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Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War
Moderate: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief
Minor: Animal death, Infertility, Self harm
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Sexual violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Infertility, Rape, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War
Rin’s journey—from poverty to military school to the horrors of war—was gripping and raw. I kept hoping for a fairytale moment for her, but Kuang did not shy away from the brutal realities of power, ambition, and sacrifice. And that ending—my jaw dropped! I did not see it coming at all. I can’t wait to dive into the next book in the series.
Graphic: Genocide, Rape, Torture, Violence, Murder, War
Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction
Excuse me as I move on to The Dragon Republic (Book 2) to avoid a SERIOUS book hangover. I went into this not expecting anything - in fact, I think I was kind of dreading it? It's a long book, and fantasy can be hit or miss, maybe even intimidating at times. And even though this book was slow at first, when it took off... IT TOOK OFF. I already knew it was going to be 5 stars before I even finished. I think I mentioned this in a status update while reading, but it's kind of like Fourth Wing meets The Umbrella Academy, with just a twinge of Teen Titans. This just rang all the literary bells for me, and I am SO excited for the second book in this trilogy. I had it borrowed from Libby before I even finished this one, which I did a combo of audio & paperback for.
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Self harm, Sexism, Torture, Excrement
Minor: Bullying, Child death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment
<Spoiler>
We get to explore a naive young Rin desperate to get out Tikany to avoid being a child bride and leave her life as essentially a drug dealer. Then we see her at the academy where she befriends Kitay, another “outcast” among the class, and watch as her relationship with her odd teacher Jiang grows, mostly out of curiosity. Once she pledges Lore we expect that we will finally understand why Jiang is still allowed to teach, what exactly does he teach, and how it can be applied to war.
We only get some of what we’d hoped, the high level idea of Lore is shared with us but there are obviously layers to it that Rin and the reader don’t understand, which Altan explains later on. When the war comes knocking at their doorstep, Rin is obviously not ready for war. She has a lot of questions that she is still working through with her master, but has been given guidelines of what not to do with little reasoning. Rin abandons this in the second part, exposing that she can call upon the Phoenix god and she sets fire to the federation general in a melee battle. It’s here we start to notice that she is going to disobey her master.
When she’s sent to operate with the Cike after finding out she’s Speerly, it’s confusing to Rin and the reader what her intentions are. She believes and respects Jiang enough to heed his warning about not wanting her to use the gods through her… At first, and to not let those out of chuluu korikh, but then decides to throw caution to the wind to avenge Altan. Then she uses the phoenix to commit a mass genocide, feels next to nothing, and the only person to talk about it is Kitay?
Hoping the second book talks more about this life altering event.
Side note - added in later -
I found it interesting that in the strategy class Rin proposed the flooding solution for winning a battle, but Qara puts a similar plan into action per Altan’s order, and Rin questions her on the outcome and her guilt, almost if trying to rationalize that what she did was for the greater good and what Qara did was inherently evil.
I think this along with Rin being against drug use as a “dealer”, to a user herself help highlight her internal moral conflict and evolution throughout the story as we try to figure out what drives/motivates her.
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Torture, War
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Genocide, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, War