Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Dragon Republic, by R.F. Kuang

47 reviews

marah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

I loved this book!! Rin’s character development was so satisfying to see. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Medical content, Addiction, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Violence, War, Blood, Child death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racism, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Injury/injury detail, Suicide attempt, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Abortion, Self harm, Slavery, Vomit, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Child death, Police brutality, Bullying, Cursing, and Death of parent

I think that because of these topics, this book had potential to fall into trauma-porn territory but it definitely did not. R.F. Kuang writes about this material very well.

Spoiler

BUT ALSO THE DUMPLINGS PART WAS SO FUCKED UP

jules44's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

This sequel starts slow but builds into a war epic that rivals the first book in this series. The rich lore, conflicted character motivations, and the horrifying historical recounts of war made this story difficult to put down. Grotesque and hopeless, but an incredibly important work of fantasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Rape

clalaure's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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: War, Violence, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Torture, Sexual harassment, and Panic attacks/disorders

ejs2000's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Drug use, Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, War, Classism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Torture

coolfool_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.25

 This book was definitely not what I was expecting. I knew from the first book that this book wouldn’t take a happy turn but nothing would prepare me for what would happen. It had plot twists that I wasn’t expecting and character deaths that I would never imagine to happen. Rin struggled in this book as she did in the first book. Her opium addiction is explicitly mentioned during the first part of the book and was a major downfall for her.  In this book, we follow her as she tries to summon the fire back and overturn Daji’s empire. I think what was most difficult about this book was how insufferable the characters are. How nothing ever seems to lighten the mood and how it’s just a constant misery to read. The only character that I seemed to slightly root for was Rin when she got the fire back. I don’t think the characters are complex but just hard to read about. Their motivations are all over the place and it was disappointing to read about how Rin was set up for a constant downfall. But, I still found this book intriguing to read. I always thought that both books were such an immersive read because of how plot heavy it is. The page count doesn’t bother me because of how quickly it captures you. So, even though this book isn’t perfect I still found it to be interesting and I will be reading The Burning God. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Blood, and Death

Minor: Vomit, Injury/injury detail, and Pregnancy

rosen575's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Alcohol, Drug use, Sexual assault, Addiction, Cursing, Death, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, Blood, Rape, and Vomit

cemeterygay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Violence, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Torture, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Classism, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Murder, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Cannibalism

Additional CW: Scientific racism, Christian imperialism, and colorism

youcancallmefi'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Blood, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Addiction, War, Violence, and Suicide

xtinashad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

4.5

Wow, a lot of mind effing. The war external is brutal and calculating, while the internal war in Ren is far more intense. This was a slow journey through Rens struggles, defeats and triumphs. Gut wrenching at times to read but it was hard to put down. 

I'm reading the third book immediately. I feel as though her mission is clear now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Genocide, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, Murder, Death, Drug use, Torture, Injury/injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Vomit, Mental illness, and Rape

miavlb's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

I still enjoyed this book, but it was a little more difficult to have motivation to get through this book. It's not because it was bad, but because the story felt like it was going nowhere in like the first 2/3 of the book. The first book followed Rin's journey to Sinegard and her discovering her Speerly powers. But in the second book, it doesn't feel like much happens. I understand Rin is recovering from using her powers and grieving over Altan, but the events that happen during their time at sea wasn't very interesting. And on top of that, Su Daji blocks Rin's access to her powers, so a lot of the book is just Rin sad about not having her powers. It's not until the last third of the book when she can use her powers again and the story actually picks up. Rin finally has closure with Altan's death and so much gets revealed in the end that I finally got interested in the book again. Another thing I liked was seeing Rin's relationships with Kitay, Venka, and especially Nezha. Overall, I think this is still a great book, especially if you like reading more about the political side of wars, but I liked the first book more. I am excited to read the third book but I am also worried about who else is going to die lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Animal death, Sexual assault, Gore, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, and War

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, and Alcohol

Minor: Cannibalism