A review by emmaisnotavampire
La dea in fiamme by R.F. Kuang

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Almost as if Kuang read my mind, this final chapter of the saga was FULL of morally grey characters continuously shifting in perception! How I loved the role of the Empress, how I loved this multifaceted Jiang! Characters were a strength here, much more than in the other books, and the plot twists were back to their original unpredictable nature. So many things I would not have expected, like of course the Triad or even more obviously the finale. Rin’s moral dilemma was also really interesting, finding herself time after time in positions she shouldn’t have been in and struggling to figure out what the right thing to do was. A soldier turned goddes, chief, ruler even, feeling so incredibly lost and unprepared: I feel like a theme like that always hits hard, after all we all feel the same thing at some point in life. Or during most of our life, I don’t know. Depends on how pragmatic you are.
It still didn’t shock me as much as the first book, I think the changes of scale and perspective there were so massive that they can hardly be topped. In the span of one single book, Rin goes from child to war survivor, and everything turns absolutely upside down, learning into killing, quiet into chaos, peace into massacre. Here, the starting point already has too much going on for a change to be as unsettling; but still, I really enjoyed this read.