Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

261 reviews

min_grachi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

nicoles_reading_corner's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Cannibalism

lizziaha's review against another edition

dark

3.75

This final book in the poppy war trilogy tastes bitter. Rin’s ascent into godhood (because that’s what it is ultimately, the making of a legend, something bigger than life) twists her humanity. It’s a logical progression, an examination of how supernatural power twists the wielder’s humanity. The problem is that in her godhood, Rin is alone. Her power, her ambition, her trust and her betrayals, they’ve all warped her. Her superiority separates her, even her closest relationships become strained. She stops seeing people as human. It’s painfully realistic, and hard to read. It’s a point that needs to be made, and it’s sickening because you (the reader) stop seeing these people as human too. I couldn’t feel anything over the many deaths in this book because I was so stuck in Rin’s head. Characters pop in and out of her warpath so quickly that it’s impossible to connect with them, or even see Rin connect with them. Most of the time, she doesn’t even try. It’s horrifying to realize the conclusion that this book is spiraling towards, tighter and tighter until you feel suffocated by the weight of it. Vicious circles, indeed. Rin doesn’t, can’t, come to this conclusion until the end of the book, thinking, “history moved in such vicious circles.” And I’ll admit, it did take me a bit aback to recognize some of the parallels between Rin & co and the Trifecta. It’s a tough book to rate, because the very things that made me dislike it are the things that make it masterful. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Cannibalism, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Abortion and Death of parent

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.5

This is a tragedy on all accounts. 600 pages of pain. 

 It really shows how well Kuang understand the human aspect and the tactical aspect of the war that she’s written. it was painful, heartbreaking, has you building empathy and sympathy for characters who are absolute monsters, because you understand what they’ve gone through and their trauma and what shapes them. But it also does not skirt around the fact that what they are doing is also completely unforgivable and evil.
It still has the amazing action sequences, he ramped up to 11. each chapter has amazing dialogue and lessons to be learned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Cannibalism

persephonefoxx's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Torture, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Colonisation

Minor: Rape

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

For context, I do not normally read war books and this series did not convince me to. That being said, this book was the most compelling. There was not enough evidence to justify a lot of the decisions the characters made about each other. Part one was more of the same of the last two books: a violent, repetitive drag. Part two was just confusion. 

Part three was very fast paced. 

The ending was satisfying and also infuriating. A story about the horror and hopelessness that colonialism is.  Devastating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

nadia's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

I think this was a solid, clever resolution to the trilogy! There were parts of this I really enjoyed and parts I never fully grokked — mainly around character alliances, motivations, and some of the fantasy elements — but just went with!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Torture, and Colonisation

emrosch's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Not as good as the first two books, but still a great conclusion to one of the best – if not the best – historical fantasy book series I've ever read.

It took me a long time to get through it. It started off great and then became SOOOO slow, I honestly just wanted to be done with it after reading about 75%. It felt repetitive and really frustrating (and not in the good way). But that changed with the last couple of chapters, made everything SO worth it. Totally changed my entire opinion about book #3. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Torture, and Cannibalism

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Racism

winter2001's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

skitch41's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Cannibalism, and Religious bigotry