Reviews - Jade City | The StoryGraph

13.3k reviews for:

Jade City

Fonda Lee

4.13 AVERAGE

bookkage's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

really interesting world setting that includes a mid modern mafia/yukuza like culture heavily inspired by eastern asian conflicts and relations. the exploration of the magic system, world history and culture was unique and deep enough to keep me interested (passable). in addition the characters were lovable enough to keep me invested in their individual plots. what kept this from reaching a higher peak was the overall lack of depth i felt was missing from everything not relating to the culture and magic system. the character development felt superficial at times. the dialogue lacked the grittiness, finality, and layers you see in great writers (hobb, martin, lynch, etc...). and the overall plot felt a little underwhelming, obviously its clan warfare but outside of that it didnt suck me in. the prose often was suitable to drive the plot, but rarely added complexity to the content being told. to sum it up, i just yearned for more depth and flavors and richness i felt this story could offer. ive heard it gets better and im interested enough to find out in book 2 :)

miastokes's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

abookishkindofgirl's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

cambriawrites's review against another edition

3.0

Really cool magic system and rich world building, but the pace was way too slow for me. Lots of exposition and too much navel gazing for my taste. I also didn’t find the characters super compelling… there was very little character development throughout this book, though I am told much more in the next two.