Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Republika smoka

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Republika smoka by R.F. Kuang

195 reviews

gigglesigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

I should've been to bed hours ago but those last hundred pages wouldn't let me go. The political detail is impressive and the constant reconstruction of the truth has me on my tiptoes all the time, I love it so much. I spent half this book thinking "no, no, no, please, no" and the other half wishing she would just kill one of the various people I hate, and yet it was great.

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zsabella's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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ellenwm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

“…They cannot accept the truth of other gods. And when nations start to believe that other beliefs lead to damnation, violence becomes inevitable.”

The world building and cadence of Kuang’s writing is mesmerizing. I’m not normally one for war-focused literature but it’s very compelling. The moral quandaries pondered in this book overtly and through the plot and character growth are weighty. Who is responsible for a society’s violence and inhumanity? What do we owe other humans? What is actual kindness? Like the first in this series, it covers colonization, war, violence, white supremacy, religion as weapon. So it’s a little difficult to continue at times when you’re not up to being emotionally slayed. All the content warnings.

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nikireadss's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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 liked this book so much more than the first one! It started slow to around 15% of the book but then when it took off, the pace never slowed down but still built up until the very last page.

This time Nezha won the award for the most annoying character, taking over Rin’s spot in the ranking. Despite the genocide in the first book, which is not excused, Rin’s had a big character development. She was still very annoying for most of the book but slowly started to make logical decisions near the end of this book. Talking about the characters I have to prize Kitay, who made some of the smartest decisions in this series.

Overall I liked how much we learned about the world and its origins in this part. So many plot twists. We also lost so many characters. My poor cike, each one of them was so hard to say goodbye to. Thanks to all events this book didn’t feel like the almost 800 pages it was. It didn’t feel like it could be any shorter and every page felt delectable.

This one is my favorite so far!

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theshanana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-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

4.5

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anitaboeira's review against another edition

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4.5

It's gritty. But it's also better fantasy world building and plotting and characters than Martin and Jordan could even dream of.

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syddey_syd's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

BRUTAL.

Kuang has the ability to keep me on my toes with this series. I never knew what was coming next, but I did always know it wouldn’t be good.

Rin is a difficult character to like (in my opinion). Her decisions often baffle me, but they fit her character. The brutality of war is very manifest in this book; possibly a little less graphic than the first, but not by much. Racism, classicism, sexism—all of the isms are present. It made for a ponderous read, and I often had to take breaks because the subject matter was so heavy.

In terms of moving along the series, this was a fitting sequel to the first book. Rin had some character development, Nikara politics thicken, and even more outside forces come into play. I’m very interested to see how Kuang ties up the series. Reading is like watching a train wreck—it’s terrible and messy, but I can’t seem to look away.

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