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Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

166 reviews

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I still enjoyed this book, but it was a little more difficult to have motivation to get through this book. It's not because it was bad, but because the story felt like it was going nowhere in like the first 2/3 of the book. The first book followed Rin's journey to Sinegard and her discovering her Speerly powers. But in the second book, it doesn't feel like much happens. I understand Rin is recovering from using her powers and grieving over Altan, but the events that happen during their time at sea wasn't very interesting. And on top of that, Su Daji blocks Rin's access to her powers, so a lot of the book is just Rin sad about not having her powers. It's not until the last third of the book when she can use her powers again and the story actually picks up. Rin finally has closure with Altan's death and so much gets revealed in the end that I finally got interested in the book again. Another thing I liked was seeing Rin's relationships with Kitay, Venka, and especially Nezha. Overall, I think this is still a great book, especially if you like reading more about the political side of wars, but I liked the first book more. I am excited to read the third book but I am also worried about who else is going to die lol

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book… omg I thought the first one was amazing. This one was even better. The pacing, the character development, the drama— amazing. I really liked the way we got to see Rin work through everything. I liked her development with the other characters and the building ( and breaking down) of relationships.
You’re gonna have to work really hard for me to get behind a Nezha redemption. He was already on thin fucking ice with that whole “all shamans should die” thing and now he got like Suni and Baji killed too? Fuck you, you betrayed Rin and she trusted you because you knew she loved you you little rich asshole fuck you
Absolutely living for Rin at the end of this book. Super excited to see her murder lots of people in the next book. 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

This series is amazing, I love it with all of my heart. It is dark, emotional and so beautifully written. Rin is written so vividly and the friendships that she has are very real. This book had me in a chokehold and I will not be able to stop talking about it for the months to come.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

I'm not okay. I have a lot of thoughts. And emotions. I'm going to start the burning god immediately. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark medium-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark sad 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging 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: Yes

To put it lightly, this book destroyed me. The highs were high and the lows were low and the adrenaline was never ending. The audiobook is fantastic, and I think hearing everything out loud really allowed me to visualize (plus it was nice to hear all the names properly pronounced).

I can't even count the number of times I changed my perception of who the enemy was, who was in there right or wrong, and what the solution to this all is. So it goes with war. Much like The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic takes inspiration from real life examples and I think Kuang's background in history is really what grounds this series. I don't know if I can think of any other books that so perfectly encapsulate war and the cause and effect that surround it. It's not a simple subject so I appreciate that she isn't throwing a simple solution at it.

Rin is so ridiculously cool. I love her and I hate her but regardless of how I feel about her at any given moment, she's undeniably powerful and slightly crazy. I love it. I think The Dragon Republic really gave me a chance to become attached to the characters (which made the pain so much worse). There was so much world building and so many introductions in The Poppy War that this book is when everything started to set in for me. Just as much happened, but I wasn't spending as much time trying to understand the fundamentals of this fantasy world and was able to direct my brain capacity elsewhere.

Anyway, I have a feeling The Burning God will destroy me even more. I don't have a good feeling about it. But I'm sure it will be an incredible read. Honestly, if I didn't reserve 5 star ratings for my very favorite books this would easily be deserving of the rating.

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