Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Jade War by Fonda Lee

22 reviews

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

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

While this one doesn’t hit quite as hard for me as Jade City did, it’s close. If I could give this like a 4.85 or 4.90 it would be more accurate. Fonda Lee continues and expands her masterful world building here by interweaving international cultures and politics with that of Kekon. The crafting of politics and international relations here is truly an impressive feat. Unfortunately with the new politics, settings, and characters we end up losing some time with Kekon and the Kauls. The time jumping around and pacing in this book just felt messier and more inconsistent to me than the first book. The pacing doesn’t seem to pick up to where it was in the first book until the last 150-200 pages when the separate threads laid out throughout the story start to come together. Overall a strong follow up to Jade City but does seem to suffer somewhat from the second book syndrome of largely setting things up for the third book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Violence, Xenophobia, Addiction, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Racism, Torture, Gore, and Gun violence

Minor: Confinement, Rape, Grief, Misogyny, Abortion, Colonisation, Cursing, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Alcohol, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and War

theespressoedition's review against another edition

challenging tense slow-paced

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

3.0

It's a little hard to compress all of my thoughts about this book into a review.

There's a lot that occurred in Jade War and I struggled to comprehend all of it. In fact, it took me about three times as long to finish it as I expected (I don't know why I thought I'd finish it sooner when it took ages for me to finish Jade City as well).

It's a thick book with a thick plot that's often really hard to follow. The primary theme is "political intrigue" and the author gives us that element in abundance. However, because of that, it often becomes sluggish and almost too dense. While the first book had almost equal amounts of informational chapters and action chapters, this one fell heavily on the side of information and left the action to happen in short spurts throughout.

However, when the action did occur, I found myself holding my breath, waiting to see what would happen next. I was never sure who would live and who would die, whether there was a traitor in the midst, or if a romance would occur. There aren't many other authors who could get me to sit through over 600 pages (probably 400 of which were about politics and war strategies) and still find myself interested enough to keep going. So major props to Fonda Lee for holding my attention through this one.

The ending alone was enough to make this book worth it. I honestly can't wait to find out what happens next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Murder, Torture, Gore, Blood, Violence, and War

Moderate: Abortion, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape, Vomit, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

leanne_miron'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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Murder, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Biphobia, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Abortion, Homophobia, and Medical content

kaseybereading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Pregnancy, Violence, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Body horror, and Gun violence

szuum's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Xenophobia, and Drug use

Moderate: Misogyny, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, and Abortion

Minor: Rape, War, and Homophobia

horizonous's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Xenophobia, and Sexism

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Abortion, Addiction, Kidnapping, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Rape, and Homophobia

◦ Death = Brother, Grandparent

maira_h's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

I didn't think it was possible to feel this way again about a book; that sort of giddy feeling after reading a particularly mind-blowing book. But I did– feel that way, that is. That ending was crazy explosive. I was at the edge of my seat all throughout that thrilling ending to this second installment.

The Kauls are really growing on me. The first book, for some reason, I didn't know what to feel yet about these characters. But this book made me adore them each in their own way. They were not perfect characters, mind you, but the were distinct individuals nonetheless. Fonda Lee did a really great job capturing their unique personalities, even the massive cast of side characters. I feel like the characters in this series will be those that will stay with me for a long time.

Going into this, I knew to expect a lot of politics involved. This second book was still politically heavy, but with that anticipation, I was not struggling at all to go through this book. The pacing felt a lot faster than the first book.

Also, I want to applaud the emotional maturity with which every conversation, every action was written. I was blown away by that emotional awareness, by the details to each action and consequences. Fonda Lee's writing style is impressive for this.

5 stars and a new favourite! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: War, Xenophobia, and Hate crime

Minor: Abortion, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, and Injury/Injury detail