Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Jade War

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

amburrella's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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lisafer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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leanne_miron's review

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adventurous dark emotional 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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maelikesbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

New favourite series

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bearystarry's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? It's complicated

5.0

I think this was the perfect sequel to the first book.

Even though my favourite character died halfway through the first book

these characters are some of my favourites in everything I've ever read. Even when you're frustrated by them you love them. Shae's arc was Heartbreaking. I'm terrified (in the best way, if that's possible) to read the final book.

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mikarala's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective tense slow-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

Book 2 was not as engrossing as the first installment in the series. Whereas the first book takes place over the course of several months and largely sticks to the location of Janloon city as the main setting, the scope of this book is much larger. It seems to take place over the course of 4 years or so, and introduces overseas locations to take the story to a more global scale. It's clear one of Lee's main focuses with this book was to expound upon the geopolitical aspects of the Green Bone saga, presumably setting up a lot of action to come in the third book.

However, this expansion sometimes came at the expense of the story, in my opinion. In particular, there were sections in the middle of the story where I kept noticing chapters would end with a sort of cliff-hanger, big problem for the POV character, then we would move on to the next character, and by the time we came back, the problem had mostly resolved itself. There was often a bit too much exposition at the start of chapters to explain everything that had changed with the characters since the last time we had seen them.

Pacing issues aside, I do think this book is really well-plotted. As with the first installment, Lee does a great job of introducing conflicts and developing the motivations of different characters so that these elements converge in a very satisfying and believable way at the climax. While the middle may have felt a bit more meandering and you had to work a bit harder as a reader to get to that point, when it came it was a great culmination of the various elements of the story.

On top of that, I just really enjoy the characters in this series. They aren't typical heroes and arguably their intentions aren't really altruistic, but I think Lee does a great job of making you root for them anyways. They are flawed, but compellingly believable. I think this comese down to the great job Lee does with world-building and establishing the cultural norms of Kekon, so that even despite the extremely foreign ethical code the characters operate with, the reader can easily understand their motivations.

So, while I didn't love this as much as book 1, I am still very excited to start the final book in the trilogy. This series really has some of the best world-building I've ever encountered in a fantasy series, and it's backstopped by interesting characters and very tightly written plots.

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unboxedjack's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition

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emotional 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

Sequels are hard to review so here's just a bullet list of thoughts:
-I found this addictive to read like the first book and couldn't put it down whenever I picked it up
-however the first half was a slog
-I support both Shae and Ayt Mada because I support women's wrongs, they can be criminals if they want
-I like that Wen got a bigger role!
-the world building expanded nicely by showing us what Espenia is like
-there were a lot of couples in this book which helped with the themes of loyalty to the clan, family, and/or nation and how to deal with those when they conflict. Though I didn't "ship" any of the couples that wasn't the point of the book
-this also dealt with a cycle of violence as characters continually got revenge, fucked around, and found out

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