Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Jade War by Fonda Lee

40 reviews

takarakei'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

4.5

When I first started this series I really knew nothing going in except kung-fu inspired jade magic and mafioso type families (based on a talk I saw Fonda at). About halfway through this second book in the series I realized that (at least so far) these books are really a mastery of political intrigue and strategy. Honestly, now I am marveling at how much Fonda must have researched and understood about the way power-struggles often work in relation to a global chess board. The continued character development (especially of Hilo) throughout the course of this book is fantastically done. I am SO intrigued (and a bit scared for my own well being) to see how the final third book will pan out.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Death, and Murder

Moderate: War, Misogyny, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Drug use, Grief, Torture, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, Slavery, and Police brutality

Rape (off page, in non descriptive detail) Animal cruelty - like book 1 a lot of derogatory language involving animals, cock-fighting (not extremely explicit) and 'testing' magic on mice.

cardanrry's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Xenophobia, War, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, Abortion, and Addiction

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.75

While this one doesn’t hit quite as hard for me as Jade City did, it’s close. If I could give this like a 4.85 or 4.90 it would be more accurate. Fonda Lee continues and expands her masterful world building here by interweaving international cultures and politics with that of Kekon. The crafting of politics and international relations here is truly an impressive feat. Unfortunately with the new politics, settings, and characters we end up losing some time with Kekon and the Kauls. The time jumping around and pacing in this book just felt messier and more inconsistent to me than the first book. The pacing doesn’t seem to pick up to where it was in the first book until the last 150-200 pages when the separate threads laid out throughout the story start to come together. Overall a strong follow up to Jade City but does seem to suffer somewhat from the second book syndrome of largely setting things up for the third book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Violence, Xenophobia, Addiction, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Racism, Torture, Gore, and Gun violence

Minor: Confinement, Rape, Grief, Misogyny, Abortion, Colonisation, Cursing, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Alcohol, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and War

adhdru'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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Racism, Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Sexism, Violence, Death, Addiction, Gun violence, Drug use, and Sexual content

matcha_pages's review against another edition

challenging 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Torture and Xenophobia

Minor: War

sarah984'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

5.0

It's pretty rare to find a sequel - especially part 2 in a trilogy - that's as good as the original, but Jade War surpassed all of my expectations. It's got a broader scope this time: many scenes take place in other countries and the Kauls are contending with foreign militaries, expat communities and trade agreements on top of the clan war situation and general family drama. It was easy to romanticize what was going on in Jade City, but Jade War draws back that curtain a bit to show the darker side. The characters are fantastic and unfortunately all of their terrible decisions are absolutely consistent with what you'd expect them to do. I can't wait to read the third book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: War, Xenophobia, Addiction, Drug use, Medical content, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Torture, Abortion, Blood, Gore, Grief, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Homophobia, Suicide, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Excrement, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Vomit, and Animal death

theespressoedition's review against another edition

challenging tense slow-paced

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

3.0

It's a little hard to compress all of my thoughts about this book into a review.

There's a lot that occurred in Jade War and I struggled to comprehend all of it. In fact, it took me about three times as long to finish it as I expected (I don't know why I thought I'd finish it sooner when it took ages for me to finish Jade City as well).

It's a thick book with a thick plot that's often really hard to follow. The primary theme is "political intrigue" and the author gives us that element in abundance. However, because of that, it often becomes sluggish and almost too dense. While the first book had almost equal amounts of informational chapters and action chapters, this one fell heavily on the side of information and left the action to happen in short spurts throughout.

However, when the action did occur, I found myself holding my breath, waiting to see what would happen next. I was never sure who would live and who would die, whether there was a traitor in the midst, or if a romance would occur. There aren't many other authors who could get me to sit through over 600 pages (probably 400 of which were about politics and war strategies) and still find myself interested enough to keep going. So major props to Fonda Lee for holding my attention through this one.

The ending alone was enough to make this book worth it. I honestly can't wait to find out what happens next.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Murder, Torture, Gore, Blood, Violence, and War

Moderate: Abortion, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape, Vomit, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

kaseybereading's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Pregnancy, Violence, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Body horror, and Gun violence

szuum's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Xenophobia, and Drug use

Moderate: Misogyny, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, and Abortion

Minor: Rape, War, and Homophobia

cognitivedisaster's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

This is tied as the best read of the year along with Dune

Take everything good about Jade War, and triple it. The characters are amazing. The world is amazing. The plot is amazing. The intrigue is amazing. The character relationships are better than any book I've ever read.

The main characters went from not greatpeople to fucking monsters. Even with their horrible actions, their self-justification makes it even more twisted. Even when you hate them though, you'll still root for them and cry for them*

The world is somehow even better than the last book, with a new country, and with it, new perspectives on how the main charcters affect the world

If Jade War was the godfather in a fantasy setting, this is the godfather 2 in a fantasy setting (especially with the arc of <Shae>)

*except for <Hilo>. Fuck that guy

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Kidnapping, War, and Car accident

Minor: Rape, Hate crime, and Alcohol