Reviews with content warning for Self harm - La repubblica del drago

Overall, I enjoy this book and this series so lich. It does not pret and the world is black and white. It sits and explores the messy gray area of morality and decisions. It explores how it seems every choice is a wrong choice. This book started off and continued with a lot of darkness. There should be trigger warnings for this book as there is some graphic descriptions of substance abuse, murder, war, and rape.

Content Warnings

morybaby's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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

An amazing sequel to the poppy war. There were so many moving parts and I was flabbergasted at every point. Rebecca you ate that!

Now, Yin Nezha when I catch you Ricky???????? What a serpent. Oh my heart broke for Rin. She was literally stabbed in the back. Kitay you beautiful boy…love you!! My girl Venka really came around, my heart still hurts for what she went through.

This book is very dark and violent and I enjoyed every bit of it.
Shout out to one of my favorite narrators who brought this to life, Emily Woo Zeller!

Content Warnings

tinyfiend's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional tense fast-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

Content Warnings

plantsnbooks_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.5

3.5 ⭐ CW: violence, blood, gore, vomit, self-harm, rape, death, war, substance use/addiction

The Dragon Republic by R.F Kuang is book two in The Poppy War trilogy. I had been putting this book off for a while, because although I enjoyed the Poppy War, it was a gruesome story. This was just as gruesome, but it dragged on and was way too long.

We continue following Rin as she struggles with the guilt of what she's done. Consumed by grief and rage, she drowns herself in opium. Then the Dragon Warlord recruits her and the Cike to join him in a revolution against the Empress and the Empire to create a democratic Republic. Rin joins in order to take revenge on the Empress who betrayed Nikan by letting the enemy in. But neither the Empress or the Dragon Warlord are what they seem, and Rin finds herself in an impossible position with the Hesperians and their religion looming over the Republican army, and Empress Daji's destructive reign.

This book was entirely too long. The entire part two needed to move quicker than it did. It was a lot of army marching and waiting, and not a lot happening. The pacing just didn't work for me. Part three was much better. Rin is a bit of a frustrating character, but you can't help but root for her and her friends. I do like that along with Rin, you can't be sure what the right side of this war is. We get a brutal examination of colonization and how religious conversion is tied inextricably to racism. The Hesperians are the West, and view Nikarans as inferior and barely human. We get more from some of the other characters like Kitay, who is my favorite, and Venka who I wish we saw more of.

I don't think I'm going to finish this series. It's so much work to read these books, and I'm not enjoying them enough to push through. I think this series would make for a brilliant TV series, but I just don't want to take the time to read it.

Content Warnings

nettavatanen's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

Content Warnings

More...