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Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Medical trauma
Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Alcohol, Classism
Minor: Infertility, Racial slurs, Medical content, Death of parent
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Colonisation, War
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Grief, Classism
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Blood, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Classism
Minor: Emotional abuse, Rape
I'm still unsure what I want to rate this as it made me so uncomfortable and was so dark but I guess that was the point. War isn't supposed to be comfortable, the things people and nations do in war can be horrific and there is often no black and white good guy versus bad guy. I wanted to root for Rin and her friends but by the end I wondered if I really should.
Some scenes or descriptions were so intense that sometimes I wondered if they needed to be, but these things do happen in real life so why should we tone them down in fiction for the comfort of the reader? RF Kuang posed so many deep and thoughtful questions about the nature of conflict, war and genocide in this book and I thought that was good but I don't know if I can really say I enjoyed this book because there wasn't much fun about the content, but I found it interesting and well-written (though I could tell how much her writing has improved between this and her recent work).
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, War
Moderate: Racism, Rape, Suicide, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Slavery
That aside, I love the nuance the author provides. None of the characters or sides in the war are the 'good guys'. The main character is frustrating and makes many decisions the reader can't agree with. But her mental state and motivations are shown so well that we see why she did these things and all the forces that pushed her into them.
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Rape, Blood, War
Minor: Addiction, Self harm, Sexism, Grief, Colonisation, Classism
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual assault, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Medical trauma
Minor: Slavery, Toxic friendship