Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Dragon Republic - Republik Naga by R.F. Kuang

441 reviews

nikireadss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

I liked this book so much more than the first one! It started slow to around 15% of the book but then when it took off, the pace never slowed down but still built up until the very last page.

This time Nezha won the award for the most annoying character, taking over Rin’s spot in the ranking. Despite the genocide in the first book, which is not excused, Rin’s had a big character development. She was still very annoying for most of the book but slowly started to make logical decisions near the end of this book. Talking about the characters I have to prize Kitay, who made some of the smartest decisions in this series. 

Overall I liked how much we learned about the world and its origins in this part. So many plot twists. We also lost so many characters. My poor cike, each one of them was so hard to say goodbye to. Thanks to all events this book didn’t feel like the almost 800 pages it was. It didn’t feel like it could be any shorter and every page felt delectable. 

This one is my favorite so far!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Xenophobia, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Rape, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Grief, Toxic friendship, War, Cursing, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Racism, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Body horror, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, and Torture

berrytart's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

my girl rin just needs so much help 😔

but seriously this book was so good, i think it was equal to the first with how much i enjoyed it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Colonisation, Body horror, Drug use, Sexual violence, Blood, Drug abuse, Grief, Torture, War, Addiction, Animal death, Death, Gore, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, and Cannibalism

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Excrement, and Pregnancy

booksmoviesandstories's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Racism, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, War, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Self harm, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexism, and Mental illness

melitrophium's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: War, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Violence, Rape, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, and Kidnapping

saraellington_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Blood, Violence, and War

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, and Drug abuse

sierraclimbs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I did not enjoy the first half of this book. It was just the same thing over, and over, and over. War, war, war. I was honestly confused a few times wondering “how could we possibly have moved on so fast to battle just to have the same conflict in a slightly different context” 
But for a second book, overall it was quite good. I’m feeling more & more attached to these flawed characters. Again, very Game of Thrones esque.

You also need to be careful getting attached to characters… like in Game of Thrones

There was also a kinda sorta enemies to lovers thing going on that I loved! It’s refreshing to read something where romance isn’t the primary focus, not even the secondary focus, but is still acknowledged.
I’m so interested to see how this story ends…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Torture, Racism, Physical abuse, Death, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Drug abuse, Gore, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Violence, Religious bigotry, Rape, Addiction, Body horror, Drug use, Classism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Hate crime, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Slavery, Alcohol, and Vomit

If you’re here, presumably you’ve read the first book. I would say this second book has moments where it is harsher than the first… more graphic. But if you were able to handle the first book, you should be fine.

literaryloquacity's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Murder, Genocide, Drug use, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, War, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Violence, Torture, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, and Blood

margarcia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• 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: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Rape, Abandonment, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child abuse, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual assault, Vomit, Confinement, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Miscarriage, Child death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, War, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Blood, Drug use, Murder, and Torture

mollyhardt'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

First book took me 4 days to read - this one took 9 months. Couldn’t get into it for some reason.

The constant battles then loosing battles then being captured/finding themselves in trouble again/descriptions of Rin’s latest painful head spinning injury just became exhausting to read about. Yes this was to show the brutality and loss of war but I eventually stopped caring about the outcome or the characters.

 

As a fantasy series it still rates well above average and I’ll be reading the third. Rin is one of the most emotionally complex characters I’ve read about and her relationship with Kitay in this was nice to see. Upon reflection I think I enjoyed the 1st significantly more as there were other things going on aside from just war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Rape, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Gore

rolsbooks's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

5.0

This was cruel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Rape, Addiction, Violence, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm