Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

174 reviews

timtalkinbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I've had issues with each book. 
I think it's mostly pacing and the fact that Rin is a cruel and genuinely insufferable person. So being in her angry head can get a bit old. 

BUT 

1. I think the fact Kuang is as old as me and she was writing something like this in her early 20s is incredible. I can't wait to see how her prose and storytelling abilities evolve as she gets older. 

2. She spent basically three books hinting at shaman battles and when we get to that it doesn't disappoint. 

3. The way this concluded was the only way I could see it conclude. It doesn't feel like she backed herself into a corner though. It feels like she had this planned from the start and I love that. 

4. Can't wait to start the next Stormlight book because hooboy this was some DARK fantasy, but I love that it takes its inspiration from Chinese history and religion. It's a really cool angle to take a fantasy book and a much needed breath of fresh air. (I'm sure I'm not the first person to say that.) 

5. Voice actor Emily Woo Zeller (Panam in Cyberpunk 2077) narrated the hell outta the audio books. I usually hate when the narrator does voices that are their opposite gender, think Jim Dale doing Hermione's voice in the Harry Potter audiobooks, but she's great with both.

Overall a great trilogy. 
Grim, brutal and violent enough that I can't think of a time where I will want to pick these up again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Child death, Murder, War, Violence, Racism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Alcoholism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

Feels like they hint that one of the gods has basically raped the character when he gave them their powers, it's definitely meant to disturb and not treayfed lightly.

daisy2050's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Blood, Body horror, Torture, War, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

ginalucia's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

 I gotta say, this book doesn't hold back - it's brutally honest and dark, making it kinda tough to fully connect with the main character, Rin.

As our main protagonist and antihero (the whole book is pretty much from her perspective), she’s hard to love. I know this was intentional. Her purpose isn’t to make us love her, it’s to teach us something about war.

While it achieves this, it does get stuck in a loop. Rin seems to be going over the same struggles and thoughts without much progress, which can feel a bit repetitive after a while. At times, I felt my brain drifting off as she came to the same conclusion over and over again.

The power dynamics in the story constantly shift, which adds to the complexity - but it can also feel messy and overwhelming at times. 

And when it comes to the big climactic moments? I gotta admit, I felt kinda detached. Like, I was expecting this big emotional punch, but it just didn't hit me the way I thought it would. But maybe that was the point - to show how you can become desensitised to war. In which case, nice work R.F. Kuang.

The Burning God, and The Poppy War series is a challenging read. It's not always easy to digest, but the honesty and depth of the storytelling are absolutely worth it. While this last book didn’t quite hit like the first two for me, I’m absolutely happy I took the time to get through it.

For more reviews and book recommendations, check out my YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/ginaluciayt 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Murder, Genocide, Death, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Suicide, and Hate crime

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Vomit, Classism, Xenophobia, Animal death, Toxic friendship, and Forced institutionalization

a_wandering_thinker's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Die Trilogie ist genial, bottom line. Der zweite Teil ist mein Favorit, der dritte ging zu schnell voran und hat nicht allen Plotlines und Charaktere die Tiefe und Aufmerksamkeit gegeben, die sie verdient hätten. Aber ich habe diesen Teil dennoch verschlungen, die Story hat mich gepackt wie lange keine Buchreihe mehr. 

Das Worldbuilding und die Parallelen zur echten Welt waren gleichzeitig das beste an den Büchern als auch eine Schwachstelle. Zum einen habe ich so viel über Krieg und Staatenbildung gelernt wie bei keinem Buch zuvor. Darüber, wozu Menschen fähig sind, was Revolutionen kosten, über Religion, Kolonialismus und Abgründe der Menschlichkeit. Auf der anderen Seite musste ich mich bei jedem Element der Story fragen, welches reale Ereignis es wohl inspiriert hat, dass sich die Handlung manchmal wie eine sehr ausgeschmückte Allegorie für Real-Life-Events anfühlte, anstatt zu etwas Eigenem zu werden (was immer noch viel über unsere echte Geschichte und Kulturen aussagen kann, aber ohne davon zu dominiert zu werden). 
Ein anderer Kritikpunkt, vor allem von diesem Band, ist, wie Dialog-lastig es war. Ich hätte mir ein wenig mehr ruhige Momente gewünscht, die die Handlung nicht mit Macht vorangetrieben hätten, etwas mehr bildliche Beschreibung von Szenen. Trotzdem war die Story extrem immersive und packend. 

Insgesamt ist die Trilogie eine 4.5 ⭐️ für mich. Absolut beeindruckend, realistisch, packend, und ich liebe es, wie mit vielen Tropes gebrochen wird. Ich freue mich schon, als nächstes Babel zu lesen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Gore, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Eating disorder, Trafficking, Sexism, Death of parent, and Excrement

bookishedi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Rape, Violence, Vomit, Addiction, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Racism, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Torture, and War

Moderate: Abortion, Abandonment, Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Cannibalism

rdawnl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense 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? No

3.5

This book was stretched out about 20% longer than necessary. There are portions that even felt like filler. The ending was decent and wrapped up the series well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Murder, Child death, Cannibalism, and War

Moderate: Vomit, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Self harm, Racism, Cursing, Violence, Torture, and Racial slurs

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Animal cruelty, and Fire/Fire injury

nataaaliya's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicide, Child abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Addiction, Abandonment, Cannibalism, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, War, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism and Cursing

cturn'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
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Genocide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Death, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Genocide, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, and Toxic friendship

anispaperbacks's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense 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

4.0

I think I'm still in shock of finishing the trilogy.. 
 Watching Rin and the decisions she made throughout The Burning God was so fascinating. You know she's making choices that a morally sound person would not really be making but you can't help but enjoy it with some kind of sick satisfaction.

Speaking of such, the times in the book where she seemed to just have incredible divine power and influence, specifically at the Anvil and Mount Tianshen, were just SO satisfying to read. In general, it was great to see Rin once again fall into a devote-myself-to-this-superior-force-because-they-tell-me-how-crucial-i-am-to-the-cause-but-then-the-second-im-not-anymore-im-instantly-betrayed-and-discarded situation and then just go fuck this im doing my own thing now

Spoiler for both this book and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes lmao:

In chapter 33 I couldn't help but draw a comparison to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The character, determined for things to end how they will it, spiralling severely into paranoia, which then violently turns them against the person they were closest to (although Coriolanus was a bit more of a straight up horrible person and did not have any even slightly redeeming qualities lol). 

Anyway, this isn't much of a review yet, more just me sharing some thoughts I had. So: 

Overall, this was a great last novel in the trilogy. Despite the fact that I do feel a little unsatisfied and jarred at the ending, its the way things should have probably gone. I didn't enjoy (if enjoy is the right word for The Horrors experienced) The Burning God as much as I did The Dragon Republic, which is still by far my favourite in the trilogy, but this still rakes up 4 stars. I just feel like a lot of the book, I wasn't as invested in what was going on? I guess it just felt like there was a fair bit of reading to get to the bits which were just a bit more interesting to read, which IS fair for the topic of the book and understanding the gravity of everything going on, you can't have a book about war without large amounts of chapters on the military movements and engagements. It didn't diminish the book for me but The Burning God just wasn't quite what The Dragon Republic was to me. 

I'm never going to forgive R.F Kuang for what she has done to me. In my review of TDR, I'm pretty sure I said I would kill myself if anything happened to Rin and Kitay so I better get onto that then. /lhj The trilogy was devastating and the characters are just so believable and complex. I adore how R.F Kuang writes and I'm not sure what to do with myself now that I've finished all the books. These books just amazingly well show the absolute horrors and brutality of war. The absolute devastation it leaves in its wake. How it changes people and what it drives them to do. The Poppy War trilogy has got to be one of my favourite fantasy series I have read, they are so well done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Murder, War, Xenophobia, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Death, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Vomit, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Grief, and Racial slurs

Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infertility, Bullying, and Excrement

annabel_winter's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Gore, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Xenophobia, Suicide, Torture, and Rape