Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

290 reviews

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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

5.0

Review of The Burning God

By: RF Kuang

            Rin and Nezha are now enemies and Kitay is her anchor, who keeps her from losing her humanity.  But it isn’t easy when your enemy has his own water God and not all your allies trust you nor do you trust your own capabilities.

            This is an amazing end for fantastic trilogy.  The confrontation between Rin and Nezha is complicated mess that shows how things aren’t so black and white.  The whole trilogy has explored this with this war showing there’s no villains, just people who think they are in the right.  You can understand Rin and Nezha’s rationalizations and you actually feel sorry for him, despite seeing things through Rin.  We also see the consequences of Rin and Nezha’s Civil war and how it effects the people.  Rin rationalizes that this war and if they side with the Republic they deserve to be punished.  At the same time Rin wants and misses Nezha, and the pair can’t seem to kill each other even though the want to.  Her relationship to Kitay gets shaken up as Rin gets closer to her fight with Nezha.  He is a character that keeps Rin human and prevents her from relying on her fire power first.  They are closer, because they’re anchored, but often clash on how to handle the war.  It tears their relationship apart.  I love how we learn about the Trifecta and its history.  We get to see them in action as we see the full scope of their powers.  There were a lot of great battle scenes between individual fights that involve God power.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Grief, Death, Genocide, Body horror, Classism, Drug use, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Cursing, War, Torture, and Violence

sanne2301's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, Xenophobia, Violence, and Torture

r_snail52's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

w-o-w R F Kuang does it time and time again, this series truly ripped me to shreds, might i be spoiled now for any revenge arc book because of this beautifully and intricately constructed epic, yes. Do i care, nope. I absolutely adore this i’ve never read anything like it, well except maybe for babel. READ THIS SERIES RIGHT NOW

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Cannibalism, Colonisation, War, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Drug use, and Murder

jessicaludden's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“She was a goddess. She was a monster. She’d nearly destroyed this country. And then she’d given it one last, gasping chance to live.”

There’s so much to unpack in this book. It so vividly portrayed this endless cycle of war and the impacts of constant oppression not just to our main character and her surroundings but to the entire country and its people. Rin makes the same mistakes over and over again and while some people could be annoyed by that, I loved it. She’s far from perfect. She’s almost villainous and it was the most interesting concept to read. I love how every relationship revolves around such a deep sense of love and hatred. Her friendships are full of so much history making betrayals and deaths and battles hurt that much more. This book gives a bleak and realistic ending that left me feeling hollow inside but I can’t see it ending any other way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Addiction, Murder, Racism, War, Cannibalism, Child death, and Drug use

natsbooknook's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-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

4.0

A fitting end to a brutal and brilliant trilogy. As always RF Kuang's writing was sheer brilliance. The way that the author manages to draw in the reader and make it feel as though they are right in the thick of the action alongside the characters is a truly special quality.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Murder, Xenophobia, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use and Infertility

marinasjd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Death, Addiction, Alcohol, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Colonisation, Cursing, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Child abuse, and Animal cruelty

moonlitreading_'s review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

5.0

“Take what you want, it said. I’ll hate you for it. But I’ll love you forever. I can’t help but love you.

Ruin me, ruin us, and I’ll let you.”

this book feels like getting stabbed a million times but you can’t die

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, Death, Drug use, War, Xenophobia, Torture, Murder, Racism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cannibalism

matcha_pages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

5.0

This isn't the ending I wanted, but the ending I needed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Religious bigotry, Rape, Forced institutionalization, and Drug use

brianneh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Genocide, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Torture, War, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Classism, Drug use, Xenophobia, Murder, Death, Rape, Gore, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault

lena_kellogg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• 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

3.0

If I’m being totally honest, I was so let down by the ending of this trilogy. I LOVED 95% of this series, but the ending of the final book felt too fast paced, had too many surprises that felt unbelievable, and just fell flat in comparison to how epic the entire story felt. 

Rin has survived two wars, and now a third is looming over the country of Nikara. She returns to her roots and aligns with the newly formed Southern Coalition to protect the people that raised her - and claim the power she desires. She encounters new challenges, adopts new allies, finds new foes, and dedicates herself to the only cause she can trust - her revenge. It’s an exciting culmination of Rin’s story. 

Even with the letdown of the ending, I would still recommend this high fantasy series to anyone looking for detailed worldbuilding, engrossing plot, and morally gray characters in abundance. 

This book seemed to have less graphic violence than the first two (with the first book being the heaviest). There is quite a bit of swearing accompanied with heavy themes. 

The worldbuilding is where this series stands out. Every detail is intricately woven. Extremely nuanced political situations are thrilling and not tedious. The mythology is carefully constructed to be comprehensible yet ethereal. The worldbuilding is a perfect balancing act between completely engrossing and being vast enough that as readers we know we’ll never know everything. 

You might be reading all my praise for this book and asking why I rated it only 3 stars. It really is just the ending. But don’t let that deter you from taking on this absolutely stunning series. I regret nothing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Self harm, Torture, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts