Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

164 reviews

strawberrystitchery's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Death, Racism, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Murder, Torture, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Classism, Medical content, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Rape

njthk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I'm inconsolable.
Great conclusion for the trilogy and great book overall, but my least favorite of them all.
Some gripes I have with this book:

Spoiler

THE WHOLE TRIFECTA ARC JUST TO KILL THEM OFF?! JUST LIKE THAT?! When the bombs dropped I was like 'pah they surely survived that'. I WAS CERTAIN THEY WOULD RETURN, ONLY AFTER A 100 PAGES OR SO IT BECAME APPARENT THAT THERE COULDNT POSSIBLY BE SPACE FOR THEIR STORY ON SO LITTLE PAGES LEFT. And we never got to know what exactly Rigas powers were, bro was dead, resurrected and then dead again all in the span of 10 Minuten lmao.

I guess that just wasn't the focus of the Story but I can't help but wish for more.
Kuang opened up such a large World but in the end it still felt kinda unexplored.
Rins inner workings and morals were once again sooo interesting.

Spoiler

Her black and white thinking, the mental acrobatics girly did to justify her actions, the deep rooted racism at every corner and so onnnn.
Especially during the last pages it became apparent how far gone Rin was. The sheer Paranoia and the blindness for everything but War, Power another win and another one and another one.
I wanted to be mad at her as she killed Venka (THIS WAS SO FOUL) and then almost Kitay (I WILL FOREVER LOVE YOU KITAY) but I was just sad for her. Truly tragic.
AND THE ENDING.
Sounds strange but i'm so glad that Rin died. It was a good decision and it finally gave her rest. I hate when Authors can't say goodbye to their characters and just drag them along.

(And a random thought I had: It's so funny that all the male Yins look virtually the same. Kuang emphasized their physical similarities

Spoiler

(Riga, Vaisra, Nezha)

SO OFTEN, in the end I just pictured them as clones at different ages lmao.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Cannibalism, and Gore

karlawaddles's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Rape, and Racism

jessicaludden's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

“She was a goddess. She was a monster. She’d nearly destroyed this country. And then she’d given it one last, gasping chance to live.”

There’s so much to unpack in this book. It so vividly portrayed this endless cycle of war and the impacts of constant oppression not just to our main character and her surroundings but to the entire country and its people. Rin makes the same mistakes over and over again and while some people could be annoyed by that, I loved it. She’s far from perfect. She’s almost villainous and it was the most interesting concept to read. I love how every relationship revolves around such a deep sense of love and hatred. Her friendships are full of so much history making betrayals and deaths and battles hurt that much more. This book gives a bleak and realistic ending that left me feeling hollow inside but I can’t see it ending any other way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Addiction, Murder, Racism, War, Cannibalism, Child death, and Drug use

thebookaholic's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

WOW what a conclusion to this series!! I'm surprised to say that this was my least favourite of the three books, but it's still a solid 4 star read which imo, says a lot about the series as a whole and Kuang's insane writing abilities.

This book felt so much bigger that the others did, with the plot zooming out in a way that was more distant from the characters and comprehensive of Nikara, and yet I don't think it lost any of the character depth and development. I felt that overall, this book had a few pacing struggles comparatively, especially in the middle section of the book with

Spoiler

the Trifecta

specifically, but I think this conclusion was so so fitting for the story that Kuang was trying to tell. 

After all,

Spoiler

The first rule of the Cike is that they cull, and Rin had already been to the Chuluu Korith...

Would I recommend? ABSOLUTELY

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal cruelty, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Torture, Violence, War, Racism, Animal death, Death, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

malwa'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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Racism, Genocide, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

natsbooknook's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

A fitting end to a brutal and brilliant trilogy. As always RF Kuang's writing was sheer brilliance. The way that the author manages to draw in the reader and make it feel as though they are right in the thick of the action alongside the characters is a truly special quality.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Murder, Xenophobia, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use and Infertility

laraveliants's review against another edition

challenging 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

5.0

“Take what you want, it said. I’ll hate you for it. But I’ll love you forever. I can’t help but love you.

Ruin me, ruin us, and I’ll let you.”

this book feels like getting stabbed a million times but you can’t die

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, Death, Drug use, War, Xenophobia, Torture, Murder, Racism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cannibalism

brianneh's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Genocide, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Torture, War, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Classism, Drug use, Xenophobia, Murder, Death, Rape, Gore, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault

rinakei's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, Vomit, Racism, Religious bigotry, War, and Blood