Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Burning God

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

180 reviews

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

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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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sanne2301's review

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challenging dark emotional 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

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r_snail52's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

w-o-w R F Kuang does it time and time again, this series truly ripped me to shreds, might i be spoiled now for any revenge arc book because of this beautifully and intricately constructed epic, yes. Do i care, nope. I absolutely adore this i’ve never read anything like it, well except maybe for babel. READ THIS SERIES RIGHT NOW

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thebookaholic's review against another edition

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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

4.0

WOW what a conclusion to this series!! I'm surprised to say that this was my least favourite of the three books, but it's still a solid 4 star read which imo, says a lot about the series as a whole and Kuang's insane writing abilities.

This book felt so much bigger that the others did, with the plot zooming out in a way that was more distant from the characters and comprehensive of Nikara, and yet I don't think it lost any of the character depth and development. I felt that overall, this book had a few pacing struggles comparatively, especially in the middle section of the book with

Spoiler

the Trifecta

specifically, but I think this conclusion was so so fitting for the story that Kuang was trying to tell.

After all,
Spoiler
The first rule of the Cike is that they cull, and Rin had already been to the Chuluu Korith...

Would I recommend? ABSOLUTELY

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abhirupa's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm so sad. Like truly. Everyone said this book was going to be incredibly sad, including RF Kuang herself, but I didn't fully grasp how much it would hurt until I finished it. I feel like I knew what was going to happen at the end, like since the very first book because of how much emphasis Kuang puts on the cyclic nature of war, violence, and trauma. However, the execution really truly took my breath away.
Despite the masterful way Kuang wrapped up Rin, Kitay, Nezha and Venka's stories, my main complaint about this book is that the other plotlines fell flat. I was especially disappointed by how the Trifecta's storyline ended because I felt like it was super abrupt. I also didn't really understand the whole plotline with Hanelai, Ziya, and Riga because I felt like the Speer storyline was already fully developed and the additions in this book just made that whole situation more confusing. Also, there were some allusions made to Rin's parentage and I think I kind of understand what Kuang was trying to get at, but I didn't like the lack of catharsis about that question. Like if the point was that Rin was just supposed to be a random, unnamed, non-fated Speerly child who had this role of being the last Speerly thrust on her, then there were whole conversations in this book that detracted from that message. But if her parentage was actually supposed to mean something like in terms of fate, it wasn't executed super well in my opinion.
Regardless, this trilogy was such an insane ride. There's so much to take from it, I'm definitely going to have to read all of it again with a finer focus on the details.

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laraveliants's review against another edition

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challenging 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

5.0

“Take what you want, it said. I’ll hate you for it. But I’ll love you forever. I can’t help but love you.

Ruin me, ruin us, and I’ll let you.”

this book feels like getting stabbed a million times but you can’t die

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booksarebutter's review against another edition

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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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This isn't the ending I wanted, but the ending I needed.

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brianneh's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

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lena_kellogg's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

3.0

If I’m being totally honest, I was so let down by the ending of this trilogy. I LOVED 95% of this series, but the ending of the final book felt too fast paced, had too many surprises that felt unbelievable, and just fell flat in comparison to how epic the entire story felt.

Rin has survived two wars, and now a third is looming over the country of Nikara. She returns to her roots and aligns with the newly formed Southern Coalition to protect the people that raised her - and claim the power she desires. She encounters new challenges, adopts new allies, finds new foes, and dedicates herself to the only cause she can trust - her revenge. It’s an exciting culmination of Rin’s story.

Even with the letdown of the ending, I would still recommend this high fantasy series to anyone looking for detailed worldbuilding, engrossing plot, and morally gray characters in abundance.

This book seemed to have less graphic violence than the first two (with the first book being the heaviest). There is quite a bit of swearing accompanied with heavy themes.

The worldbuilding is where this series stands out. Every detail is intricately woven. Extremely nuanced political situations are thrilling and not tedious. The mythology is carefully constructed to be comprehensible yet ethereal. The worldbuilding is a perfect balancing act between completely engrossing and being vast enough that as readers we know we’ll never know everything.

You might be reading all my praise for this book and asking why I rated it only 3 stars. It really is just the ending. But don’t let that deter you from taking on this absolutely stunning series. I regret nothing.

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0shelfcontrol's review against another edition

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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

What an epic end to an epic series. Read this series if you want the characters to feel real to you. I say this because they are all extremely morally grey; sometimes driven by ego and other times duty. I am heartbroken by the series end as well as how it ended, however, I also know that this is the only way it makes sense. It was inevitable, but still there’s that part of me that wishes there was some sort of miracle. I’m still processing, and probably will always be.

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