Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Haşhaş Savaşı by R.F. Kuang

751 reviews

noahhh_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, War, Body horror, Mental illness, Addiction, Drug abuse, Murder, Bullying, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and Genocide

Minor: Animal death

mmccombs's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Truly devastating and absolutely captivating to read! I loved Babel and had this sitting on my shelves forever, I think intimidated by how much I hoped to love it, and after finally taking the plunge I was rewarded by an equally rich, nuanced, and beautifully written story (and a debut no less!).

 I knew vaguely that this book was based on real Chinese and Japanese history, but had no idea how deeply it drew from the Sino Japanese War and the Nanjing Massacre, which compels me to know more about this time in history (whenever a book makes me want to read more, particularly to seek out nonfiction, that is a huge accomplishment!). Obviously, because of this history, this book got dark and gruesome and hard to read, but I think Kuang included these parts (particularly chapter 21) tastefully and with a hope for the reader to understand the brutal gravity of war and informed Rin’s complicated response to it.

Rin’s character is so moving, I was prepared for a “morally gray” character but I think got so much more than that. She is funny, furious, sharp, naive, scared, brave… the list goes on, and I can’t wait to continue her character arc. I loved watching her, and the people around her, wrestle with history, with evil, with what one should do with power, and what one owes to their country. This touches on colonialism and racism in a way I think Kuang expanded upon and did much more interestingly in Babel, but it was cool to see those roots here. 

I cannot wait to talk about this one in my bookclub, I think this will make for a great conversation, and I equally cannot wait to get into the rest of the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Drug use, Torture, Addiction, Colonisation, Violence, Rape, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Racism, and Murder

amzief's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape and Racism

chris_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Animal death, Gore, Colonisation, War, Racism, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Grief, Drug abuse, Sexism, Child death, Self harm, and Sexual violence

Minor: Bullying, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Addiction, and Vomit

andreapepsii's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Death, Drug use, Addiction, Rape, and Torture

Moderate: Racism

laura_jay_'s review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gore, Blood, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Abandonment, and Classism

makaylasb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Rape, Blood, Sexual assault, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Racism, and Sexual violence

elizabeth_helmer's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Rape, Torture, Gore, War, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, and Addiction

mangooba's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

LOOK UP A TRIGGER WARNING LIST PRIOR TO READING. if you think youre fine and dont need one, do it anyways. this book goes heavily into graphic descriptions of genocide, SA, war, death, child death, and abuse. take care of yourself.

that being said, i found that this book was very well written and the character development was both realistic and well done. the mc has drastically changed, while shes obviously the same person in several ways, she is also not the same person in many other ways. that might not make sense without reading the book. if you dont have the reading comprehension to understand that decisions made are supposed to be poor decisions, and that characters will not be all good or all bad and its an incredibly complex situation just dont read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Slavery, Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Drug use, Kidnapping, Racism, Rape, and War

Minor: Death of parent

the racism tag is fantasy racism inspired by real world values and views held by racist individuals, and racist regimes/systems.

piprigsby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.25

between a 4.0 and 4.5 so 4.25 but it was a very interesting read and as for character development, i think it was more of character DEvelopment as in rin got more destructive throughout the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Rape, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Slavery