Reviews tagging 'War'

Płonący Bóg by R.F. Kuang

459 reviews

anootamei's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

legit what the heck this trilogy is everything. i genuinely have no words it’s such a beautiful trilogy and this book is perfection in rounding it off

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

underscoremolly_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

sophia16's review against another edition

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

5.0

i am a broken husk of a person. 

simply this book was rins overly detailed decent into madness (should have guessed when she started talking to dead people) but the ending excuse my language  WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. i have had my heart torn into pieces. i am in ruins.

however throughout all the stupid irrational destructive decisions she made i still absolutely adore rin as a character. these flaws in her actions are what made her seem human, but still some things were just dumb. she was a pioneer and i am

crushed that she wasnt able to finally find her happy ending.

moving on i believe the only character with any brain is kitay, and his dynamic with rin changed me. i swear girl always took advantage of him. anyway i lowk am up too late for ts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ringofkeyz's review against another edition

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

4.75

The Burning God was definitely the best book of the trilogy. Everything the first two books set up finally paid off. I especially liked the honesty of the near-ending. If everything in the Empire had been fixed as soon as

Rin and her army overtook Arlong

then it wouldn't have felt true. War decimates, regardless of who wins. Issues plaguing a nation don't disappear simply because the fighting ceases; the new power has to put in effort to fix that - famine, disease outbreaks, housing, etc - and often that leads to civil unrest. I felt as though the book captured that extremely well. 

Equally as well done was the depiction of desperation during war time. Rin's descent into instability over the course of this book, whether through the power of the Phoenix or her own paranoia, was almost infectious. I couldn't help but continue reading, wanting to see if she would overcome her demons or succumb to them. And wondering, if she succumbed, would she bring Kitay down with her?

My main criticism of this trilogy (and the reason this book isn't 5 stars) is because of the temporal displacement the dialogue creates. This is a book that is HISTORICAL fiction. While the war draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War (thus the WW2 era), the setting is based on the Song Dynasty, which ended in the late 1200s. However, the dialogue always felt modern. I could walk outside and hear people talking in the same manner as Rin, Nezha, Kitay, and everyone else in the novel. That disconnect is my one major nitpick about this trilogy, and this book in particular because I loved pretty much everything else.

Shoutout Martina for recommending this trilogy to me. I'm in your debt. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Sexual assault, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cannibalism

theoceanrose's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Death, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault

themoostconfused's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-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

having finished the series i feel a profound sense of loss and grief.
it will stay with me for a long time and i will keep reflecting on it over and over and over again. i don't know what to put in this review, since everything i write does not seem to do it justice, so i will just say this:

in my studies as well as through (social) media i see pictures and accounts of war, brutality, famine and starvation regularly and reading about it described in such tremendous detail resulted in me having shortness of breath and feeling like that moment close to having a panic attack when the world becomes blurry and everything seems to fade but be amplified at the same time 

deep down i had known she had to die and that something was bound to hapoen with kitay but it still shook me. however, i feel the end (especially the last two chapters) was a bit rushed

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, and Abortion

thjelmar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

The last of the series did not disappoint, but I would say it is on par with the level of enjoyment as book 2 with book 1 being the strongest (difference of .5 stars at most).

Lots of twists and turns though which made this still an exciting read.

Jiang coming back and the re-introduction (to the world, first for us) was awesome to watch unfold and see how the characters react.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death and Alcohol

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

connormdavy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

helenabianca's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Cannibalism, and War

baz_'s review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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: Death, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War

Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Cannibalism