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Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, War
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Classism
Graphic: Genocide, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, War
Favorite quotes:
Slowly, RIn removed the incense stick from her nostril. "Hello," she said. "I'm praying." "Please leave." (p. 24)
"I don't believe in gods. But I do believe in power." (p. 173)
"Once an empire has becomes convinced of its worldview, anything that evidences the contrary must be erased." (p. 196)
My thoughts: This book took me by surprise and almost made me vomit. Not joking, I was physically sick for 24 hours thinking about it before I could pick it back up and finish it. It is a menace and a masterpiece.
At the start, your worries are Rin's biggest worries: getting into school, escaping home, overcoming bullies, and being praised for her achievements. She is a child, although a traumatized one, with worries and wants that are not unfamiliar to the standard person. And then the war comes. And as a reader, the war comes for you, too.
Fart jokes and childlike ambition give way to horror and the necessity to survive above all else. We watch Rin start losing everything she has come to know and begin wondering is she's also losing her mind under the weight of the horrors she is witnessing and the power she is coming into contact with. I think her character development is one of the most rapid and extreme that I have ever read.
This is not a light read. This is watching a child endure and grasp at power in an attempt to feel in control only to lose more. Undoubtedly, this book should have trigger warnings, especially for pages 424-425. Reading fantasy or fiction, you get a little more used to books writing cities of corpses. What caught me off guard was the detail, the horror, and the sheer realness of these pages depicting the violence against women in wartime. For a book of gods, this is also a book about war and was a sobering reminder that while some elements are fantasy, others are painfully real.
I would recommend this book, as it was fantastically written. That being said, I do think it will take me a while to be brave enough to read the next one. I recommend that anyone undertaking this series seriously checks trigger warnings before beginning.
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail
I don't know that I'm going to commit to another two books in the world, but I did enjoy this first book.
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit
Minor: Trafficking
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Infertility
Minor: Vomit
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Addiction, Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, War
The previously set up cast of supporting characters disappear entirely
In terms of inspiration, there are points where it feels copy-and-pasted enough to take you out of the story and world being made. Sunzi as a not so subtle rip of Sun Tzu and his 'Art of War' are frequent references, and then there's Chapter 21. On this, I'm torn between whether this direct lifting of events comes across as self-insert fan fiction into real life atrocities or is an accessible way to encourage audiences to learn more about the history.
Despite how this review is mostly my thoughts on the negative, I did enjoy this book. But it's definitely a series I need to take a break from rather than feeling a rush to finish the whole story.
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, War