Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Ciudad de Jade by Fonda Lee

32 reviews

hanlov's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Minor: Sexual content and Xenophobia

iono's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, War, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Cursing, Homophobia, Rape, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.5

I enjoyed this modern fantasy take on gangster warfare. Lee has built an interesting post-war Asian world complete with territory disputes, magic and foreign powers interfering. Layers and layers of betrayal and plot twists. The audiobook is excellent, too!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

aaronmarkey's review against another edition

Really great prose, characterization, and planted world building. Seriously. An incredibly well written book. The world was immediately knowable, the character arcs and ticks are well laid out. Certainly worth recommending others read, however the story is not for me. 

The whole novel seems to be about a racist family obsessed with honor. I distain honor as a story concept — just a blank check for racist and prideful people to be horrible and justify it. 

If Fonda Lee writes future books without the racism worship, I’d gladly pick it up. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

pri_lakshmi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

lissi_k's review against another edition

4.5

This is the first book in a long time that managed to make me feel the way I felt reading fantasy as a child. It has this feel of absoulte immersion into another world to it, while still satisfying the storytelling quality I look for now as an adult. 

The worldbuilding is insane - at first it seems very straightforward, but throughout the story the author effortlessly weaves in more and more details that make you realise how deep it actually goes, and how every part of it is inextricably intertwined with the characters and the story at large. 

All the characters are three-dimensional, morally grey and very human, and it is so interesting to follow their thoughts and actions. Every action always has far-reaching consequences, nothing exists in a vacuum. 

Bonus points are the fight scenes, which are remarkably realistic both regarding what happens, and how the characters feel during. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Murder

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism

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

---

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

---

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. 

---

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