Reviews tagging 'Death'

Jade City by Fonda Lee

247 reviews

challenging tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

This is not a book I would have picked up from just reading the description, but it got recommended to me over and over, so I gave it a try. I liked it so much more than I expected to! I think it was a little too political for my taste. (In real life I'm very political, but I use reading as an escape. Even though these politics were different than current world stuff, it was still capitalism and drug-centric so it hit too close to the mark for me.) I really liked the nuanced characters and that the antagonists were fleshed out to the point where I could understand their side too. 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

Ottimo inizio.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

The book was rich with description and world building. The characters had so many layers and the plot was wonderful

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

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

The overall setting of Jade City was amazing and the structures of the clans and Kekons society was intriguing. However, most if them were introduced too late in the story for my opinion and that made it difficult to understand them from time to time. As a reader you are treated as if you already know everything about the terms, phrases, gods, etc. that are mentioned in the book and I feel like some points have not been addressed at all and you are forced to accept them as they are.

The characters are really interesting and actually carry a lot of the story, since their flaws and decisions let the events progress and escalate further, which makes them feel alive and well merged with the world Fonda Lee built. Nevertheless, a lot of the actions that the characters took did not make a lot of sense in specific situations or were needlessly cruel, even given the topics the book deals with. Especially the grandfather gave the impression that he just appeared to talk the others down. Additionally, I really disagreed with some scenes and the behavior in them, which made it hard for me to continue the book sometimes.

Some scenes felt a bit too long or they were repeated in almost the same way too often, which made them repetitive to read and it seemed to just add to the page count of the book, without providing a real impact on anything.

All in all the idea of Jade City was really interesting to me, but I think the actual translation into the story was lacking in my opinion.

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

This book deserves its excellent reputation, but I had trouble getting into it. The opening chapter is from the POV of a self-centered teenage boy, Bero, and it wasn’t until the second chapter that I realized that I wasn’t supposed to like him.  Kaul Hilo, also a major character, presents initially as an overly macho posturer. Kaul Shae, who became my favorite character, is introduced at a moment when her life is in pieces, and it takes her a while to realize where her destiny lies.

Overall, however, this three-book series is some of the most innovative and dramatic fantasy of the last ten or fifteen years. The decades-long blood feud between the Kauls of the No Peak clan and the Eits of the Mountain clan ebbs and flows. It’s a drama of move and counter-move, and each time you think one clan is winning, the other clan makes a surprise move.

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dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings