Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

526 reviews

narbeleth's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

It was an odd experience to want to know what’s going to happen next but also despise almost every decision made by every character. There were SO many battles that it got muddy in the middle.  Trying to remember which battle they were referring to later made the book tricky to follow at times. I think that experience would be different reading it in print. I’m excited to see where the third book takes the story… hopefully to some moral evolution but also revolution. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, Genocide, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Misogyny, Torture, Toxic friendship, Slavery, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child death, Animal death, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, War, Xenophobia, Body horror, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Minor: Abortion

kunabarre's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Murder, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage, Genocide, Abortion, Torture, and Self harm

joepyeweed's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Hard to read but hard to stop. I don’t always enjoy politics, but here it worked for me because you don’t know who to trust or which side should win. 

Rin is frustratingly rash and impulsive, but there are consequences for her actions every time (even when I might expect another book to let her off easy). She’s the main character, but is not a hero. I like that.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gore, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, and War

Minor: Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Torture

persephonefoxx'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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Addiction, Drug abuse, Violence, War, and Torture

Moderate: Abortion, Genocide, Child death, Confinement, and Colonisation

haleymk's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

rebecca i will be sending you the hills for my therapy session 🫶

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Addiction, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

louiserj's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, War, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion

sannesbooks's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, War, Rape, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Sexual violence, Self harm, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

book_lover707'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

4.5

Despite being only 137 pages longer than The Poppy War, this one took me nearly a week longer to finish. I think is partially because I was already in a reading slump, so it’s obviously not the book being objectively bad.
I love R.F. Kuang’s writing so much and still found it easy to read, but I did think the first half of the book felt really long. However the second half absolutely slapped. Plot twists, (partial spoiler) betrayal arcs, character development, everything I love and it was devastating at the end. Of course, I still want to read the third book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, and War

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Like the Phoenix, this book really sets out to destroy everything regardless of whether you love it or not.  Destruction. is all it knows.

I still really liked discussions of politics, war tactics, ethics. It’s a brutal book, it it does not shy away from the fact that power corrupts. 

That being said - I think that I can empathize with the character Rin, but I cannot say that I truly like her or condone her actions. Sometimes the book feels like we can gloss over the fact that she kills people because of an innate sense of revenge and does not think of the consequences. Though, the situations that she finds herself in tend to be of the sort that there are no good outcomes, so that is perhaps a moot point. 

I think that this was a really good second book in a series, but it did suffer a little little bit of a sophomore, slump in terms of pacing.  I think that if this was trimmed down a little or had been split into two books, it would have been better served. I also think that the analogy of the various cultures is a bit more heavy-handed in this one than the last. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Rape

The only reason that I put the moderate setting for rape as a content warning is because it is flowing around as a term a lot, in reference to things that happened in the past. There is only one in-text acene in particular that I did not consider graphic - a character mentions that they have caught someone in the act, but no description is made just alluded to before that rapist is killed.