Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Burning God

THE WHOLE TRIFECTA ARC JUST TO KILL THEM OFF?! JUST LIKE THAT?! When the bombs dropped I was like 'pah they surely survived that'. I WAS CERTAIN THEY WOULD RETURN, ONLY AFTER A 100 PAGES OR SO IT BECAME APPARENT THAT THERE COULDNT POSSIBLY BE SPACE FOR THEIR STORY ON SO LITTLE PAGES LEFT. And we never got to know what exactly Rigas powers were, bro was dead, resurrected and then dead again all in the span of 10 Minuten lmao.

I guess that just wasn't the focus of the Story but I can't help but wish for more.
Kuang opened up such a large World but in the end it still felt kinda unexplored.
Rins inner workings and morals were once again sooo interesting.

Her black and white thinking, the mental acrobatics girly did to justify her actions, the deep rooted racism at every corner and so onnnn.
Especially during the last pages it became apparent how far gone Rin was. The sheer Paranoia and the blindness for everything but War, Power another win and another one and another one.
I wanted to be mad at her as she killed Venka (THIS WAS SO FOUL) and then almost Kitay (I WILL FOREVER LOVE YOU KITAY) but I was just sad for her. Truly tragic.
AND THE ENDING.
Sounds strange but i'm so glad that Rin died. It was a good decision and it finally gave her rest. I hate when Authors can't say goodbye to their characters and just drag them along.

(And a random thought I had: It's so funny that all the male Yins look virtually the same. Kuang emphasized their physical similarities

(Riga, Vaisra, Nezha)

SO OFTEN, in the end I just pictured them as clones at different ages lmao.)

Content Warnings

r_snail52's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

w-o-w R F Kuang does it time and time again, this series truly ripped me to shreds, might i be spoiled now for any revenge arc book because of this beautifully and intricately constructed epic, yes. Do i care, nope. I absolutely adore this i’ve never read anything like it, well except maybe for babel. READ THIS SERIES RIGHT NOW

Content Warnings

jessicaludden's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

“She was a goddess. She was a monster. She’d nearly destroyed this country. And then she’d given it one last, gasping chance to live.”

There’s so much to unpack in this book. It so vividly portrayed this endless cycle of war and the impacts of constant oppression not just to our main character and her surroundings but to the entire country and its people. Rin makes the same mistakes over and over again and while some people could be annoyed by that, I loved it. She’s far from perfect. She’s almost villainous and it was the most interesting concept to read. I love how every relationship revolves around such a deep sense of love and hatred. Her friendships are full of so much history making betrayals and deaths and battles hurt that much more. This book gives a bleak and realistic ending that left me feeling hollow inside but I can’t see it ending any other way.

Content Warnings

chaptertraveller's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

WOW what a conclusion to this series!! I'm surprised to say that this was my least favourite of the three books, but it's still a solid 4 star read which imo, says a lot about the series as a whole and Kuang's insane writing abilities.

This book felt so much bigger that the others did, with the plot zooming out in a way that was more distant from the characters and comprehensive of Nikara, and yet I don't think it lost any of the character depth and development. I felt that overall, this book had a few pacing struggles comparatively, especially in the middle section of the book with

the Trifecta

specifically, but I think this conclusion was so so fitting for the story that Kuang was trying to tell.