Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

358 reviews

ilovebarbie12dancingprincesses's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

emzand's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

Great sequel but really really grim at times. Those content warnings are no joke.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Colonisation

ladynocturnal's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 Very heavy on war strategy and political affairs. I wish there was more character development for Rin and the Cike. The main character makes silly decisions, I understand why, but it was so frustrating. War, war never changes. 

Rin loses her powers for a large chunk of the book. The writing is still good, but I didn't pick up this book to read about a regular person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, and War

Minor: Chronic illness and Self harm

undergroundalto's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.5

This book was a disappointment after the glorious Poppy War, the introduction to Kuang’s fantasy world of early 20th C China. I struggled throughout the book because I found Rin, the main character, so annoying. In The Poppy War Rin is learning about how powerful she is. For a great deal of this book, especially the first half, she’s helpless and whiny and angry and impossibly rude. She is decidedly unpleasant at best. 

I found the battle scenes riveting, and Rin’s interactions with her closest friends the most powerful. I especially liked the increasing closeness between Rin and her best friend Kitay, and I loved the scenes with the contraption he makes for her. 

I still remain in awe of Kuang’s scholarship and writing. She is always an excellent author. I’m going to read the third in the trilogy with hopes that it will be more engaging than this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mboicekeith's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Rape, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Pregnancy

tariana'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? Yes

4.75

The only reason I am not giving 5 stars is because from 20 to 60% of the book it was sooooo slow, too much details about sword fights, military strategies, extensive descriptions, which must be great for those that understand it and are into it, but for me it was boring, it was like the story was stuck. The whole thing happened in less than a year for the characters but for me it was like an eternity. In spite of that, the whole book is amazing. At two different moments I had to hold my tears, I have ene highlighted the passages. They were:
62%: “Rin… what am I going to do?”
88%: I heard what you did to that Hesperian soldier.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ghost_rider's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

krystaldelusion's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Rape, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

luliposatieris's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

somehow i was hooked the entire time but also so annoyed by Rin’s attitude throughout this book, it’s like she never grew up, always a little girl searching for everybody’s approval but standing up for herself once in a while
i honestly couldn’t stand her, everybody treated her like a stupid child and she didn’t contradict them
but i was never bored and always wanted to keep reading

what the fuck is up with Nezha ???
first he loves Rin, then he betrays her ??
also i loved that she finally realized she was being used and decided to escape, but hated that the ooonly eay she could’ve escaped was by killing Ramsa, Baji and Suni, the only likeable characters :/

but the WORST thing by FAR is the religious BULLSHIT the Hesperians say to justify using shaman’s as guinea pigs, saying they aren’t “natural” and that their god Chaos “rules over them” and they need to be “cleansed” 
like wtf live and let live idiots, and RIN DOESNT DEFEND HERSELF FROM THEM AT ALLLLLLLLL 

AND WHEN VENKA WAS RAPED AND SHE WANTED TO ABORT HER RAPIST’s BABY AND NEZHA’s MOTHER CURSED HER BECAUSE OF IT AND WOULDN’t LET HER WTFFF

1000000 people died and that was what enerved me the most

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, and War