Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Ciudad de Jade by Fonda Lee

31 reviews

lonelylooper's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Suicide

lunep's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Kidnapping

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Suicide, Dementia, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

This is the first part of a fantasy tinged saga about a crime family. All the violence and tropes of mafia stories are present here. Certain things are also essentially superpowers. That said, it’s also very gritty with hard hitting violence. There’s mental illness, there’s drug addiction, there’s deteriorating health of the elderly old leader. There’s suggestions that one character is a sex offender and pervert. There’s essentially ableism surrounding certain figures born to Jade user families but can’t use Jade abilities, ableism suggestions. There’s vilification and racism toward certain outside nations albeit because they’re also colonizing forces. Also, certain characters’ relationships with foreign nationals are heavily talked about with racist suggestion. The connection between drug addiction and potential suicide is a major theme in the story because it’s framed within the context of jade ability performance enhancement drug usage. There’s a lot of heavy themes to suggest while reading through this mafia family novel.

gus717's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Rape, Torture, Xenophobia, and Alcohol

daydream_e's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

Amazing characters who are deeply flawed and yet so easy to care about. Excellent portrayal of civil war and the complexities of post-colonial development, as well as international politics - I’m  considering recommending this to my undergraduate comparative politics students as an enjoyable way to consider how natural resources, colonial history, corruption and crime, and international politics interact. Particularly given the author has no academic history/polisci background, it’s incredibly impressive that she was able to create a fictional world with such realistic politics, and it speaks to what must be an incredible grasp of colonial and post-colonial Asian history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Homophobia

Racism, xenophobia, war, and colonization are within the context of a fictional country with obvious real world analogues, but not one-to-one with real life events. Mental illness and drug use/addiction are also within the context of a fictional drug. Violence and injury is often very explicit - think hard R rated action movie - but not dwelled on excessively. Grief is a major theme throughout the book for many characters BIG SPOILER:

including the death of a POV character

amburrella'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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Gun violence

Minor: Racism

unboxedjack's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

takarakei's review against another edition

dark 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

4.5

• Warring mafia/mob families
• Political intrigue to the max 
• Kung fu/martial arts inspired
• Complex lovable characters
• Multiple POV

I struggled in parts of this book because of the amount of political intrigue related to the clans/families was a lot and I'm not really interested in mafias in general. But those parts were also the typical sorts of things I figure you'd find in books about a mob family and being used as a kind of structure/base (I haven't read any others, so I personally don't have anything to compare it to besides The Sopranos). However the things that make this book unique, mainly the jade and THE CHARACTERS which are all so complex and interesting, were thoroughly enjoyable. I found myself towards the end really getting invested because I loved these characters so much.

Even though my favorite character was killed relatively early on. It's ok, I still hold a glimmer of hope something magical will happen.

Since this is the first book in a series it did feel like it was a lot of set up for the subsequent books, but I am interested to keep reading and see where things go from here.

Also I drew a lot of parallels between this book and The Poppy War, even though they are VERY different series. But interestingly the first books were published a year apart, so I wonder if Fonda Lee and R.F. Kuang have any similar influences.

3/5 🌶️ (there is explicit sex but it’s very sporadic)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, and Dementia

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, and Colonisation

Borderline child pornography aka just a gross old man being a pervert Animal cruelty: cock fights, general derogatory language "dog-fucker" Rape: mentioned historically in terms of colonizers taking native people abroad

jessiereads98'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

5.0

An absolute masterpiece. Fonda Lee has crafted amazing characters in an incredible world. Truly the world building here is masterful. She weaves the narratives of characters together flawlessly, revealing important details or moments at the exact right time. The action scenes grab you and pull you to the edge of your seat. I can not wait to read the rest of this trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Gore, and Dementia

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Dementia, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, and Xenophobia