Reviews tagging 'War'

Die Kaiserin by R.F. Kuang

515 reviews

louiserj's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, War, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion

finn_1312's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Torture, Alcohol, War, Sexism, Racism, Religious bigotry, Rape, Blood, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Cannibalism

sannesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, War, Rape, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Sexual violence, Self harm, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

book_lover707's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

Despite being only 137 pages longer than The Poppy War, this one took me nearly a week longer to finish. I think is partially because I was already in a reading slump, so it’s obviously not the book being objectively bad.
I love R.F. Kuang’s writing so much and still found it easy to read, but I did think the first half of the book felt really long. However the second half absolutely slapped. Plot twists, (partial spoiler) betrayal arcs, character development, everything I love and it was devastating at the end. Of course, I still want to read the third book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, and War

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Like the Phoenix, this book really sets out to destroy everything regardless of whether you love it or not.  Destruction. is all it knows.

I still really liked discussions of politics, war tactics, ethics. It’s a brutal book, it it does not shy away from the fact that power corrupts. 

That being said - I think that I can empathize with the character Rin, but I cannot say that I truly like her or condone her actions. Sometimes the book feels like we can gloss over the fact that she kills people because of an innate sense of revenge and does not think of the consequences. Though, the situations that she finds herself in tend to be of the sort that there are no good outcomes, so that is perhaps a moot point. 

I think that this was a really good second book in a series, but it did suffer a little little bit of a sophomore, slump in terms of pacing.  I think that if this was trimmed down a little or had been split into two books, it would have been better served. I also think that the analogy of the various cultures is a bit more heavy-handed in this one than the last. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Rape

The only reason that I put the moderate setting for rape as a content warning is because it is flowing around as a term a lot, in reference to things that happened in the past. There is only one in-text acene in particular that I did not consider graphic - a character mentions that they have caught someone in the act, but no description is made just alluded to before that rapist is killed.

af3435's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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: Genocide and War

Moderate: Rape and Miscarriage

becausebrenna's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

AHHHHHHHHH 
I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning to finish this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Drug use, and Rape

Moderate: Animal death, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion

lovetlr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Rape

theoceanrose's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Drug abuse, Rape, War, Genocide, Blood, Sexual assault, Drug use, and Torture

emrosch's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.75

That was so fucking good. Holy shit. Brilliant continuation of the first part. The world building is insane, the characters feel so real. The terror and evilness feels real. Can't wait to read the third part. 

R. F. Kuang is a (cruel) mastermind.

Spoiler

I though after Babel I'd be prepared for all of the emotional pain R. F. Kuang could inflict but damn. She went all out with this one.

  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, Murder, Body horror, Drug abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Rape, Torture, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit and Suicidal thoughts

Spoiler

I thought reading Babel would prepare me for emotional pain from R. F. Kuang but damn. Suni, Baji and Ramsa HURT like a mf.