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paperquilt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Child abuse and War
jfield351's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, and War
Moderate: Death, Gore, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Deportation
educatorgams's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
mariadanna's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
taryn_g's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Classism
Minor: Cultural appropriation
laurenkimoto's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Kuang seamlessly takes her knowledge, history and blends it together to bring this world and characters to life. I wanted to join the characters at Oxford and their journeys and fights. How can she take their suffering and make a wonderful story of it????
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism
jenmcreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I am so glad I read this. I think Kuang has masterfully woven in her critiques of colonialism, academia, and academia's service to Empire. The messaging is not subtle, but these are some of the major wrongs of our society, so in terms of scale that did not bother me. I was very impressed by the pacing of this book, which managed to sweep through time when it needed to, but lingered sufficiently to build depth and attachment to the characters. The exploration of intersectionality was nuanced, and I felt Kuang was very honest and rigorous in her exploration of the different experiences these four characters would go through facing the same events. Kuang's ability to distill the essence of complex global challenges into a view concise and moving paragraphs is astonishing at times. I am not typically an annotator but found myself on more than one occasion reaching for a pen.
The messaging is important, of course, but this is a 500+ page tome, and the message wouldn't get to nearly as many people if the story weren't compelling. The plot is well structured, tense, and exciting throughout (arguable the first half is a bit slow at times, but to me you can always feel the build).
And then for me, there is the translation based magic system. I loved this, I loved the etymologies (that take is not for everyone I know, but it delighted me). Kuang is clearly a remarkable mind and the level of research here is awe-inspiring.
I don't feel I am able to do justice to my thoughts on this book, but in three words, it is a masterpiece.
Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Slavery
sarah984's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Much like Rin, Robin is a complete non-entity as a character, and just absorbs the opinion of whoever the last character he talked to was. The book is very long but so much is glossed over - each friend has like one character trait and we barely see them interact so none of the emotional beats hit like they're supposed to. The writing is self consciously mimicking a "classic" style but characters often speak in a strangely modern vernacular (saying, "same," to agree with someone, a character's disparaging remark about "brain cells", the character who directly quotes the Caleb Gallo "sometimes things that are expensive are worse" sketch) and most of the language around race by characters we are supposed to like came straight out of 2020.
The book makes a huge deal about pointing out racism like you might miss it in a way that felt very YA to me (the footnotes that are essentially just "that's racist" in the smuggest tone imaginable made me want to scream) but the POV characters say unexamined misogynist stuff all the time and a major plot revolves around a woman consumed by romantic jealousy in a way that made me really uncomfortable. You can tell when the author doesn't like a character and those characters are excruciating to read. There's this absurd sort of Shakesville era privilege checklist thing going on over who is allowed to be sympathetic and/or correct that is so simplistic it's embarrassing. (Eg. Ramy is an Indian Muslim so he is almost always correct when arguing with Robin, who is a white-passing Christian. You can predict the outcome of almost every conflict in the book like this, like rock paper scissors)
The magic system was cool in theory but the world was somehow almost exactly the same except that the machinery of empire is clustered together in a really small space so characters can claim a victory that somehow feels super rushed even though it was foreshadowed 500 pages before.
The lectures on language were really interesting though.
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Child death, Genocide, Slavery, Islamophobia, Medical content, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment
marinamelanidis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Gore, Torture, Blood, and Death of parent
natnat_7's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Drug use, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Alcohol