Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Опиумная война by R.F. Kuang

1878 reviews

gcwkent's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Sexual assault, Blood, War

nickaylab's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

mayablythe's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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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I felt that the bit in school could've been an entire book in itself, and because it wasn't, it felt rather rushed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail

bellybooboo's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

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okay so.. this is actually a 4.5 ONLY AND ONLY cause i kind of had to push myself through it a bit. it was kind of slow at first at least for me but the story and the character development goes CRAZY in this book..

if fang runin was this savage in this book i can only imagine in the other ones. i WILL be continuing this series. welcome back darth vader. i can’t WAIT to see what rin was in story for the empress.

january book of 2025 - lembi

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

bookthrifter's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark tense

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

lawrence_david's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Blood, Colonisation, Classism

puffins57's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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 book was extremely well written and it never felt as if there was a dull moment. On that note, however, there were sections that I wish for more time or attention rather than breezing through. That being said it’s very apparent how intentional the pacing of the book was, so I can’t necessarily say changing it wouldn’t have made it blocky. One of the things I really enjoyed was how clear Rins character change is from the start to the end of the book. While still the same person, she almost morphs into exactly the kind of person she would have once looked at with disgust. There’s also an immediate understanding in the motivations and almost a sense of being able to explain or excuse some of Atlanta behaviors and choices once Rin changes to be like him. Some scenes were difficult to even imagine in terms of senseless cruelty and violence, a fact made even worse knowing there was much historical backing to the events Kuang shares and paints for us. Rins character is in a constant pull between her Master and her Commander, yet when Atlan passed it does very much feel like he fit the fallen mentor troupe. As readers, you quickly begin to face a dilemma regarding how far your justification for and how much you can vouch for, or really even like, Rin towards the conclusion of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

mrnikkel's review against another edition

3.5

dark sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, War, Classism

sarahholliday's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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R.F. Kuang does it again—a well-paced story, thoughtfully built world, and compelling characters. To be fair, I wanted to shake just about every character by the shoulders at some point, but I think that's just a side effect of genuine complexity. 

I enjoyed the somewhat leisurely pace of the first part of the story. Getting to see Rin gradually develop and grow allows the reader to get to know the essential parts of her personality that eventually become amplified in the context of warfare. 

Overall, I think this was an incredibly strong opening to the series and I can't wait to see where the story goes from here. I'm especially interested to see how Rin deals with the grief and guilt after the final events of the book, and hope to see some familiar faces return in the second and third installments!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

emilyiswriting's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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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Wow

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, War

Moderate: Addiction