Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Ciudad de Jade by Fonda Lee

135 reviews

moosta2112's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Addiction, Suicide, and Drug use

Minor: Pedophilia

ashleykhoffman's review against another edition

challenging tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This is not a book I would have picked up from just reading the description, but it got recommended to me over and over, so I gave it a try. I liked it so much more than I expected to! I think it was a little too political for my taste. (In real life I'm very political, but I use reading as an escape. Even though these politics were different than current world stuff, it was still capitalism and drug-centric so it hit too close to the mark for me.) I really liked the nuanced characters and that the antagonists were fleshed out to the point where I could understand their side too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: Drug use and Addiction

Minor: Dementia

olympia98's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

Ottimo inizio.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Dementia, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Blood, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Drug use, Hate crime, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and War

loudmouthbooklover'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

5.0

The book was rich with description and world building. The characters had so many layers and the plot was wonderful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Self harm, Torture, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, War, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Toxic friendship

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Grief, Murder, Cursing, Death, Toxic relationship, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Xenophobia, Drug use, War, and Gun violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Confinement, and Addiction

Minor: Racism

camrich's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

So I’m finally getting around to this series and WOW. Yea I definitely get the hype over this book. Not gonna lie, the first like 25-30% was a bit slow but there was definitely a lot of interesting clan politics/world building to keep me interested.
I will say that the only 2 reasons this book isn’t a 5 star read for me were 1. I felt like the characters weren’t well-developed enough for me to really care until almost the end of the book (except

✨Hilo✨

, but I do understand that there’s gonna be a lot of character development across books 2 and 3; and 2. It felt a bit like a set up book for the next 2 books
Overall REALLY good though and I would def recommend to anyone who likes gritty crime shows like Warrior, Peaky Blinders, Sons of Anarchy, etc. Will absolutely be reading Jade War & Legacy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Sexual content

vnderseelie's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The overall setting of Jade City was amazing and the structures of the clans and Kekons society was intriguing. However, most if them were introduced too late in the story for my opinion and that made it difficult to understand them from time to time. As a reader you are treated as if you already know everything about the terms, phrases, gods, etc. that are mentioned in the book and I feel like some points have not been addressed at all and you are forced to accept them as they are.

The characters are really interesting and actually carry a lot of the story, since their flaws and decisions let the events progress and escalate further, which makes them feel alive and well merged with the world Fonda Lee built. Nevertheless, a lot of the actions that the characters took did not make a lot of sense in specific situations or were needlessly cruel, even given the topics the book deals with. Especially the grandfather gave the impression that he just appeared to talk the others down. Additionally, I really disagreed with some scenes and the behavior in them, which made it hard for me to continue the book sometimes.

Some scenes felt a bit too long or they were repeated in almost the same way too often, which made them repetitive to read and it seemed to just add to the page count of the book, without providing a real impact on anything.

All in all the idea of Jade City was really interesting to me, but I think the actual translation into the story was lacking in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Addiction, Child abuse, War, Violence, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Drug use, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Racism, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Cursing, and Death

h4ppycupcake's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Dementia, Drug use, Murder, Addiction, Gore, and Violence

lauralfp'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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Drug use, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

planreadrepeat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective 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

Jade City starts off a little slow. We meet the Kauls and the city of Kekon. A special form of Jade is used that gives trained users enhanced abilities. And untrained users sickness. Two clans control the city. 

This is a character study. If you are looking for descriptive battle scenes and clear resolutions, this may not be the book for you. Political intrigue, characters agonizing over their decisions, betrayal, and to the victors go the spoils is a driving force in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Drug use