Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

103 reviews

moonystar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Genocide, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Self harm, Sexism, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Racism, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, War, Sexual assault, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion

allisonmspiers's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Confinement, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Rape, Racism, Violence, War, Gun violence, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Classism, Grief, Torture, Ableism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abortion, Genocide, Racial slurs, and Alcohol

not listed above: hallucinations, human experimentation, massacres, mutilations

euclids_5th's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-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

I’m writing this review minutes after I finished the book. This review is written without having read the third book, and will evaluate the book not as a standalone novel, but as a text that functions as the second piece of a trilogy.

Second books in any series have the very difficult task of keeping the reader interested, especially after a well done first book (like the Poppy War). Especially in trilogies, they don’t have the excitement of beginning the story or the satisfaction of ending it. In my experience, most second books fail to deliver. The pacing is off, or it’s a shaky transition, or they re-open questions that were already answered.

The Dragon Republic is not like that. Kuang performs a seamless transition from one book to the next, making it almost difficult to believe that it’s a separate text. She maintains a consistently captivating narrative flow, one that kept my heart thudding the entire way through. Y’all I finished this book in the span of 12 hours. At the same time, Kuang manages to gracefully pivot to different thematic inquiries, interrogating different sides of the topics she discussed in the first book while simultaneously introducing new ones.

Read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Addiction, Animal death, Death, Violence, Vomit, War, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Alcohol, Chronic illness, and Classism

greatlibraryofalexandra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

Well this was an Empire-Strikes-Back level punch in the face of Red Rising proportions. 

I think I'm always going to love how Kuang just refuses to make anything morally easy. I'm also delighted by how much Rin reminds me of Katniss Everdeen in that she is so frequently a petulant, somewhat selfish, blunt-minded heroin who constantly needs to be guided by people who actually are smarter/better positioned than her. She's frustrating when she refuses to listen, but the lesson is in the learning. 

This is five stars for me. I love the breadth of it, the messiness of it, and how it utilizes good tropes in personalized ways. It's searing and brutal. On to The Burning God. 


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Nitpicks:

I can't believe I'm saying this, but one weird issue I had with this book was how often Rin & others gave emotional "Fuck off" or "Fuck yous" to people - it was so casual and so flippant that at the points when these words should have carried real emotional eight, they just...didn't. In other words...I felt like in an effort to consistently make this work YA, but dark as hell, Kuang wasn't utilizing her swear words with the best emotional thrust. 

I also note that the constant use of Venka as nothing more than a mouthpiece for female rape trauma was annoying. Towards the end, when Venka began to have real use to the story, this was less bothersome, but I mention it because if Kuang was male, I'd be ripping this plot device to apart as trauma porn. 

Given that the "prologue" -ish chapter of this book included Nezha's POV, I think the book as a whole suffers from not continuing to include his POV. I see him similarly to how I saw Letty in "Babel" - I'm not sure Kuang sent enough time in his character to then write some of what he did convincingly for me. But I'm also excited t osee how it all unfolds. 

Nezha, Nezha, Nezha...here is to hoping you are a Lando Calrissian, but I don't think you are.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Xenophobia, Torture, Addiction, Colonisation, Cursing, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, War, Violence, Gore, Death, Sexual violence, Blood, and Body horror

pages_in_the_dark's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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: Blood, Body horror, Classism, War, Addiction, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Sexual assault, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death, Self harm, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Cursing, Alcohol, Rape, Colonisation, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Abandonment, and Slavery

whenjessreads's review against another edition

4.0

After the DEVASTATION that was The Poppy War, I had been putting this book off in order to protect my little heart. But it was TIME.

The Dragon Republic was HEAVY. Not dark in the way that TPW was (if you recall, TPW was a reminder of some of the more horrendous war crimes committed in the Second Sino-Japanese War), but heavy in that it was a very geopolitical view  of the machinations of civil war.

I’m not entirely sure that this book fits into the fantasy genre. While the first book was very focused on shamanism and Gods and SPARKLE magical genocide SPARKLE, they took a back seat in The Dragon Republic, leaving the forefront for the war efforts - which were very much based on the movements of the Chinese Civil War of the 1940s. I would probably class this as historical fiction with a teensy bit of magic. For people who don’t enjoy historical fiction, this could be an issue. But maybe its a sneaky way for Kuang to teach us fantasy readers some things about our own world’s history 😂

I don’t read many war-based novels, but it presents an interesting dynamic when the main antagonist is absent through most of the book. This does tend to lessen the feeling of tension and lower the stakes a little, but… Kuang’s writing just does something to me. Would I usually be invested in a naval military fantasy with an absent antagonist? No. In fact, that’s why I stopped reading Game of Thrones. But the beauty of the writing in TDR kept me engaged.

I liked the portrayal of the MC. Rin is… not a good person (keep in mind she is Mao, in this version of Chinese history). She was a prideful, flawed and messy character (they all were!) and her experience of trauma and addiction is one that I thought was compelling and important.

However the MOST striking thing about this book was the representation of inequality, scientific/biological racism, and xenophobia. Every few pages I found myself inwardly cringing at the blatant reminder that throughout our world’s history, there have always been people who have been considered ‘other’, and ‘lesser’.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Abortion, Death, Gore, Addiction, Genocide, Misogyny, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Torture, Suicide, Xenophobia, Rape, Grief, Animal death, Drug use, Self harm, War, Colonisation, Body horror, Violence, Murder, and Racism

bananapie123's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, War, Child abuse, Violence, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Animal death, Blood, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Slavery

jetix's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Drug use, Death, War, Vomit, Sexual violence, Rape, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Medical content, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Confinement

codifyy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Could not believe Nezha. I love Kitay and Chaghan. I think I really got to understand a greater depth to their characters. I almost cried at Baji, Suni, and Ramsa. I knew Vaisra's betrayal was going to happen but the brutality of it was shocking. Not sure how I feel about the slight attempt of redemption for Daji's character but I think the twist of the Hesperians being the ultimate enemy instead of the Mugenese is telling. Niang's scene was really poignant and the whole fighting against your classmates is challenging to overcome. The more the book went on the more I disliked Altan which I know is not really fair because of his experiences but I could not help it. I hope that now Rin is fighting for the South she finds herself more and becomes more dominant in her opinions because, as a normal foot soldier, she seemed to be simply an avatar to be used for battle. I hope Chaghan returns in the third book and I learn more about Kitay because I am worried that he will become simply an extension of Rin now. I can't really find myself to care for Nezha despite his backstory so I hope that something in the third book will make that change for me. Sometimes I found the civil war and its details slightly confusing because I think that there was a lot happening politically. I think that Rin realising that it's always been the North vs the South will hopefully help her find herself and develop a more headstrong standpoint.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Abortion, Racial slurs, Addiction, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Gun violence, Medical content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Physical abuse

shaunaxx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual violence, Classism, Drug use, Grief, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Kidnapping, War, Vomit, Colonisation, Mental illness, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Alcohol, Death, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Genocide, Addiction, Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Violence, Gore, and Medical content

Moderate: Ableism and Cannibalism

Minor: Abortion