Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

Płonący Bóg by R.F. Kuang

9 reviews

atlaslan's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Woah, I really cannot say a thing else. Woah. I've never read a trilogy so strong. I know this trilogy will stick with me for a long time. I jsut finished it so I can't say much more than I'm in awe. R. F. Kuang will never fail to amaze me. It definetly had its slow points but kept me intrigued throughout the book. Rin is such a deliciously complex character morally black in reality but so interesting to read about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Excrement, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

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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

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: 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

stitchof's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing 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

4.5

The Poppy War Trilogy caps off in amazing fashion. I hear what others have griped about with this last instalment. However, I loved reading through the further corruption of Rin as the war comes to a climax, where she gets huge victories and crushing literal and moral defeats. Rin gradually losing herself and so many senses of trust and belonging anywhere while persevering through this gruelling conflict is mesmerizing. Also, the way it wraps up definitely must have torn a chasm in readers of the books. Does she make that choice for herself or is it another instance of a female character choosing something to ultimately progress male characters that may not deserve it.

The Dragon Republic was a minor misstep but overall I would give the series a 4-4.5. I actually believe I’ll revisit this book series in the future. R.F. Kuang has a space in my heart as an author to watch. Good thing I already got Babel and Yellowface already for whenever I choose to read them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Yes, there are all the triggers. In particular, there’s mob violence because the country is going through famine, illnesses, devastated towns and cities ruined by war and further problems that come about because of governmental instability. It’s all very graphic. This is late stage war. There’s even poisoning of water sources among other things. Basically every issue you can think of with war toward the end of it is here. Brace yourself or read something else.

justlilah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

Never again in my life will i find something like this. Never again will a book leave me so thoroughly devastated. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

middumullu's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

still really enjoyed it but i think by this point i had gotten a bit tired of all of the same circles that have been happening over the past few books. still really enjoyed the characters

but i missed them all being together all the time,

and i felt like some of the newer characters were a lot less fleshed out. i think i liked the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Torture, Cannibalism, and Abandonment

Minor: Miscarriage and Abortion

again there was so much goin on in here that it is hard to remember in totality if something should be graphic/moderate/mild. for instance - there isn't as much medical content/trauma in this book as there were in others but it was mentioned several times and (to me) clearly informs character's actions (as do many of these tags). theres a scene where the characters visit a town that has been taken over by the west/Hesperians .

xalrynne's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

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

3.5

The Burning God is definitely Kuang’s best work and the most well-crafted installment of the Poppy War trilogy. Fans will be excited for this conclusion full of unexpected events at every turn and a bittersweet ending that I still don’t fully understand. (This book, like both the others, gets three stars from me because I don’t particularly enjoy everything going on in the story and I had to force myself to read it at times, but each book is progressively better than the last one, but none of them reach four stars for me personally.)

The Burning God is just as dark and violent as the previous two books. War is raging in Nikan, and the Nikara are up against not only the Dragon Republic but also the foreign Hesperians with their new technologies.

This book focuses on Rin and Nezha, allies-turned-enemies on opposite sides of a war that neither of them wants to fight.

This book takes a look at what it means for invading forces to completely take over your city and your country and put you under their rule without your consent. Rin is both awed and terrified by the Hesperians’ technology and doesn’t know whether to embrace it or shun it, but ultimately the Hesperians are the colonizers, and they obviously don’t take into consideration what’s best for the people they’re colonizing because they think their own way of life is the best and the Nikara are subhuman at best. It’s interesting to see colonization from the other point of view; so often in school what we learn was written by the victor—by the people and forces who took over—but this book shows us what it’s like for all the other people on the inside.

We see new types of shamans in this book, which I loved. I won’t explain anymore so as not to spoil, but I’m super glad they were introduced so we could see wider implications of this magic than just Rin’s abilities.

This isn’t my favorite fantasy series out there but I can’t deny how well it’s written and the impact of its harrowing story. None of the characters in this series are particularly likable and there isn’t a whole lot of hope, but I still enjoyed the journey nonetheless. The Poppy War trilogy is way darker than I normally prefer my books to be, and I want to emphasize the huge amount of trigger and content warnings in this series. It is full of horrific and descriptive scenes of war and all the brutalities that happen because of that. Basically if you can imagine a trigger warning, this series probably has it, so make sure you’re in a good headspace before you start reading it.

My Book Blog: Storeys of Stories 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

magolectora's review against another edition

adventurous 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: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment