A review by periodblood
The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Alas I have finished this book. I believe this book was paced muches better than the poppy war, lost however certain shock value as the plot was always moving on a similar scale. The characters were abled to be further fleshed out (
albeit most are dead now
) And I believe
through the bonding of Rin and Kitay
we as readers were further able to understand the dynamics of their friendships. Generally Rin's emotions throughout the book were handled in more variety and more vulnerableness was shown from her. Plot wise I was bored sometimes as it felt rather repetitive in the middle. I also believe the foreshadowing was handled very outright (not necessarily bad, just took away any shock), because of this the plot points revealed by the end just weren't surprising. The writing was handled beautifully, as expected. 

The handling of European colonisation was shown very well in my opinion. So was the religious propaganda of sorts from the Hesperians. The addition of Augus was also very well put.


I am also very satisfied with the discussions of rape in this book once again. Venka's character now also having an identity as an ally and friend is so good. Daji's also strongly being influenced by rape by a Westerner also helped give a very direct understable reason of her hate.


I all in all enjoyed this book a lot but it doesn't quite top in ratings for me.
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