Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Jade City by Fonda Lee

72 reviews

lonelylooper's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Bullying, Addiction, Grief, Murder, Death, Gore, Gun violence, War, Drug use, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Racism

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Sexual assault, Suicide, Misogyny, and Homophobia

noisivweneht's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This book… holy shit… had me in tears at the end. The way it ended was frustrating not in a bad way just like I just wanted peace for the family. Can’t wait to get into the the next two books. 

Looking forward to the character development in the next two books. Hopeful at least because if specifically one person doesn’t change that will be the death of them. 


I really want to give it 5 stars and maybe I will but I will update that once I get off the high of the book.  I just finished it and I usually think books are better immediately after finishing them than they tend to be. That being said, this book genuinely is so well written and emotional. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I don’t think there was a moment where I felt it was dragged on or that I wished for it to be over. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, War, Child death, Death of parent, Murder, Gore, Dementia, Drug use, Grief, Drug abuse, Ableism, and Violence

meggomyeggo28'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

4.5

4.5/5 

“the clan is my blood, and the pillar is its master.” 

what a ride this book is. the characters are so rich and complex and imperfect that they come to life and really feel like family members. the politics and the worldbuilding is so immersive. and this book touches on so many important themes of spirituality, addiction, leadership, and ethical decisions in wartime in really profound ways without forgetting the plot. the magic system is truly so unique and the cost/benefit aspect to it adds another layer to the book and another challenge for the characters. im not giving this a full 5 stars bc ik fonda lee is just going to blow my mind even more in the next two books, but i really do think this is a masterpiece of modern fantasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, War, Murder, Grief, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Misogyny, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

praaliine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-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

4.0

i really had to fight to get through the first third of the book. i feel i should have gone into this book 100% blind and i had already seen the worst spoiler about a certain character’s death which massively ruined the enjoyment of this for me. it also wasn’t as ground-breaking and show-stopping as i heard it was. a solid read nonetheless, i did like it and the characters definitely have my attention and interest. will be committing to the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Dementia

Minor: Torture and Sexual content

lunep's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Alcohol, Murder, Violence, Medical content, Sexual content, Blood, Cursing, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Body horror, Drug use, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Pedophilia, Vomit, Mental illness, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Addiction, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Infidelity, Suicide, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Dementia, Child abuse, and Racism

rnbhargava's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Classism, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Stalking, Violence, Trafficking, War, Sexual content, Suicide, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Self harm, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Ableism, and Gaslighting

This is the first part of a fantasy tinged saga about a crime family. All the violence and tropes of mafia stories are present here. Certain things are also essentially superpowers. That said, it’s also very gritty with hard hitting violence. There’s mental illness, there’s drug addiction, there’s deteriorating health of the elderly old leader. There’s suggestions that one character is a sex offender and pervert. There’s essentially ableism surrounding certain figures born to Jade user families but can’t use Jade abilities, ableism suggestions. There’s vilification and racism toward certain outside nations albeit because they’re also colonizing forces. Also, certain characters’ relationships with foreign nationals are heavily talked about with racist suggestion. The connection between drug addiction and potential suicide is a major theme in the story because it’s framed within the context of jade ability performance enhancement drug usage. There’s a lot of heavy themes to suggest while reading through this mafia family novel.

carla20'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

I’m not the biggest fantasy reader, but this was amazing. The world building was so vivid and easy to digest, it never felt info-dumpy. I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, Blood, Drug abuse, Addiction, Gun violence, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Dementia, and Self harm

bergha1998's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.0

I think this was another book I went into knowing too little about. I knew it was a mafia story set in Asia, and that was about it. I erroneously thought there would be more romance or more female characters, unfortunately I was wrong on both counts. Overall, I just found it to be very dry, and the expositions went on for ages. 

Fantasy/Historical, Mafia, 1 🔥

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Cursing, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content

daydream_e's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

Amazing characters who are deeply flawed and yet so easy to care about. Excellent portrayal of civil war and the complexities of post-colonial development, as well as international politics - I’m  considering recommending this to my undergraduate comparative politics students as an enjoyable way to consider how natural resources, colonial history, corruption and crime, and international politics interact. Particularly given the author has no academic history/polisci background, it’s incredibly impressive that she was able to create a fictional world with such realistic politics, and it speaks to what must be an incredible grasp of colonial and post-colonial Asian history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Addiction, Violence, Drug use, Murder, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Gun violence

Moderate: War, Suicide attempt, Chronic illness, Xenophobia, Racism, Colonisation, Sexism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Dementia, Death of parent, Suicide, and Gore

Minor: Homophobia

Racism, xenophobia, war, and colonization are within the context of a fictional country with obvious real world analogues, but not one-to-one with real life events. Mental illness and drug use/addiction are also within the context of a fictional drug. Violence and injury is often very explicit - think hard R rated action movie - but not dwelled on excessively. Grief is a major theme throughout the book for many characters BIG SPOILER:

including the death of a POV character

dailbrae's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Drug use, Death, Drug abuse, War, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol