A review by fearsparks
The Burning God by R.F. Kuang
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The book started off where the previous book left. Only a short amount of time has passed. This include spoiler for the first two books in this series, The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic.
Rin is now fighting for the south, for the dark skinned people like her. But this fight is nothing like the strategic war and planned battles she knows. No, this is entirely new. And Rin fights to be in charge.
The twists and turns of this book! They were unpredictable and some came out of nowhere. And the ending, it is not what I expected. There were also a lot going on in this book, I found myself having to rewind the audiobook several times because I had missed information. This doesn’t bother me, but it is very dense.
There are a few things in this book that I don’t understand. It gave me more questions than answers, and I feel a bit unsatisfied having finished this series. I still love it, but I feel like I needed more answers.
I usually have a hard time anticipating what would come next, and usually can’t say whether a decision is out of character or not. So I may be totally wrong here. But some decisions made of the bigger characters felt a bit out of character.
Rin is now fighting for the south, for the dark skinned people like her. But this fight is nothing like the strategic war and planned battles she knows. No, this is entirely new. And Rin fights to be in charge.
The twists and turns of this book! They were unpredictable and some came out of nowhere. And the ending, it is not what I expected. There were also a lot going on in this book, I found myself having to rewind the audiobook several times because I had missed information. This doesn’t bother me, but it is very dense.
There are a few things in this book that I don’t understand. It gave me more questions than answers, and I feel a bit unsatisfied having finished this series. I still love it, but I feel like I needed more answers.
I usually have a hard time anticipating what would come next, and usually can’t say whether a decision is out of character or not. So I may be totally wrong here. But some decisions made of the bigger characters felt a bit out of character.
Spoiler
The possibility that Venka betrayed Rin during the last part of the book, that Kitay thought they should surrender in the very end, and his semi-betrayal. Nezha’s attempts to kill Rin or capture her in Tikany.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Addiction, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Blood, Xenophobia, Violence, Self harm, Rape, and Racial slurs