Scan barcode
daydreamhaze's review against another edition
I think the book is objectively good, unfortunately I just couldn't get invested enough to see it through to the end. There were a couple of character perspectives that I was interested in, such as Shae and Anden, but I found it hard to relate to or get invested in some of the other characters. I think many people would love this book, it's just not for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and War
Moderate: Addiction
rnbhargava's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Classism, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Stalking, Violence, Trafficking, War, Sexual content, Suicide, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Self harm, and Death
Moderate: Alcohol, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Ableism, and Gaslighting
This is the first part of a fantasy tinged saga about a crime family. All the violence and tropes of mafia stories are present here. Certain things are also essentially superpowers. That said, it’s also very gritty with hard hitting violence. There’s mental illness, there’s drug addiction, there’s deteriorating health of the elderly old leader. There’s suggestions that one character is a sex offender and pervert. There’s essentially ableism surrounding certain figures born to Jade user families but can’t use Jade abilities, ableism suggestions. There’s vilification and racism toward certain outside nations albeit because they’re also colonizing forces. Also, certain characters’ relationships with foreign nationals are heavily talked about with racist suggestion. The connection between drug addiction and potential suicide is a major theme in the story because it’s framed within the context of jade ability performance enhancement drug usage. There’s a lot of heavy themes to suggest while reading through this mafia family novel.trauty's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
4.5 stars - could be 5 on reread
I loved this book so much and its a crime i didn't get to it sooner considering its been on my shelf for a GOOD while.
Overall I loved this book but the, idk if you'd call it pacing? But the transition between time threw me off a bit.
The general likes without spoilers would be;
•Focus on family and platonic relationships. Showed not just 'good' but how it can be complicated.
• Power/magic system. Has a 'this power will cause issues as time goes on' and 'using it can cause issues in general' concept + actually showcases those things and not JUST saying it.
• The Mountain Pillar. Give me a badass, cunning female antag. I hope we get to see her a bit more as we go on.
• Old vs Young concept. I liked how it dealt with a case of 'older gen who fought in a war to get where they are now' vs 'younger gen who are working in the way things are NOW' and how it clashed a bit.
• Very political, loved how the 'magic' system tied in with this.
• Action scenes, easy to read and visualise.
Anything past will be discussion on the book and somewhat spoilery!
Family aspect —
So this is 100% my favourite thing about this book. You follow the 'No Peak' clan and 4 of its members - Lan, Hilo, Shae, and Anden. Anden is an adoptive child of the family who's mother went mad (this plays a part later), and the other 3 are the grandchildren of the former Pillar/leader of the clan - Lan being the new pillar, Hilo the Horn (in command of the fighting and such), and Shae leaves the family for a foreign nation because of stuff that happened and how she viewed greenbone culture - however comes back hence why she is in the book lol. Pretty noticeable that the one who leaves is the girl so you can take a guess why she left given the lil TW mentions.
I really felt through this book that you could feel these relationships. They felt very realistic and imperfect. You get the siblings and then you get a bit of the sibling with their grandfather - and as i mention in the caption, there's a theme of old gen vs New gen so y'know.
Each sibling is very different and feels like their own character and their response to the other siblings feels realistic. Lan is the older more responsible sibling who is involved in the political side as Pillar. Hilo is the more 'fuck the rules' sort of character and is more prone to thinking with his fists first - however you can really tell he cares for the greenbones he commands and you can tell the mutual respect when we get his scenes. Shae is the more studious smart sibling who would have become Lan's 'lantern man' which is like... second in command? Info-gathering? Sort of role. However as a woman, she is very aware of the issues within their society.
i really liked Shae and Hilo specifically because you get alot from Shae that she was the 'no.1 in their class' and Hilo was the one getting suspended - however she also realises that thats worked to Hilo's advantage and to her detriment.
She talks about how Hilo was more fun and chaotic and as a result he made more friends and respect with the people who would later become his underlings / fingers (soldiers). Shae on the other hand really isolated herself from everyone and how following the rules 100% and being the top of everything in terms of studying doesn't really mean shit at the end of the day if theres not that balance of friendship. And with there being such a gender difference- its also lead to her having no female relationships. (Which i feel will be something worked on later down the line with Wen. Hopefully.
I like how you get 3 -4 different POV's so you can really get to know each character and their inner thoughts. Especially given when one character dies. And the second half of the book is really focused on the fallout of that which you see through the different povs.
While i wish Lan was in it a bit more - he was in fact the character i was most interested in, I do also like that he is the one who dies. Because his death forces so many characters into stuff and i don't think any of the other characters dying would have had such a big effect on the story. It forces Hilo to try and be more responsible with being the new Pillar (i like how he doesn't do a 180 tho, he's still pretty fire-ey), it forces Shae to try and find her place in the clan and to mend her relationship with it (but not forgiving why she left), and it plays a part in Anden's character too because he's the only one who knew what Lan was doing out of the siblings and he's got alot of regret. But it also plays into how his mother went mad and how by the end of the book he starts having issues with like 'but what if this happens to me too'. You also have the fact that Lan, the most responsible perfect sibling out of them, is the one who ended up addicted to this new drug because he couldn't risk appearing weak.
Power system —
Ok this is a pretty basic one - but one of my pet peeves in books and animanga is when you get introduced to a power system and its like 'oh but this power is dangerous' 'this power can xyz' and you never see it - and if you do its like 'oopsie fixed'. Like no if you say this will do x - crank up the angst and do it. DDont 'oh but this character is just soooo perfect that they overcame it so amazing' 👁👄👁
I loved this book so much and its a crime i didn't get to it sooner considering its been on my shelf for a GOOD while.
Overall I loved this book but the, idk if you'd call it pacing? But the transition between time threw me off a bit.
The general likes without spoilers would be;
•Focus on family and platonic relationships. Showed not just 'good' but how it can be complicated.
• Power/magic system. Has a 'this power will cause issues as time goes on' and 'using it can cause issues in general' concept + actually showcases those things and not JUST saying it.
• The Mountain Pillar. Give me a badass, cunning female antag. I hope we get to see her a bit more as we go on.
• Old vs Young concept. I liked how it dealt with a case of 'older gen who fought in a war to get where they are now' vs 'younger gen who are working in the way things are NOW' and how it clashed a bit.
• Very political, loved how the 'magic' system tied in with this.
• Action scenes, easy to read and visualise.
Anything past will be discussion on the book and somewhat spoilery!
Family aspect —
So this is 100% my favourite thing about this book. You follow the 'No Peak' clan and 4 of its members - Lan, Hilo, Shae, and Anden. Anden is an adoptive child of the family who's mother went mad (this plays a part later), and the other 3 are the grandchildren of the former Pillar/leader of the clan - Lan being the new pillar, Hilo the Horn (in command of the fighting and such), and Shae leaves the family for a foreign nation because of stuff that happened and how she viewed greenbone culture - however comes back hence why she is in the book lol. Pretty noticeable that the one who leaves is the girl so you can take a guess why she left given the lil TW mentions.
I really felt through this book that you could feel these relationships. They felt very realistic and imperfect. You get the siblings and then you get a bit of the sibling with their grandfather - and as i mention in the caption, there's a theme of old gen vs New gen so y'know.
Each sibling is very different and feels like their own character and their response to the other siblings feels realistic. Lan is the older more responsible sibling who is involved in the political side as Pillar. Hilo is the more 'fuck the rules' sort of character and is more prone to thinking with his fists first - however you can really tell he cares for the greenbones he commands and you can tell the mutual respect when we get his scenes. Shae is the more studious smart sibling who would have become Lan's 'lantern man' which is like... second in command? Info-gathering? Sort of role. However as a woman, she is very aware of the issues within their society.
i really liked Shae and Hilo specifically because you get alot from Shae that she was the 'no.1 in their class' and Hilo was the one getting suspended - however she also realises that thats worked to Hilo's advantage and to her detriment.
She talks about how Hilo was more fun and chaotic and as a result he made more friends and respect with the people who would later become his underlings / fingers (soldiers). Shae on the other hand really isolated herself from everyone and how following the rules 100% and being the top of everything in terms of studying doesn't really mean shit at the end of the day if theres not that balance of friendship. And with there being such a gender difference- its also lead to her having no female relationships. (Which i feel will be something worked on later down the line with Wen. Hopefully.
I like how you get 3 -4 different POV's so you can really get to know each character and their inner thoughts. Especially given when one character dies. And the second half of the book is really focused on the fallout of that which you see through the different povs.
Power system —
Ok this is a pretty basic one - but one of my pet peeves in books and animanga is when you get introduced to a power system and its like 'oh but this power is dangerous' 'this power can xyz' and you never see it - and if you do its like 'oopsie fixed'. Like no if you say this will do x - crank up the angst and do it. DDont 'oh but this character is just soooo perfect that they overcame it so amazing' 👁👄👁
And ofc as this is a positive - Jade City does not do this. You see characters effected by Jade and the SN1. You see how the grandfather over time has developed dementia which is ultimately worsened by the Jade also requireing a certain level of concentration. You see a character get addicted to Jade in the sense of someone with no training has now touched Jade, you see people who are trained to wear Jade get very touchy over it and possessive which i'm fairly sure is a sign of the 'itches'. And its not just a one off or with one character, its present through alot of the story.
Aside from that - i really liked the power system in terms of how its written both politically/economically and in general the fight scenes. Its like Poppy War in terms of - well the whole 'this will make you go mad', but also the way its martial arts mixed with a bit of fantasy. Its not JUST fantasy or a big majority fantasy (which sometimes i feel can make it a bit complicated to follow).
Female antag —
Smilar to the power issue - one of my pet peeves is when you have a supposedly smart antag who suddenly looses every brain cell when the protag needs them to. Especially with female antags.
Female antag —
Smilar to the power issue - one of my pet peeves is when you have a supposedly smart antag who suddenly looses every brain cell when the protag needs them to. Especially with female antags.
One thing i loved in Jade City was indeed the female antag who for all intents and purposes, is a ruthless, cunning, smart, stunning antag. i do wish we got a bit more of her but what we did was fucking great.
This also goes into one thing i mentioned about Shae tho and how she doesn't have any female relationships, notices alot about the treatment of women in greenbone society, etc.
bcs this female antag is also very aware of those issues, hence why she went on a murder spree to atain her position bcs she knew she wouldn't get it otherwise. And we stan that. Giving Runin Fang if she wasn't the protag of poppy war.
I am very interested to see how this antag and Shae's paths cross because we do get little bits of them tgth on page. Even if they don't work tgth i'm interested to see how their characters might clash because they're both women in a male dominated world, but also Shae is very loyal to her family.
The one dislike —
Ok I'm going to try and explain this without specific spoilers but idk how well it can go.
There is a scene where a character is in a life or death fight. The fight happens, whatever.
next chap they are in the hospital.
chap after that they are in an event.
It just felt like it moved very quick. And theres another example of like when the big death happened. The character is alone, dies. Next chap 'x is dead' immediately into a slaughter, then the funeral, then carries on as normal. Well not normal bca they're in a clan war - but it goes back to the more mundane / political side. There's not really as much action as i had expected in comparison to the political side. Theres also a lot of action in the background? Like you get to a chap and one of the fingers/fists are like 'we lost x property' 'x fist has died'.
And i'm not saying its a big issue- i'm just saying that it kept throwing me off a little. Bcs the death thing happens so sudden that i was more 'oh. Ok. So that just happened'. I was interested in what that could entail - but emotion wise u was just 'oh...k'. On reread i could definitely see this being less of an issue. And i do plan to put this on my reread radar bcs i did love it. Clearly.
This issue is also one of those however that if i'm in the right mind space it doesn't matter to me. Bcs i do like how character/political focused it was. But some days i had to put it down bcs i wanted a bit more action and just wasn't in the mood for... talking. But also i've just come out of a reading slump so that may have effected my enjoyment of certain aspects too y'know.
The one dislike —
Ok I'm going to try and explain this without specific spoilers but idk how well it can go.
There is a scene where a character is in a life or death fight. The fight happens, whatever.
next chap they are in the hospital.
chap after that they are in an event.
It just felt like it moved very quick. And theres another example of like when the big death happened. The character is alone, dies. Next chap 'x is dead' immediately into a slaughter, then the funeral, then carries on as normal. Well not normal bca they're in a clan war - but it goes back to the more mundane / political side. There's not really as much action as i had expected in comparison to the political side. Theres also a lot of action in the background? Like you get to a chap and one of the fingers/fists are like 'we lost x property' 'x fist has died'.
And i'm not saying its a big issue- i'm just saying that it kept throwing me off a little. Bcs the death thing happens so sudden that i was more 'oh. Ok. So that just happened'. I was interested in what that could entail - but emotion wise u was just 'oh...k'. On reread i could definitely see this being less of an issue. And i do plan to put this on my reread radar bcs i did love it. Clearly.
This issue is also one of those however that if i'm in the right mind space it doesn't matter to me. Bcs i do like how character/political focused it was. But some days i had to put it down bcs i wanted a bit more action and just wasn't in the mood for... talking. But also i've just come out of a reading slump so that may have effected my enjoyment of certain aspects too y'know.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Minor: Sexual assault
abken's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
An amazing book! It can be read like a Sci-fi Thriller set on a parallel universe Japan/Hong Kong (or other east asian metropolis). Very strong character voices, very strong appearance on pages. It lacks action but somehow the dialogue battles qere more terrifying than actual street fights
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
carla20'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
I’m not the biggest fantasy reader, but this was amazing. The world building was so vivid and easy to digest, it never felt info-dumpy. I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, Blood, Drug abuse, Addiction, Gun violence, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Dementia, and Self harm
bergha1998'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
3.0
I think this was another book I went into knowing too little about. I knew it was a mafia story set in Asia, and that was about it. I erroneously thought there would be more romance or more female characters, unfortunately I was wrong on both counts. Overall, I just found it to be very dry, and the expositions went on for ages.
Fantasy/Historical, Mafia, 1 🔥
Fantasy/Historical, Mafia, 1 🔥
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Murder, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Cursing, and Gun violence
Minor: Sexual content
daydream_e's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.75
Amazing characters who are deeply flawed and yet so easy to care about. Excellent portrayal of civil war and the complexities of post-colonial development, as well as international politics - I’m considering recommending this to my undergraduate comparative politics students as an enjoyable way to consider how natural resources, colonial history, corruption and crime, and international politics interact. Particularly given the author has no academic history/polisci background, it’s incredibly impressive that she was able to create a fictional world with such realistic politics, and it speaks to what must be an incredible grasp of colonial and post-colonial Asian history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Addiction, Violence, Drug use, Murder, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Gun violence
Moderate: War, Suicide attempt, Chronic illness, Xenophobia, Racism, Colonisation, Sexism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Dementia, Death of parent, Suicide, and Gore
Minor: Homophobia
Racism, xenophobia, war, and colonization are within the context of a fictional country with obvious real world analogues, but not one-to-one with real life events. Mental illness and drug use/addiction are also within the context of a fictional drug. Violence and injury is often very explicit - think hard R rated action movie - but not dwelled on excessively. Grief is a major theme throughout the book for many characters BIG SPOILER:kirstym25's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction and Drug use
dailbrae's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Drug use, Death, Drug abuse, War, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
3.0
I wanted to like this book way more than I did and I just didn't.
I wish I had read a review that said "this Godfather-esqe story", because then I would have been prepared for how politically based boring it was. This was 612 pages of politics, I read it all and the question still remains, "why should I care?". I don't know which side to root for because I just simply didn't care.
I really enjoyed the magic system and the martial arts/hand to hand combat scenes that were described.
I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5, I didn't really like it very much.
I wish I had read a review that said "this Godfather-esqe story", because then I would have been prepared for how politically based boring it was. This was 612 pages of politics, I read it all and the question still remains, "why should I care?". I don't know which side to root for because I just simply didn't care.
I really enjoyed the magic system and the martial arts/hand to hand combat scenes that were described.
I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5, I didn't really like it very much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Bullying, Death, Addiction, Body horror, and Gun violence