Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Jade Fire Gold by June CL Tan

5 reviews

annorabrady's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I liked the story when told from Ahn's POV but I felt like having Altan's POV was unnecessary and rarely added to the story. In many cases, I feel like his POV detracted from the story because it gives the reader too many answers before they've been earned. His character is good, don't get me wrong, just not one I think that should share in the narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Classism, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• 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

4.0

I enjoyed reading this book. The descriptions were so vivid and beautiful and the main cast of characters are so likable. Story-wise, the pacing was set up very well. It contained a lot of time jumps which worked well with this set up. However, character-wise, I feel like the set up stunted the growth you get to see between characters. I think you see this especially with Altan and Ahn’s relationship because they have the chemistry and the tension, and they’re so dumb (in a good way), and you get glimpses of how they slowly start to care for each other, but a lot of it takes place in between time jumps and I really wish I got to see more of their relationship instead. I liked what I read, but I know it had the potential to make me love it so much more.

I also felt like this had the potential to be an epic novel, and along with all the other things it had the potential for, it could’ve easily been done with a much longer length. I know Jade Fire Gold is an homage to xianxia novels, but I think making it only 400~ pages does it a huge disservice because it truly could’ve been extraordinary — so much more rich, captivating, and epic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Violence, War, Death, Grief, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Animal death and Vomit

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

As always my reading experiences based on my own perceptions, my own expectations, and my own understanding. I definitely think that this was not as good of a reader as it could’ve been because in my effort one day to see how many pages there were in this book I saw the last line and that colored my perception of what was happening at certain points because I thought there was a note of incest but I was wrong and it makes me sad that my eyes betrayed me like that and messed with my perceptions of the story.There was too much world dumping at the beginning of the book and I spent the entire ready of the book confused which was frustrating and I liked it the lesbian lovers and the representation there and it was a fine read I just spent the majority of it confused and their questions at the end but I almost kind of don’t care about the answers? I don’t know if this was a confusing read for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Confinement, Grief, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Self harm, Child death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and War

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Eating disorder

Minor: Animal death

abbyschalupa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Death, Gaslighting, Self harm, Grief, Blood, and Suicide

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Gore, Abandonment, Classism, and Death of parent

bookishflower's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

• 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

3.75

3.75/5 
- I have to kill you trope
- elemental magic 
- political intrigue 
- slow burn romance 
- heavily inspired by Chinese mythology 

This book had beautiful writing with a rich influence of Chinese mythology, wlw and mlm rep, good world building and magic system, and importantly a balance of light and dark moments. 

I do, however, think I would have enjoyed it even more if I went into it with the right expectations. I was recommended Jade Fire Gold as a book similar to Avatar the last Airbender if zutara was endgame, but I think it’s more accurately a book centred in politics and family trauma. The romance is more a slow-burn sub-plot- which I didn’t mind at all as I enjoy a keener focus on the fantasy world over romance- but was surprising based on my expectations going in. 

Once I got my head around that, however, you definitely root for the characters- I personally loved Tang Wei and the cluelessness of the main characters when they are around each other- they are lovable and true to their characterisation throughout with good character development. 

I believe the book would be perfect as a duology rather than a stand-alone to finish up

what happened to Ahn’s mother, what Altan’s sister wants and her story, if Leiye returned Tai Shun’s feelings, how Altan will be as a ruler, how Ahn and Altan’s relationship will develop, and how Ahn will cope with the impact of what she has done. But it is still very enjoyable and a good standalone in its own right. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Self harm, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Torture

Moderate: War

Minor: Animal death