Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Płonący Bóg by R.F. Kuang

42 reviews

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

---

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

mysamcatfan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

Tremendo vacío que me acaba de dejar este libro 😃 ctm Rebecca (affectionate)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug use, Blood, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Cannibalism

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

tariana's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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 book just kept me anguished but I couldn’t stop reading it. The ending was difficult, I felt nauseated, unhopeful and once again, anguished. I had to take many pauses, I could only complete it after I told my husband that I needed to share everything that was happening so I could put out my feelings. Well done, RF Kuang, I missed reading books with so well written characters and I’ll certainly miss Rin, Kitay, Venka, the Trifecta and the Cike. Now let me go grab a lighter book to read so I can emotionally recover from this.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Torture, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, and Abortion

melitrophium's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Cannibalism, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Incest, and Self harm

timtalkinbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

I've had issues with each book. 
I think it's mostly pacing and the fact that Rin is a cruel and genuinely insufferable person. So being in her angry head can get a bit old. 

BUT 

1. I think the fact Kuang is as old as me and she was writing something like this in her early 20s is incredible. I can't wait to see how her prose and storytelling abilities evolve as she gets older. 

2. She spent basically three books hinting at shaman battles and when we get to that it doesn't disappoint. 

3. The way this concluded was the only way I could see it conclude. It doesn't feel like she backed herself into a corner though. It feels like she had this planned from the start and I love that. 

4. Can't wait to start the next Stormlight book because hooboy this was some DARK fantasy, but I love that it takes its inspiration from Chinese history and religion. It's a really cool angle to take a fantasy book and a much needed breath of fresh air. (I'm sure I'm not the first person to say that.) 

5. Voice actor Emily Woo Zeller (Panam in Cyberpunk 2077) narrated the hell outta the audio books. I usually hate when the narrator does voices that are their opposite gender, think Jim Dale doing Hermione's voice in the Harry Potter audiobooks, but she's great with both.

Overall a great trilogy. 
Grim, brutal and violent enough that I can't think of a time where I will want to pick these up again. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

Feels like they hint that one of the gods has basically raped the character when he gave them their powers, it's definitely meant to disturb and not treayfed lightly.

nataaaliya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism and Cursing

anispaperbacks's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

I think I'm still in shock of finishing the trilogy.. 
 Watching Rin and the decisions she made throughout The Burning God was so fascinating. You know she's making choices that a morally sound person would not really be making but you can't help but enjoy it with some kind of sick satisfaction.

Speaking of such, the times in the book where she seemed to just have incredible divine power and influence, specifically at the Anvil and Mount Tianshen, were just SO satisfying to read. In general, it was great to see Rin once again fall into a devote-myself-to-this-superior-force-because-they-tell-me-how-crucial-i-am-to-the-cause-but-then-the-second-im-not-anymore-im-instantly-betrayed-and-discarded situation and then just go fuck this im doing my own thing now

Spoiler for both this book and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes lmao:

In chapter 33 I couldn't help but draw a comparison to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The character, determined for things to end how they will it, spiralling severely into paranoia, which then violently turns them against the person they were closest to (although Coriolanus was a bit more of a straight up horrible person and did not have any even slightly redeeming qualities lol). 

Anyway, this isn't much of a review yet, more just me sharing some thoughts I had. So: 

Overall, this was a great last novel in the trilogy. Despite the fact that I do feel a little unsatisfied and jarred at the ending, its the way things should have probably gone. I didn't enjoy (if enjoy is the right word for The Horrors experienced) The Burning God as much as I did The Dragon Republic, which is still by far my favourite in the trilogy, but this still rakes up 4 stars. I just feel like a lot of the book, I wasn't as invested in what was going on? I guess it just felt like there was a fair bit of reading to get to the bits which were just a bit more interesting to read, which IS fair for the topic of the book and understanding the gravity of everything going on, you can't have a book about war without large amounts of chapters on the military movements and engagements. It didn't diminish the book for me but The Burning God just wasn't quite what The Dragon Republic was to me. 

I'm never going to forgive R.F Kuang for what she has done to me. In my review of TDR, I'm pretty sure I said I would kill myself if anything happened to Rin and Kitay so I better get onto that then. /lhj The trilogy was devastating and the characters are just so believable and complex. I adore how R.F Kuang writes and I'm not sure what to do with myself now that I've finished all the books. These books just amazingly well show the absolute horrors and brutality of war. The absolute devastation it leaves in its wake. How it changes people and what it drives them to do. The Poppy War trilogy has got to be one of my favourite fantasy series I have read, they are so well done. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, Abortion, and Pregnancy

louiserj's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault and Cannibalism

Minor: Alcoholism

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

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.