Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Опиумная война by R.F. Kuang

2261 reviews

princeofhearts_'s review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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Oh. My god. This one was intense. It’s so good I wish I could rate it more than five stars. Definitely take the trigger warnings seriously for this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, War

britt_redalei's review against another edition

5.0

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Vomit

dianly's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail

krjuly's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

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This is so dark and so painful, and I am so glad I read it. This book is a challenge to preconceived worldviews and I think it's meant to be, but I don't think I was prepared for that at all. It had me questioning my own morality multiple times as I debated whether I agreed or disagreed with the choices made, but at the end of the day I think that's the point. It's uncomfortable, and it's meant to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War

Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Racism, Torture, Colonisation, Classism

nadinefanclub's review against another edition

5.0

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

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Whoever says that  Runin is similar to any other YA female protagonist is wrong. She is completely unique and terrifying. I love and hate her. She is one of the most complicated characters in this genre. People who try to water her down to make her more marketable on Tik Tok completely dismiss the nuance she carries.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Colonisation, Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault

strawbz's review against another edition

5.0

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: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

ayleamightread's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I’m so so so so glad I reread this book. I could (and have) talked about this book for hours because it is genuinely one of the best takes on GrimDark I have read so far. It goes without saying that this book is NOT for those who are just venturing into fantasy. This book contains just about every trigger warning you could think of. It is based on the Second Sino-Japanese war and has events paralleling the Rape of Nanking The intensity of the book ramps up relatively slowly at first but the last half of the book contains basically every war crime you can think of. I think it is done perfectly. We get the true essence of GrimDark in Poppy War, morally ambiguous characters, violence, attempts at hope in a hopeless situation and more. Poppy war has essentially no wholly good characters. We see so much internal and external conflict. At one point Rin has 3 extreme shifts in philosophy as she reflects on her violent actions that all occur in 5 pages. This book makes you question what is the line of “acceptable” tactics of war. Is equal retaliation acceptable, to what point? How far can you justify violence in the name of protection or in the name of retribution? To what extents will someone go to achieve peace? How do you live with yourself after seeing unfathomable horrors? How do you live with yourself after carrying out unspeakable violence? If violence is the only means to achieve peace, will peace ever be truly attainable? If your enemy sees your kind as monstrous, less than human, is it fair to do the same in return? Is winning a war and saving the lives of your people worth risking the safety of the entire world? What hell are you willing to release in attempts to end the war? And so SO SO SO much more. 
Poppy war also challenges the fantasy approach to destiny and fate. Characters might think themselves destined for the path they’re on, only to realize that every choice they’ve made has brought them to where they are. How does this realization affect their trajectory and future choices? Recommending this book is a tricky thing because many readers have not encountered such dark content. Some people might never be able to stomach this book, and that’s okay. I truly think Poppy War has so many lessons to teach us. And that was just the first book…..

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Genocide, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Torture

anna_theginger's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book had some very, very disturbing imagery I was not expecting, but that was entirely on me; I went in blind and didn’t fully know what this book would be about. The depictions of the atrocities of war were deeply upsetting. Overall the book was very well written and grabbed my attention, but ultimately I found it so upsetting I didn’t enjoy it as much as many other readers would. It is a great book and I’m sure a great series, but I will not be continuing the rest of the series and found this one hard to finish. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War

bbender1190's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

jtimog's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional 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

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love a good historical/fiction/fantasy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War