Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

43 reviews

tariana's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The book just kept me anguished but I couldn’t stop reading it. The ending was difficult, I felt nauseated, unhopeful and once again, anguished. I had to take many pauses, I could only complete it after I told my husband that I needed to share everything that was happening so I could put out my feelings. Well done, RF Kuang, I missed reading books with so well written characters and I’ll certainly miss Rin, Kitay, Venka, the Trifecta and the Cike. Now let me go grab a lighter book to read so I can emotionally recover from this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Torture, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, and Abortion

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Cannibalism

Minor: Animal death, Sexual violence, and Abortion

lighterthaneyre's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

I don't think everything makes total complete sense logistically, but I think it comes together emotionally with the themes.

Killing the trifecta off so early, not really digging into the "Riga is what Rin could be",even Rin asking to be killed in the end. I don't think those make like, logistical sense.

The themes of the first books are brought together well.

The way the Hisperians are handled, a necessary evil, an inevitable blight, was really interesting. Their city and how our of place it felt, the racist bullshit they normalize, they're meddling, winning even when they militarily lost. Fuck, I *felt* Rin when they demanded access for their missionaries in return for grain. God I felt how infuriating it was for them to lose and still demand so much. Also sending the missionary to your evil gods rules, 10/10. Rins descent past reason, never stopping, losing everyone around her as they want to lay down their arms, it worked so well

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction and Abortion

zoelufoel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I saw this one girl on tiktok saying one should not pick up this book and should rather experience joy because this book series is literally gonna mess with one’s emotions and there are so many ”joyful“ books out there… 
Well I agree! This entire series ripped my heart, brain and soul apart and then tried to plaster the pieces back together. If you can’t stand frustration, hard-emotional-breakdowns as well as anger, disappointment and disgust all at once don’t pick up this series. If you can, I’ll gladly welcome you to this new chapter of your life. I promise you’ll be a different person after reading this! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and War

bookishedi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Abortion, and Abandonment

tatertot2005's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Abortion, and Death of parent

anispaperbacks's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I think I'm still in shock of finishing the trilogy.. 
 Watching Rin and the decisions she made throughout The Burning God was so fascinating. You know she's making choices that a morally sound person would not really be making but you can't help but enjoy it with some kind of sick satisfaction.

Speaking of such, the times in the book where she seemed to just have incredible divine power and influence, specifically at the Anvil and Mount Tianshen, were just SO satisfying to read. In general, it was great to see Rin once again fall into a devote-myself-to-this-superior-force-because-they-tell-me-how-crucial-i-am-to-the-cause-but-then-the-second-im-not-anymore-im-instantly-betrayed-and-discarded situation and then just go fuck this im doing my own thing now

Spoiler for both this book and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes lmao:

In chapter 33 I couldn't help but draw a comparison to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The character, determined for things to end how they will it, spiralling severely into paranoia, which then violently turns them against the person they were closest to (although Coriolanus was a bit more of a straight up horrible person and did not have any even slightly redeeming qualities lol). 

Anyway, this isn't much of a review yet, more just me sharing some thoughts I had. So: 

Overall, this was a great last novel in the trilogy. Despite the fact that I do feel a little unsatisfied and jarred at the ending, its the way things should have probably gone. I didn't enjoy (if enjoy is the right word for The Horrors experienced) The Burning God as much as I did The Dragon Republic, which is still by far my favourite in the trilogy, but this still rakes up 4 stars. I just feel like a lot of the book, I wasn't as invested in what was going on? I guess it just felt like there was a fair bit of reading to get to the bits which were just a bit more interesting to read, which IS fair for the topic of the book and understanding the gravity of everything going on, you can't have a book about war without large amounts of chapters on the military movements and engagements. It didn't diminish the book for me but The Burning God just wasn't quite what The Dragon Republic was to me. 

I'm never going to forgive R.F Kuang for what she has done to me. In my review of TDR, I'm pretty sure I said I would kill myself if anything happened to Rin and Kitay so I better get onto that then. /lhj The trilogy was devastating and the characters are just so believable and complex. I adore how R.F Kuang writes and I'm not sure what to do with myself now that I've finished all the books. These books just amazingly well show the absolute horrors and brutality of war. The absolute devastation it leaves in its wake. How it changes people and what it drives them to do. The Poppy War trilogy has got to be one of my favourite fantasy series I have read, they are so well done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, Abortion, and Pregnancy

icy_queen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Infertility and Abortion

pagesihavenotyetread's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

skipstitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Suicide, Xenophobia, Murder, and War

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Miscarriage and Abortion