Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Jade City by Fonda Lee

6 reviews

lunep's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Alcohol, Murder, Violence, Medical content, Sexual content, Blood, Cursing, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Body horror, Drug use, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Pedophilia, Vomit, Mental illness, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Addiction, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Infidelity, Suicide, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Dementia, Child abuse, and Racism

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Classism, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Stalking, Violence, Trafficking, War, Sexual content, Suicide, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Self harm, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Ableism, and Gaslighting

This is the first part of a fantasy tinged saga about a crime family. All the violence and tropes of mafia stories are present here. Certain things are also essentially superpowers. That said, it’s also very gritty with hard hitting violence. There’s mental illness, there’s drug addiction, there’s deteriorating health of the elderly old leader. There’s suggestions that one character is a sex offender and pervert. There’s essentially ableism surrounding certain figures born to Jade user families but can’t use Jade abilities, ableism suggestions. There’s vilification and racism toward certain outside nations albeit because they’re also colonizing forces. Also, certain characters’ relationships with foreign nationals are heavily talked about with racist suggestion. The connection between drug addiction and potential suicide is a major theme in the story because it’s framed within the context of jade ability performance enhancement drug usage. There’s a lot of heavy themes to suggest while reading through this mafia family novel.

takarakei's review

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

• Warring mafia/mob families
• Political intrigue to the max 
• Kung fu/martial arts inspired
• Complex lovable characters
• Multiple POV

I struggled in parts of this book because of the amount of political intrigue related to the clans/families was a lot and I'm not really interested in mafias in general. But those parts were also the typical sorts of things I figure you'd find in books about a mob family and being used as a kind of structure/base (I haven't read any others, so I personally don't have anything to compare it to besides The Sopranos). However the things that make this book unique, mainly the jade and THE CHARACTERS which are all so complex and interesting, were thoroughly enjoyable. I found myself towards the end really getting invested because I loved these characters so much.

Even though my favorite character was killed relatively early on. It's ok, I still hold a glimmer of hope something magical will happen.

Since this is the first book in a series it did feel like it was a lot of set up for the subsequent books, but I am interested to keep reading and see where things go from here.

Also I drew a lot of parallels between this book and The Poppy War, even though they are VERY different series. But interestingly the first books were published a year apart, so I wonder if Fonda Lee and R.F. Kuang have any similar influences.

3/5 🌶️ (there is explicit sex but it’s very sporadic)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Death, Drug use, and War

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Addiction, and Dementia

Minor: Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Rape, and Animal death

Borderline child pornography aka just a gross old man being a pervert Animal cruelty: cock fights, general derogatory language "dog-fucker" Rape: mentioned historically in terms of colonizers taking native people abroad

bearystarry's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I'm extremely emotionally attached to all of the main characters and am a little terrified to read the next two books, not gonna lie. I think the characterizations and descriptions are so well done... ugh. I love it.

I cried multiple times at Lan's death and how people mourned him afterward as well. Oof. Honestly stunning emotional writing in that sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Drug use, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Kidnapping, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Abandonment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Mental illness, Murder, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, and Gun violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Fatphobia, and Ableism

horizonous's review against another edition

dark 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Murder, Xenophobia, Animal death, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Self harm, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Death, Suicide, and Infidelity

◦ Death (minor) = Parent
◦ Death (moderate) = Sibling
◦ Terminal illness = Dementia

thomasmikayla's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault and Animal cruelty