Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

64 reviews

winter2001's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Xenophobia, War, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Colonisation, Cursing, Cannibalism, Genocide, and Torture

winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

The ending was perfect for this amazing series and I loved everything about it.
The character work is immaculate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Genocide, Murder, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Child death, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Trafficking, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Drug use, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Rape, Slavery, Violence, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Medical trauma, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Racism, Self harm, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Vomit, and War

kaylaswhitmore'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow. Okay, this was quite the ride! I finished the trilogy in the span of a week and a half and it was definitely a riveting journey. 

First, my praise for TBG… Where in the previous two books I felt like some of the relationships lacked the time required to endear me to them, this one absolutely flipped that upside down. In particular, I found that the party’s with Rin and Kitay were some of my favorite. Kuang really found such a tender and beautiful balance between love and friendship with those two, and the adamantly platonic aspect to their bond was a welcome one. In turn, Rin and Venka’s relationship was both inspiring and heartbreaking (if you’ve read it, you’ll understand), and I never would have predicted it becoming so strong. That, paired with Jiang’s final moments, really elevated my investment in Rin’s emotional character building (ironically enough). 

Nezha and Rin on the other hand…. Fuck, man. What a twist in the gut. I’ll be honest, the optimist in me was really rooting for them even tho the pessimist in me saw the parallels coming a mile away. Even still, it was a gut wrenching way to close out the series and I honestly couldn’t see it ending any differently. That hurts to say, but I do think that the strength of Kuang’s writing is that she created a deliciously complex main character. When I loved her, I LOVED her, and while I never hated her, I couldn’t help but cringe at her lack of foresight at times. 

That brings me to my critiques. As a whole, I think this is a super well-thought out trilogy, especially considering Kuang was only 19 when TPW was published and 23 when TBG was published! Insane! However, I do feel that my biggest issue with the series is that it presented such a deeply painful world with too little reprieve. It’s not that I think she needed to soften the pain, but that she might have added more little joys and moments that allowed us to understand why anyone would ever want to keep living in this world lol. Sometimes, the best way to set up a tragedy is to surround it with comedy or lightness, and I personally felt that her endless strings of tragedy throughout the series led me to a jadedness of emotion—such that the ending lacked some of its potential “punch.” Now, don’t get me wrong, I still cried haha, but I think it could have made me sob if I had actually believed that any of them could achieve a happy ending. But aside from that, the only other issues I had were perhaps differences of writing style—which is of no fault of Kuang. Just simple preference. 

All in all, I think this book alone had a wonderful richness of tone and a stunningly heartbreaking narrative. I will most definitely reread it in the future and hope others take on this world as well. It certainly left me much food for thought, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mythical and tragic telling of Rin Fang’s life. Then again, Im always a sucker for female rage represented well ;)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, War, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Colonisation, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Cursing

mreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

I have no idea where to begin when thinking about the Poppy War Trilogy. Of course it's easy enough to say "talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same" but that just doesn't seem to fully encompass it. 

R.F Kuang has absolutely become a favorite author. Her use of fantastical magic with the unfortunate, brutal truths of history have raised the bar for the subgenre over all. The heartbreak that I feel in the wake of finishing this series is hard to put into words. But all the same I'm grateful to feel it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Racism, Addiction, War, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Violence, Sexual violence, Murder, Rape, and Death

Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny, Blood, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical trauma, Alcoholism, and Cannibalism

Minor: Classism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Cursing

I have no idea where to begin when thinking about the Poppy War Trilogy. Of course it's easy enough to say "talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same" but that just doesn't seem to fully encompass it. R.F Kuang has absolutely become a favorite author. Her use of fantastical magic with the unfortunate, brutal truths of history have raised the bar for the subgenre over all. The heartbreak that I feel in the wake of finishing this series is hard to put into words. But all the same I'm grateful to feel it.

laughingkatana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I simply couldn't give it 4 stars. This book was truly great. It was fully immersive, incredibly detailed, and told an wonderful story (wonderful isn't the right word, it's an incredibly dark story). While reading the biggest issue was the pacing.

Spoiler

the marching and travel of war troops was clearly established in all three books, but this one took it to another level and it dragged on and on at times.

(Next spoiler is very light)

Spoiler

In other moments it felt like large climactic moments were brushed quickly to the side and made me question their importance to the story entirely.

After finishing the book my biggest issue is simply how much is left to question, and how the characters justified the ending. I'm very curious if R.F. Kuang will ever publish anything based in the same world and taking place after this trilogy. It's odd, I'm disappointed and wanting more of the story simultaneously. I think I just want to know if/how the characters in this story will affect the world long term.

Spoiler

It honestly feels like if Rin, Nezha, and a large majority of the main chracters never existed the story would've ended the same way. It doesn't feel like they had any impact in the long run.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Addiction, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Torture, Animal death, Confinement, Drug use, Grief, War, Blood, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, and Religious bigotry

brainrot_197's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Confinement, Cursing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, War, Rape, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

missbsbookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Alcohol, Body horror, Classism, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Blood, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Addiction, War, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

quill88'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Classism, Murder, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Toxic friendship, War, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Cursing, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal death, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Slavery, Cannibalism, Confinement, and Pandemic/Epidemic

cassmreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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: Violence, Vomit, Death, Racism, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Murder, Torture, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Classism, Medical content, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Rape

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Review of The Burning God

By: RF Kuang

            Rin and Nezha are now enemies and Kitay is her anchor, who keeps her from losing her humanity.  But it isn’t easy when your enemy has his own water God and not all your allies trust you nor do you trust your own capabilities.

            This is an amazing end for fantastic trilogy.  The confrontation between Rin and Nezha is complicated mess that shows how things aren’t so black and white.  The whole trilogy has explored this with this war showing there’s no villains, just people who think they are in the right.  You can understand Rin and Nezha’s rationalizations and you actually feel sorry for him, despite seeing things through Rin.  We also see the consequences of Rin and Nezha’s Civil war and how it effects the people.  Rin rationalizes that this war and if they side with the Republic they deserve to be punished.  At the same time Rin wants and misses Nezha, and the pair can’t seem to kill each other even though the want to.  Her relationship to Kitay gets shaken up as Rin gets closer to her fight with Nezha.  He is a character that keeps Rin human and prevents her from relying on her fire power first.  They are closer, because they’re anchored, but often clash on how to handle the war.  It tears their relationship apart.  I love how we learn about the Trifecta and its history.  We get to see them in action as we see the full scope of their powers.  There were a lot of great battle scenes between individual fights that involve God power.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Grief, Death, Genocide, Body horror, Classism, Drug use, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Cursing, War, Torture, and Violence