Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Haşhaş Savaşı by R.F. Kuang

1662 reviews

amnessie's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Colonisation, and War

themoostconfused's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty and Excrement

origami_cactus's review against another edition

medium-paced

1.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. I think there is some good writing in here and I think the first part is strong. However, I think it doesn't follow through on the character development. It uses some horrific events but it doesn't feel like the main character was affected by those events as much as she was affected by a different character's reaction to those events. I felt the ending, while better in my opinion than the 6 or so chapters that came before it, wasn't earned from the set up. I think perhaps it's due to an over reliance on a relationship between two characters that didn't feel strong enough to justify the lengths that Rin went though for them. I'm a bit disappointed because there are great ideas in here, but the execution leaves me wanting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Self harm

pep_puterova's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

I really enjoyed the book but boy did it get dark. I like the characters and the story. I have very little notes except I do think the narrative structure was a bit odd in places. There were some problems set up vs pay off and I do think Rin's opinions did change too much from scene to scene and it did not always feel justified. On the other hand, it did demonstrate she doesn't know what she thinks herself, which could have been the point, but it was a bit clunky in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and War

elenikin'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

4.75

Kuang is just awesome at world building and writing a fascinating plot! I was really excited start this series after reading (and loving) Babel, and I wasn't disappointed. I liked seeing Rin rise up from her rough beginnings, but things did get dark as it went along. The descriptions of the battles were gruesome but well written. Overall, I'm looking forward to continuing the series and seeing what happens next with Rin. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

jojotimber's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and War

Moderate: Child death, Self harm, and Torture

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

quechaya's review against another edition

This is not adult fiction. It is full of YA tropes and the characters are all shallow or caricatures. First the protagonist is a poor orphan turned "chosen one" at a very special academy with a mysterious mentor, and then she joins a group of teenage x-men. Then the story becomes  very thinly veiled "fanfiction" of the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731. To exploit those atrocities for the plot of a fantasy novel (for personal profit!) is absolutely disgusting in my opinion. Writing a fantasy novel means you should come up with your own fucking war crimes. It's disrespectful AND it's lazy writing. 

Anyway. If you want to experience secondhand trauma from reading about how horrible humans are, you can save yourself a lot of time by skipping this book and just reading the wikipedia pages for the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731.

This pales in comparison to the book's other problems, but protagonist went on and on about two male characters being "perfect." And the guy she was obsessed with physically abused her multiple times. Cool!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

evilwoman's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

To me it's a war story about a very confused morally grey young woman. Most of the time I wasn't sure what side she stood by or what she believed. It's fast paced and at the same time it feels like it drags a bit in some points. 
It's good. Revenge and war, not my favorite subjects and very very hard to justify, but... Let's see how the story goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and War

alysha714's review against another edition

This book started off nicely but quickly became too graphic in its descriptions of war. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

hellichipmunk'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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail