Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Republika Smoka by R.F. Kuang

46 reviews

ka_ke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No

5.0

Omg. I can’t imagine this series ending with the next book. The Dragon Republic is a rollercoaster of emotions. One minute Rin is in desperate need of rehab, the next, she’s all powerful. Then she’s not and so on. Also… what the fuck Nezha?!!? 

The world building continues to amaze as R.F. Kuang weaves a politically and socially devastating tale of colonialism, war and peace. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Genocide, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Abortion, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Dysphoria, and Deportation

thiskelsey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-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: Addiction, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

shainalite's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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 Dragon Republic mengeksplor lebih banyak mengenai kedua belas provinsi yang sempat disinggung di buku pertama, mulai dari karakteristik, sumber daya, hasil bumi, peran mereka dalam peperangan, panglima perang, hingga kondisi mereka setelah buku pertama. Menurut aku buku ini langsung bisa menunjukkan kenapa judulnya The Dragon Republic sebelum mencapai 100 halaman, yang menurut aku pas dan tidak berbelit-belit. Di bagian awal terasa lebih santai, lebih banyak obrolan dan rencana-rencana dan dampak yang dialami Rin setelah buku pertama. 
Kengerian, ketakutan dan trauma yang dirasakan Rin bisa ikut aku rasakan namun ga sampai bikin aku berhenti baca buku ini. Seperti buku pertama, gaya penulisan buku ini mudah diikuti dan engaging, sehingga sejauh ini aku bisa bilang (gaya penulisan) R.F. Kuang adalah jodohku 🤭
Muncul karakter-karakter baik baru maupun karakter yang sempat muncul di buku pertama, dan ketika aku menyelesaikan buku ini rasanya R.F. Kuang kayak menggambarkan kehidupan nyata dalam bentuk buku fiksi di mana kita tidak pernah benar-benar tahu mana pihak yang ingin kita dukung (misalnya dalam politik atau dalam kasus tertentu yang muncul di media sosial) karena masing-masing pihak bisa menyajikan fakta mereka masing-masing. Penggambaran apa yang dilakukan Rin dalam buku ini, pihak-pihak mana saja yang dia dukung dan gimana dia akhirnya memutuskan menurut aku bukan sesuatu yang ga ada artinya karena itu merupakan pembelajaran juga.
Oke, kemudian Nezha, aku hanya ingin masukin dia ke dalam tong, bertahun-tahun, siapa tau dia bisa jadi tape.
Sejujurnya aku belum pernah baca buku military fantasy sebelumnya, jadi buku ini sudah detail namun masih bisa aku pahami sebagai manusia awam yang tidak tahu apa-apa mengenai militer, terutama penyusunan strategi dan ide-ide yang dimunculkan seputar peperangan. Perdebatan yang dimunculkan di buku ini juga menarik baik yang membahas agama, strategi perang maupun gimana menjalani kehidupan dengan kondisi saat ini. Suka banget kalau ada buku yang ditulis dengan membuat beberapa opini berkonflik dengan cara yang masuk akal mulai dari konflik semacam perdebatan hingga sebesar peperangan yang melibatkan beberapa negara di dunia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abortion

breezie_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.0

This book had me just as captivated as the first one did. It wasn't anywhere near as dark, in my opinion, as the first book was, but the action was just as intense. There were still graphic depictions of violence and war, but I was actually able to stomach it in this one because they weren't as violent and weren't as frequent.

The relationships Rin had with everyone were all over the place. She admitted to herself and others that she wasn't a good friend, she wasn't a good commander or soldier (which is wild, because she knew how to fight and was a good fighter before she was able to control the fire), but continued to be surprised when her shitty actions and words made people not like her or disagree with her. The majority of the first half of the book she spent throwing tantrums, threatening to burn entire towns when she didn't get her way, and vomiting on herself. 

Which leads me to my most unbelievable part of the book: Rin's romance-coded interactions. Because how the hell could Nezha, someone who hated her with every ounce of his soul for the first three years they knew each other, fall in love with someone who is screaming and threatening to burn or kill thousands of innocent people and vomiting on herself every time he sees her, when in the first book he believed she was nothing but uneducated, Southern trash who didn't belong anywhere outside of her province? He even called her "Speerly trash" several times in the second book. So... you want me to believe that he's in love with her? And she's in love with him? And somehow she's been in love with Altan too? None of that makes any sense, and the amount of times it was mentioned in the book got really annoying really fast.

I get people have said this is an "enemies-to-lovers" kind of thing, but damn. It all felt forced because whatever relationship development had been going on had been happening off-screen. And it still didn't make sense for it to be happening at all with how nasty everyone was to each other.

Rin's character development (or devolving, in this case) makes sense if you look at it as her going mad or struggling for power with the God and the Seal, but it did give the book a scatterbrained feel to it. Rin's decisions throughout the book seemed to be all over the place and not thought out at all and I understand the need for it, but - She had so much potential in the first book and then threw it all away to become the people she despised and then end up changing her mind anyway.

The next book is about to absolutely crazy, I can already tell.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Addiction and Abortion

donatio'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? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I'm not sure I always liked Rin, but I liked the Cike and Kitay and I think though it was brutal that it was brutally honest. About war, discrimination, crimes and colonialism. It's not beautified in any way and I think that's the only right way to tell this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

fedekanejbrainrot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative 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

my favourite book in the series, loved the plot, the themes, the characters and relationships growth, and that last 3 chapters?  illegal

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

rosen575's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

idkmangodffs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Blood, and Colonisation

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, and Murder

natnat_7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Abortion, and Pregnancy

doodeedoda'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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Abandonment