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A review by andreia
The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ooof. it hurts to write this review, partly because i can see i'm in a very very small minority with my opinion, but mostly because i so badly wanted to love this. i even mentioned in my review of tpw that i was expecting this to be a 5 star. sadly, in retrospect, i liked tpw a lot more and this was a big disappointment.
just to clarify, i've read some 5 star reviews of this and i can totally see why people love it & why this series is so praised. i really can. my rating is completely subjective and based on my personal enjoyment reading this, but i can understand how this would appeal to a lot of people because it's not by any means objectively bad.
it's hard to read a book about constant war, at times with very explicit violence, and have fun reading it. especially when you're very aware that immense suffering/violence is happening in real life (at the time i was reading this: palestine, columbia, india, etc.). it just feels very strange to willingly spend my free time picking up a book where the characters are constantly suffering.
and i know that's the point of this series, it relies heavily on real life events, the history of china, and it doesn't shy away from showing the true horrors of war. but knowing that didn't make it any easier to get through. this is so bleak from page 1 to the very end that it was hard for me to want to continue reading it.
it really didn't help that i was annoyed with rin the entire time. in my tpw review, i was ready to lay hands on anyone that dared criticize rin. i sympathized with her so much and was really rooting for some character growth in the second book. now i'm not even sure the author wants us to like rin. the way almost every single character called rin out on her bullshit throughout this book showed me that rebecca f. kuang knew exactly what she was doing, but i cannot for the life of me understand why you would want your main character to be so selfish, hypocritical and apathetic, even towards her closest friends.
i found it hard to care about anything that was happening because it was very obvious rin didn't care either. i feel like she completely lost her personality in this book and became someone who is inconvenient at the worst possible times and completely useless when we actually need her to take action. again, it's hard for me to care about anything if i'm not rooting for the main character.
i was also infuriated whenever altan was mentioned in this book because i really can't stand that man, so you can imagine my struggle when they would literally not stop talking about him the entire time. i was somewhat interested in chaghan x altan but the fact that it was causing so much conflict with rin became annoying after a while. my expectation going into this would be that rin would learn from what happened with altan and grow into someone who knows her worth and stands up for herself. instead, SURPRISE, fucking vaisra is here to be the next altan and rin is back to letting a horrible abusive man dictate her life/purpose for her. the worst part is that it's a conscious choice, she literally says at some point that she needs to be used and given orders so she has a purpose.
i can't even tell what the author's intentions were because it was all very inconsistent at times. i can kind of see how this might be a realistic portrayal of a young woman who's been through everything rin has, but there's so many moments where she's completely ready to take on the world and fight anyone in her way, and then just as quickly she's back to square 1 after an inconvenience.
also, i have to rant a little bit about the whole anchor bond thing. i was SO excited for kitay and rin becoming anchored to each other, i wanted to scream (in excitement), but very quickly i was disappointed by how little this was explored. maybe it'll be better in the third book but. for a while after the ritual it literally felt like nothing had happened. there was a lot of telling what the bond was supposed to be like, but not a lot of showing how it actually was for rin and kitay. of course, without the exception of kitay suffering at rin's expense several times, while rin somehow only feels kitay's pain once at the very end. i just wanted more, i wanted to feel like they were truly one and the same, and i didn't. i wanted to see them reading each other's thoughts, wants, needs, but they were still communicating the exact same way they were before the bond. ah it was just lacklustre for me, i'm sorry.
other than that, i can't say i was surprised by any other plot twist that happened in this book, unfortunately it was all very predictable. which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially being based in real history, but yeah. if i'd been more invested in the characters i might overlook it, but since i'm annoyed at pretty much everyone (except kitay and the cike), well.
ultimately, i think reading this right after tpw also did not help because, again, this whole series is so dark and bleak, there's not a moment's rest for the violence and sadness, which understandably brought my mood down a little. at times i even felt like certain acts of violence and the way they were explicitly written were purely for shock value (like the rape scene, which made me so uncomfortable i'm still not over it, and i'm angry that it's a thing because it feels pointless to be that descriptive. i get it, it's a war, these things happen, but you can't convince me that scene added anything to the plot other than shock value).
i am gonna read the third book because i've already gotten this far and would like to see how it ends for all the characters (especially nezha). but i'm definitely gonna take a break from this series for a while before finishing because i can't say i'm looking forward to it </3
just to clarify, i've read some 5 star reviews of this and i can totally see why people love it & why this series is so praised. i really can. my rating is completely subjective and based on my personal enjoyment reading this, but i can understand how this would appeal to a lot of people because it's not by any means objectively bad.
it's hard to read a book about constant war, at times with very explicit violence, and have fun reading it. especially when you're very aware that immense suffering/violence is happening in real life (at the time i was reading this: palestine, columbia, india, etc.). it just feels very strange to willingly spend my free time picking up a book where the characters are constantly suffering.
and i know that's the point of this series, it relies heavily on real life events, the history of china, and it doesn't shy away from showing the true horrors of war. but knowing that didn't make it any easier to get through. this is so bleak from page 1 to the very end that it was hard for me to want to continue reading it.
it really didn't help that i was annoyed with rin the entire time. in my tpw review, i was ready to lay hands on anyone that dared criticize rin. i sympathized with her so much and was really rooting for some character growth in the second book. now i'm not even sure the author wants us to like rin. the way almost every single character called rin out on her bullshit throughout this book showed me that rebecca f. kuang knew exactly what she was doing, but i cannot for the life of me understand why you would want your main character to be so selfish, hypocritical and apathetic, even towards her closest friends.
i found it hard to care about anything that was happening because it was very obvious rin didn't care either. i feel like she completely lost her personality in this book and became someone who is inconvenient at the worst possible times and completely useless when we actually need her to take action. again, it's hard for me to care about anything if i'm not rooting for the main character.
i was also infuriated whenever altan was mentioned in this book because i really can't stand that man, so you can imagine my struggle when they would literally not stop talking about him the entire time. i was somewhat interested in chaghan x altan but the fact that it was causing so much conflict with rin became annoying after a while. my expectation going into this would be that rin would learn from what happened with altan and grow into someone who knows her worth and stands up for herself. instead, SURPRISE, fucking vaisra is here to be the next altan and rin is back to letting a horrible abusive man dictate her life/purpose for her. the worst part is that it's a conscious choice, she literally says at some point that she needs to be used and given orders so she has a purpose.
i can't even tell what the author's intentions were because it was all very inconsistent at times. i can kind of see how this might be a realistic portrayal of a young woman who's been through everything rin has, but there's so many moments where she's completely ready to take on the world and fight anyone in her way, and then just as quickly she's back to square 1 after an inconvenience.
other than that, i can't say i was surprised by any other plot twist that happened in this book, unfortunately it was all very predictable. which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially being based in real history, but yeah. if i'd been more invested in the characters i might overlook it, but since i'm annoyed at pretty much everyone (except kitay and the cike), well.
ultimately, i think reading this right after tpw also did not help because, again, this whole series is so dark and bleak, there's not a moment's rest for the violence and sadness, which understandably brought my mood down a little. at times i even felt like certain acts of violence and the way they were explicitly written were purely for shock value (like the rape scene, which made me so uncomfortable i'm still not over it, and i'm angry that it's a thing because it feels pointless to be that descriptive. i get it, it's a war, these things happen, but you can't convince me that scene added anything to the plot other than shock value).
i am gonna read the third book because i've already gotten this far and would like to see how it ends for all the characters (especially nezha). but i'm definitely gonna take a break from this series for a while before finishing because i can't say i'm looking forward to it </3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Murder