Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Jade City by Fonda Lee

75 reviews

winters's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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: Death and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Grief, Murder, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Suicide

library_of_alexandra_'s review

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Grief, and Violence

jnl00700's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Murder, Misogyny, Gun violence, Grief, and Drug use

caseythereader's review

challenging 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

3.0

 - Do you love stories like The Godfather or Succession but wish they included magic? JADE CITY is the book for you! Warring clans with intricate hierarchies and long histories vie for territory as the younger generation jockeys for power. Plus, excellent fight scenes.
- As much as I enjoyed this story, I can't talk about it without discussing the anti-fat bias woven through it, which really dragged everything down for me. Most minor characters weren't given physical descriptions unless they were fat. Then, every time they were mentioned, so was their fatness, and it never had any bearing on what was happening in that scene. Poor Chancellor Son was forever pursing his "thick lips," drumming his "sausage fingers" or heaving himself up on his "heavy elbows." Recruits who clearly weren't going to make it into the ranks of the clans were "clever, but pudgy," or "doughy and insipid." These fat characters were all shown as being lazy or incompetent in one way or another, often described as having once been formidable warriors who now ate and drank too much. If a character was described as being hardworking, loyal, etc., their size usually wasn't mentioned.
- This is not me telling you to cancel this book and this author - I just want to point out how pervasive these stereotypes are, and how often we don't even notice them in our stories (especially in fantasy, where the protagonists are usually thin and able bodied.) Read the book if the story sounds good to you, but go in aware of this aspect of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Rape

achingallover's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, and Violence

bookishjd's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Murder, Violence, Grief, and Self harm

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Gun violence

thebrainglitter's review

dark emotional mysterious 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: Murder, Violence, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction and Drug use

btrz7's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Grief, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Death of parent, Dementia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Suicide

genny's review

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

3.75

I enjoyed this; it was very readable and the setting was easy to fall into. Even though most of the story was set only in the city of Janloon, the worldbuilding was rich, with just enough history and a glimpse of the world outside Kekon. For a mob story, this wasn't fast-paced; the action sequences were brutal, but they took up less of the story than I anticipated. Instead, nearly the whole book felt like a set-up for the sequel - lots of political maneuvering, shifting of power, planting plot devices whose consequences are to be revealed later on.... All enjoyable and well-written, but I was ~80% into the book before I got truly excited. Even now I'm still not that invested in the characters. I'm interested to see where their paths take them and I care about No Peak as a whole, but would I cry if any of the main characters died? Probably not. Will I still read Jade War right away? Yes, actually! I have a feeling it'll be a lot more exciting now that the chess pieces are in place (fingers crossed).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Grief, Pedophilia, and Torture

Minor: Death of parent, Rape, and Suicide

Jade acts like a drug, pretty much, with all the consequences of withdrawal or addiction. There's also SN1, a synthetic drug designed to decrease sensitivity to jade.

victorianrogue's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Bullying, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, and Stalking