Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

12 reviews

winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, War, Ableism, Cultural appropriation, Medical content, Pedophilia, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Classism, Excrement, Misogyny, Vomit, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Torture, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, and Slavery

greciamj1958's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

I really like the way Kuang handles topics like grief and depression, I love her writing and how that it was the main focus of the story. It was fun to revisit certain characters and some really grow on me like Kitay. However, I felt that in the middle was very repetitive on Rin's obsession with Altan, and I guess that’s the point of it, but it was hard to care lol. I really love the ending, it made me tear up and almost throw the book across the room, but it’s fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Addiction, Classism, War, Violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Racism, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Murder

hailsatan's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Deportation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Confinement, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Child death, Gun violence, Incest, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Ableism, Abortion, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Cursing, Drug abuse, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

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

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

Minor: Dysphoria, Deportation, and Ableism

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

Moderate: Abortion

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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

3.75

The book is quite strong for much of it. However, in the tail end with excessive large battle scenes you lose a lot of the excellent character dynamics of more one on one battles, conversations and interrogation scenes that are Kuang’s strong suit. The Dragon Republic is strongest when focused on character dynamics in the face of the greater war politics. The inequalities and bigotries shown by different groups is quite prevalent throughout the book. Rin’s self hate toward her ethnicity is quite apparent through the narrative too. The book does a really good job of showing that all supposed great leaders ultimately have selfish interests. Some of the added backstory elements are really intriguing. The real life historical background references are very apparent if you know your stuff but it’s also got enough of a veneer of fictionalizing if you don’t. This middle book is a slight step back from “The Poppy War” but not by much and it’s mostly due to pacing hiccups. Please note the role that alcohol and drug use plays in the narrative if you are sensitive to such content. There’s a lot of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Alcohol, Body horror, Body shaming, Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Bullying, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, and War

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Colonisation, Confinement, Gore, Child death, Racism, Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Self harm, Torture, Ableism, Physical abuse, and Abortion

evabwiz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Grief, War, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Self harm, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Classism, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

i read the dragon republic w/ increasing dread and trepidation bc i knew things wouldnt go well and shit would hit the fan eventually--if not intermittently--so now i feel torn between relief and disappointment that it wasnt as brutal as the first book. oh, things were still painful and the body count was high (so sad abt the cike casualities esp), but maybe bc i was expecting them, so they were a tad predictable.

this was a rly good book still, filled w/ the series' signature intricate war strategies, politicking, and complex motivations that culminated in satisfying and sometimes surprising character development, exploring themes of war and power, and adeptly showing that yts are shit, as so are most men (fcking nezha man..).

my major issue, however  is w/ the middle chunk: this book's thick and filled w/ events, but part 2 was kinda forgettable somehow, w/ most of the battles blurring into one another. i know that things happened but i still cant recall what exactly. nevertheless, my fav thing abt this book is hands down the relationship between rin and kitay; i'll be ok w/ everything turning to shit as long as kitay's ok. looking forward to seeing how going up against rank yts and snotty aristocrats w/ popular support will turn out for rin and her (sadly now very numerically diminished) gang.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Violence, Confinement, War, and Addiction

Moderate: Colonisation, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, and Torture

charlereads's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Colonisation, Cursing, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Abortion, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Vomit