Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Jade War by Fonda Lee

54 reviews

hey_al's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Liked this one even better than the first. The way Lee makes the reader feel the complex emotions of the characters is insane- you really feel for these people, even when they commit the most horrific violence. Clan business is no joke. Emotional and exciting read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Police brutality, Abortion, and Addiction

carla20's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

asisjdksksks

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, Drug use, War, and Gun violence

bubbly_lara's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was as good as Jade City. We follow the Kaul family even further in their efforts to secure No Peak's position in Kekon and are given much more POVs and insights than in the first book. Anden is now living abroad in Port Massy, Republic of Espenia, and we follow him and his endeavour to make a home for himself far away from the Green Bone culture, family and expectations he grew up in. There's so much happening at the same time while tensions are high and the stakes are as high as they can get. I cannot wait to see how the story concludes in Jade Legacy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Drug abuse, Grief, Racism, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abortion, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Vomit

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

amburrella's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Sexual assault and Homophobia

lisafer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, Gore, Gun violence, and Physical abuse

leanne_miron's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Hate crime, Violence, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Biphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexism, Torture, Abortion, Death of parent, and Gore

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Pregnancy

maelikesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

New favourite series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Car accident, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Drug use, Grief, Murder, Violence, Sexual content, Cursing, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Abortion, Blood, and War

bearystarry'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

I think this was the perfect sequel to the first book.

Even though my favourite character died halfway through the first book

these characters are some of my favourites in everything I've ever read. Even when you're frustrated by them you love them. Shae's arc was Heartbreaking. I'm terrified (in the best way, if that's possible) to read the final book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Addiction, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Violence, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Colonisation, Blood, Alcohol, Murder, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Death of parent, Cursing, Excrement, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Pedophilia, Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, and War

mikarala's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-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

Book 2 was not as engrossing as the first installment in the series. Whereas the first book takes place over the course of several months and largely sticks to the location of Janloon city as the main setting, the scope of this book is much larger. It seems to take place over the course of 4 years or so, and introduces overseas locations to take the story to a more global scale. It's clear one of Lee's main focuses with this book was to expound upon the geopolitical aspects of the Green Bone saga, presumably setting up a lot of action to come in the third book.

However, this expansion sometimes came at the expense of the story, in my opinion. In particular, there were sections in the middle of the story where I kept noticing chapters would end with a sort of cliff-hanger, big problem for the POV character, then we would move on to the next character, and by the time we came back, the problem had mostly resolved itself. There was often a bit too much exposition at the start of chapters to explain everything that had changed with the characters since the last time we had seen them.

Pacing issues aside, I do think this book is really well-plotted. As with the first installment, Lee does a great job of introducing conflicts and developing the motivations of different characters so that these elements converge in a very satisfying and believable way at the climax. While the middle may have felt a bit more meandering and you had to work a bit harder as a reader to get to that point, when it came it was a great culmination of the various elements of the story.

On top of that, I just really enjoy the characters in this series. They aren't typical heroes and arguably their intentions aren't really altruistic, but I think Lee does a great job of making you root for them anyways. They are flawed, but compellingly believable. I think this comese down to the great job Lee does with world-building and establishing the cultural norms of Kekon, so that even despite the extremely foreign ethical code the characters operate with, the reader can easily understand their motivations.

So, while I didn't love this as much as book 1, I am still very excited to start the final book in the trilogy. This series really has some of the best world-building I've ever encountered in a fantasy series, and it's backstopped by interesting characters and very tightly written plots. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, and Death

Moderate: Car accident and Abortion

unboxedjack's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Misogyny, and Racism

Minor: War, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Xenophobia