Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Jade City by Fonda Lee

28 reviews

iono's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, War, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Cursing, Homophobia, Rape, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

minxtte's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mads_reads_books's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Dementia, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

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

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

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

Minor: Racism

lonelylooper's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Suicide

lunep's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Kidnapping

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Suicide, Dementia, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

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.

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

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:

including the death of a POV character

xoconnellevx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

If you're thinking of reading this book: do it!

The characters and the world felt alive right from the very beginning. Fonda is incredible at crafting characters that feel as though they are living and breathing. 

Athough time was taken to get the major plot points moving, it still didn't feel tiresome to read; the vast majority of chapters felt neccessary.

I had so much fun reading and I understood every character motivation fully; even of I didn't agree with it.

Definitely will be finishing the series and I'm excited to see what's to come!

<Spoilers Below>





My only major critique, I would have loved to spend more time fleshing out Lan as a character, seeing as he death didn't seem to impact me as much as it did shock me. I felt pity for the Shae/Hilo/Andy losing Lan but not for losing Lan as a character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent