Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Jade City by Fonda Lee

97 reviews

widowrites's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

I really enjoyed this book. The family draws you in despite their flaws. The plot is tense and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The only reason it didn’t get five stars is that there are chunks of story that felt unnecessary. It made the book feel long when otherwise it might not have.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Bullying

Moderate: Misogyny, Body horror, Addiction, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Dementia

mari_is_here's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Grief, Addiction, and Drug use

Minor: Self harm

lemonsforyu's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Addiction, Drug use, Gun violence, and Murder

moosta2112's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Addiction, Suicide, and Drug use

Minor: Pedophilia

ashleykhoffman's review against another edition

challenging tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

This is not a book I would have picked up from just reading the description, but it got recommended to me over and over, so I gave it a try. I liked it so much more than I expected to! I think it was a little too political for my taste. (In real life I'm very political, but I use reading as an escape. Even though these politics were different than current world stuff, it was still capitalism and drug-centric so it hit too close to the mark for me.) I really liked the nuanced characters and that the antagonists were fleshed out to the point where I could understand their side too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: Drug use and Addiction

Minor: Dementia

trizk's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

5.0

The world-building and magic systems were soooo amazing. Fonda Lee is able to introduce all these aspects while keeping the story interesting. Her characters were imperfect and fit well in this mafia-inspired world

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Sexual content and Misogyny

olympia98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

Ottimo inizio.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Dementia, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Blood, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Drug use, Hate crime, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and War

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Grief, Murder, Cursing, Death, Toxic relationship, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Xenophobia, Drug use, War, and Gun violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Confinement, and Addiction

Minor: Racism

vnderseelie's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The overall setting of Jade City was amazing and the structures of the clans and Kekons society was intriguing. However, most if them were introduced too late in the story for my opinion and that made it difficult to understand them from time to time. As a reader you are treated as if you already know everything about the terms, phrases, gods, etc. that are mentioned in the book and I feel like some points have not been addressed at all and you are forced to accept them as they are.

The characters are really interesting and actually carry a lot of the story, since their flaws and decisions let the events progress and escalate further, which makes them feel alive and well merged with the world Fonda Lee built. Nevertheless, a lot of the actions that the characters took did not make a lot of sense in specific situations or were needlessly cruel, even given the topics the book deals with. Especially the grandfather gave the impression that he just appeared to talk the others down. Additionally, I really disagreed with some scenes and the behavior in them, which made it hard for me to continue the book sometimes.

Some scenes felt a bit too long or they were repeated in almost the same way too often, which made them repetitive to read and it seemed to just add to the page count of the book, without providing a real impact on anything.

All in all the idea of Jade City was really interesting to me, but I think the actual translation into the story was lacking in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Addiction, Child abuse, War, Violence, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Drug use, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Racism, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Cursing, and Death

h4ppycupcake's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Dementia, Drug use, Murder, Addiction, Gore, and Violence