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kottengoesbork's review
- 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
3.25
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Blood
metalballwheatley's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Also this book has great white british man representation. I feel like the content here is really accurate to their culture.
Graphic: Violence, Death, Alcohol, and Gun violence
Moderate: Transphobia, Racism, and Blood
beccaandthegingercat's review
- Loveable characters? No
3.5
I hope this author keeps writing and finds an editor that helps her work shine. In another few novels, I bet they’ll be really good!
Moderate: Gun violence, Death, and Blood
As a content warning: insects. If you’re easily creeped out by creepy, crawly things, this isn’t the book for you.f_r_e_d's review
3.5
I loved the concept of the gangs and thought that it was a very fun idea and very mysterious. I don't think the ending or the "big reveal" made any sense at all. All the puzzle pieces came together to fast to understand. And then the understanding switched every ten seconds. So the ending was sloppy and hard to understand. I never actually knew who the antagonist was.
All in all I enjoyed and would read it again. Very good retailing.
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Blood
onceuponherbookshelf's review
- 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? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Trafficking, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
m4rtt4's review
- 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? No
4.5
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Murder, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racism, Body horror, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Medical content
Minor: Drug use, Transphobia, and Alcohol
readingdragon28's review against another edition
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Death, and Blood
jeyjeyyy's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I really liked the historical references and it did teach me a lot about society in Shanghai at that time. However, the fantasy plots did not make a lot of sense to me. I also did not particularly care about what was happening. The romance also felt a bit bland, it was really great at the beginning but I found its ‘resolution’ a bit too easy. Kind of felt like the characters lost most of the fun aspects of their personality about halfway through… What I wanted was angst upon angst and enemies and hatred and tensionand a LOT more romance. I did not really get that. This sounds iind of bad but I wnated it to be more… toxic? I mean this is Romeo and Juliet !!
Not to say I didn’t like the book, it was just not my favourite.
Also REALLY loved the side characters, especially Kathleen and Marshall and Ben. Excited to see more of them.
Graphic: Drug use, Racism, Medical content, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Murder, Sexism, Death, Gun violence, and Violence
cnaccarato's review
- 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
Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Misogyny, Classism, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Gore, Murder, Grief, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Sexism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism
Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, and Drug use
Minor: Police brutality, Outing, Bullying, Sexual content, and Homophobia
superstar_y2k's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
this book speaks on colonialism, racism and white supremacy, murder, betrayal, politics, and other humanitarian topics but somehow oversimplifies and brushes off those topics to follow a clumsy mystery where our romeo & juliette must work together despite their previous murderous betrayals. see, the thing about shakespeare’s romeo & juliette is that the reader wants to root for them. roma & juliette cai aren’t likable characters that i felt didn’t actually love each other.
i could go on, but honestly there are many other reviews i’ve seen that correspond to the way i feel, so i won’t beat a dead horse
Graphic: Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Death, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Child abuse, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Blood, and Torture
Moderate: Death of parent, Bullying, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Gore, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief