging colonial power structures\ \ Speculative fiction often explores empire, conquest, and resistance.\ \ Many worlds center characters fighting against oppressive systems or rebuilding communities after political collapse. Some stories draw inspiration from Indigenous traditions or non-Western perspectives to imagine societies structured around different values.\ \ Within these settings, sapphic characters frequently appear as leaders, rebels, scholars, or explorers. Their relationships unfold inside larger struggles over power, survival, and cultural memory.\ \ Love does not exist in isolation. It grows alongside questions about justice, resistance, and the future of entire communities.\ \ Rethinking family and community\ \ Another striking feature of speculative fiction involves how stories approach family.\ \ The nuclear family model rarely stands as the only option. Characters often live within chosen families, cooperative communities, traveling crews, or political alliances.\ \ Romantic relationships exist inside these broader networks of care.\ \ Two people falling in love may also share responsibilities to their crew, their village, or their resistance movement. Partnership becomes part of a wider web of loyalty and support.\ \ For many readers, this structure feels both imaginative and deeply familiar.\ \ Common tropes in sapphic speculative fiction\ \ Speculative fiction combines romance with adventure and conflict. Certain narrative patterns recur.\ \ A princess guarded by a loyal warrior or knight who begins to question her duty.\ \ Rival soldiers from opposing factions are forced to work together.\ \ A scholar and a fighter navigating a dangerous quest.\ \ Political enemies are forming uneasy alliances during a rebellion.\ \ Explorers encounter unfamiliar worlds and build trust through survival.\ \ These tropes create tension, intimacy, and emotional growth while the larger story unfolds.\ \ Why these stories expand the imagination\ \ Speculative fiction does more than entertain. It shifts perspective.\ \ When readers step into worlds built on different assumptions, the systems shaping their own lives become visible. Gender roles, political hierarchies, and family structures reveal themselves as historical constructs rather than permanent truths.\ \ Sapphic speculative fiction takes this imaginative shift even further.\ \ Queer women appear not as side characters but as central figures in the story of the world itself. They lead revolutions. Build communities. Explore unknown territories. Fall in love while reshaping the societies around them.\ \ These stories ask readers to imagine something larger than representation.\ \ They ask us to imagine entirely different ways people live together.\ \ An invitation to explore\ \ If you have not spent time with sapphic speculative fiction, consider this an invitation.\ \ Explore fantasy worlds where magic reshapes power.\ \ Read science fiction that questions identity in future societies.\ \ Look for stories where love grows alongside resistance, exploration, and discovery.\ \ These books stretch the imagination in ways that linger long after the final page.\ \ I am especially interested in reading more sapphic speculative fiction this year.\ \ Which books expanded your worldview?\ \ Which stories stayed with you long after you finished them?\ \ Here is a list of books I've read and books on my TBR!\ \ \ \ Join for free or login

Worlds Where Sapphic Stories Rewrite the Rules


26 books

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Infinite Realms Book Club \ \ Nozomi \ \ • Jan 22

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Poll:\ \ February book picks \ \ Hi everyone! It’s that time to vote for our February book picks! All the options except for one of the thriller picks, The Winter People, are available on KU! Voting will end on 1/31. Each member gets two votes, one for fantasy and one for thriller/horror\ \ Join for free or login

February book pick voting!


6 books

Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • Oct 29 2025

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[November is almost here so let's talk about the selections for the History & Fantasy Sickos Book Clubs for next month!\ \ After a rare double tie vote in September, the Fantasy Sickos will be reading She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan! This is book 1 in the Radiant Emperor Duology set in 14th-century China while under the rule of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, so it's a blend of history and historical fiction (or a historical fantasy reimagining, however you wanna classify it. Here's a blurb on it:\ \

... In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…\ \ When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.\ \ When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.\ \ After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.\ \ The History Sickos experienced a bit of a coup by a women-led coalition in the Discord and so we went with four options that were by women, about women. The winner of that vote was The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold!\ \ The title is self-explanatory but here's a blurb anyway:\ \ "For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness, and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time - but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman."\ \ I'll be setting up the discussion forums in the Discord server on Saturday. If you want to participate, subscribe at the Sicko or Mega Sicko tier and when you link your Discord (in "Account Settings") all the additional channels will open up. The discussions in these have been amazing lately and I hope to see you there. Sicko, out!\ \ Join for free or login](https://kistreadsbooks.binderybooks.com/item/uhnOne0qH5Zw6VXUQunk/)

The History & Fantasy Sickos Book Club picks for November!


2 books

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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • Oct 23 2025

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(VIDEO) The Fantasy & History Book Club November vote!

The Fantasy & History Book Club November vote! Fantasy is already locked in to She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan due to a super rare double tied vote, its a long story… Here are the History options: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold The Women they Could Not Silence by Kate Moore Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard #bookclub #nonfiction


5 books

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Alyssa’s Library\ \ alyssa\ \ • Sep 29 2025

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in honour of a certain book coming out and just the state of the world, here are some books with trans, non-binary, and genderqueer characters that you should read. it’s so incredibly important to continue to uplift these voices and i hope you all enjoy these and feel free to comment some more recommendations!\ \ fantasy & sci-fi\ - the spirit bares its teeth / compound fracture by andrew joseph white\ - the unbroken by c. l. clark\ - the blighted stars by megan e. o’keefe\ - pet by akwaeke emezi\ - faebound / the final strife by saara el-artifi\ - these burning stars by bethany jacobs\ - she who became the sun by shelley parker-chan\ - lakelore by anna marie-mclemore\ - hammajang luck by makana yamamtao\ - the witch king by h. e edgmon \ - the city beautiful by aden polydorous\ \ -her majesty’s royal coven by juno dawson\ \ -light from uncommon stars by ryka aoki\ - a bone in his teeth by kellen graves\ \ -brighter than scale swifter than flame by neon yang\ \ -mistress of lies by k m enright\ \ -cemerety boys / the sunbearer trails by aiden thomas\ \ -sorrowland by rivers solomon\ \ -seven devils by laura lam and elizabeth may\ \ romance\ - a gentlemans gentleman by tj alexander \ - make room for love by darcy liao\ - love & other disasters by anita kelly\ - i wish you all the best by mason deaver\ \ -felix ever after by kacen callender

TRANS BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS


27 books

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Bookish AfroLatina's Library\ \ Gabby\ \ • Apr 2 2025

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\ \ I took a little break from posting & now I'm back to celebrate We Need Diverse Books Day! This is the very first for this virtual celebration so I'm kicking it off with 36 amazing book recs for y'all.\ \ Learn more about this celebration here: https://www.diversebooks.org/celebrate-we-need-diverse-books-day\\ \ As my og followers know, I started my bookstagram in order to promote diverse books back in 2021. So I'm gonna give y'all a ton of book recs (old & new) by and about BIPOC, disabled, LGBTQ+, and neurodivergent folks. I hope y'all find something that interests you!\ \ \ \ Books shown:\ \

36 Amazing Book Recs to celebrate We Need Diverse Books Day


36 books

3

Written Reveries\ \ Krystal\ \ • Mar 21 2025

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Trans Rights Readathon 2025 Recs & TBR

Trans Rights Readathon 2025 Recs: A Psalm For the Wild Built & A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers Pet & Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi Light From Uncommon Stars Ryka Aoki Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi House of Frank by Kay Synclaire The Deep by Rivers Solomon Legendborn by Tracy Deonn The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez TBR: Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi Model Home by Rivers Solomon She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me by Jamison Shea Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto The Unbroken by C. L. Clark

#bookrecommendations #bookish #bookstagram


21 books

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Andromeda's Fragments\ \ Raquel\ \ • Mar 13 2025

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If you loved these books, you can be my valentine

CAN U B MY VALENTINE ? <3

I saw this template so much that i needed to tweek it and use it! Happy valentines day y'all!!!

#romancebooks #bookstagram #bookrecs #bookreccomendations #queerbookstagram


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JemilaBeReadin\ \ JemilaBeReadin\ \ • Feb 20 2025

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Books I’ve discovered through booktok

Books I’ve discovered through booktok. It’s been real y’all. I hope to continue talking about books with y’all elsewhere on the internet! 🫶🏾 People mentioned in this video: @dakota bossard @Amivi⁷ @Alex @IG/YT: bookbaddiebri ᥫ᭡ @sometimesrobinreads🤎📚 @Torri🌻 @Kennedy Ryan @Nisha Sharma @schizophrenicreads on Substack @aubrei @Mari - booktok + media reviews @ig: vivafalastinleen 🇵🇸 @Hana 🍉 @Viano Oniomoh 💖 #readersoftiktok #bookishthings #bookishtiktok #booktok #bookrecommendations #romancebooktok #nonfictionbooktok #literarytok #blackromance #bookishtok #readersofbooktok


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Elsewhen\ \ Emma Gardner\ \ • Jul 31 2024

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Messy, Complicated Thoughts on She Who Became the Sun | Reading Update 7/31

Bad news: The only novel I've read since the last update is She Who Became the Sun. Good news: I have many things to discuss.


1 book

Elsewhen\ \ Emma Gardner\ \ • Jun 27 2024

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Update: The votes are in, and July's book will be _She Who Became the Sun_ . Thank you all for voting!\ \\\*\ \ July is coming soon! The following books have been nominated for the Elsewhen book club. Cast your vote for July's pick by leaving a comment with your choice.\ \ Most of the monthly discussion happens on the Discord, the link to which you can find here on the Elsewhen Bindery page. :) Join us in July for (optional) weekly discussion questions, (hopefully) a live voice chat, and (defintitely) lots of memes.\ \ 1. _Gideon the Ninth_** by Tamsyn Muir**\ \ \ \ ​\ \ 2. _Babel_** by RF Kuang**\ \ \ \ ​\ \ 3. _She Who Became the Sun_** by Shelley Parker-Chan**\ \ \ \ ​

Vote for July's Book Club Pick

Click this post to help choose the July pick for the Elsewhen Book Club!


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Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Feb 5 2024

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\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login](https://fantasyandfrens.binderybooks.com/item/sGXfGg0Vlhte30tOav17/)

Reading Vlog | cozy reading weekend & how i annotate my books!

welcome to another reading vlog where i take you through a weekend of reading and showing you how i annotate my books! enjoy ◡̈

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Ezeekat Press\ \ Jaysen\ \ • Jul 21 2023

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I think I misunderstood… #booktok #books #onthisday

I think I misunderstood… #booktok #books #onthisday


5 books

Sapph-Lit\ \ Nina\ \ • May 22 2023

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Sapph-Lit in Conversation with Shelley Parker-Chan

Shelley Parker-Chan spoke with our founder Nina Haines all about their debut novel SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN, published June 2022 with Tor Books.

Buy She Who Became The Sun: https://bookshop.org/a/23287/9781250621818

Join Sapph-Lit: https://links.geneva.com/invite/dfc1d4dd-81ee-4e3b-b817-1eaf66974427

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1 book

The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Mar 28 2023

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Thank you to @buxtonbooks_chs for this fantastic stack from Trans authors. Trans lives matter. Representation matters. 🏳️‍⚧️

Thank you to @buxtonbooks_chs for this fantastic stack from Trans authors. Trans lives matter. Representation matters. 🏳️‍⚧️


8 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Mar 17 2023

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Here are some fantasy and sci-fi books that are written by trans, non-binary, and genderqueer authors! 🏳️‍⚧️🤩\ \ lemme know if you’ve read any of these or have any of your own recommendations!\ \ #transbookrecs #fantasybooks #fantasybookrecommendations #scifibookrecs

Here are some fantasy and sci-fi books that are written by trans, non-binary, and genderqueer authors! 🏳️‍⚧️🤩

lemme know if you’ve read any of these or have any of your own recommendations!

#transbookrecs #fantasybooks #fantasybookrecommendations #scifibookrecs


13 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Mar 16 2023

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here are some fantasy and sci-fi book recommendations that are by trans, non-binary, or gender-queer authors! 🏳️‍⚧️🤩 ##fantasybooktok##queerbookrecs##fantasybookrecommendations##scifibooks

here are some fantasy and sci-fi book recommendations that are by trans, non-binary, or gender-queer authors! 🏳️‍⚧️🤩 ##fantasybooktok##queerbookrecs##fantasybookrecommendations##scifibooks


12 books

Ezeekat Press\ \ Jaysen\ \ • Feb 19 2023

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Round 2 might have been more difficult than Round 1 😩 #booktok #fantasybooks #fantasybooktok #fantasybookbracket #mistborn #prioryoftheorangetree #addielarue #books

Round 2 might have been more difficult than Round 1 😩 #booktok #fantasybooks #fantasybooktok #fantasybookbracket #mistborn #prioryoftheorangetree #addielarue #books


7 books

Ezeekat Press\ \ Jaysen\ \ • Feb 18 2023

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These are so difficult 😭 #booktok #fantasybracket #fantasybooks #lotr #lordoftherings #legendborn #starlesssea #cruelprince #books #bookish #bookworm

These are so difficult 😭 #booktok #fantasybracket #fantasybooks #lotr #lordoftherings #legendborn #starlesssea #cruelprince #books #bookish #bookworm


8 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Feb 11 2023

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books i bought bc i thought the covers were too pretty to pass up 😅 ib: @billreads #prettybookcovers #fantasybooktok #fantasyseries #zorannereads

books i bought bc i thought the covers were too pretty to pass up 😅 ib: @billreads #prettybookcovers #fantasybooktok #fantasyseries #zorannereads


7 books

Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Dec 31 2022

every book i read in 2022 rated & reviewed in 1 sentence

join as a channel member to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJn0v3OAEAX3-V4crjcHtRA/join

💌 for business/sponsorship inquiries please contact eric@smallscreenmarketing.com 💌 for all other inquiries please contact me at thisstoryaintover@gmail.com

faqs 🤍 how do you pronounce your name? - my name is Jananie—pronounced JEN-nah-nee (like a knee!)

🤍 what's your background/ethnicity/etc? - both my parents are Sri Lankan Tamil, and I was born and raised in Canada!

🤍 what is your job? - aside from youtube I also work in product marketing!


63 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Nov 7 2022

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a non-exhaustive list of some of my favorite queer fantasy books!!! ⚔️🌈 \ \ #queerfantasy #sapphicfantasy #fantasybookseries #epicfantasy #fantasynovels

a non-exhaustive list of some of my favorite queer fantasy books!!! ⚔️🌈

#queerfantasy #sapphicfantasy #fantasybookseries #epicfantasy #fantasynovels


13 books

Fantasy & Frens\ \ Zoranne\ \ • Nov 3 2022

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these are my top tier queer fantasy book recommendations!! 🌈 #sapphicfantasy #mlmfantasy #queerfantasy #queerfantasybooks

these are my top tier queer fantasy book recommendations!! 🌈 #sapphicfantasy #mlmfantasy #queerfantasy #queerfantasybooks


11 books