Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

14 reviews

sadhbh2525's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5


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lil_rumblebee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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calamitydane's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

It's not often that a sequel surpasses the original story, but Heavenly Tyrant does this with maniacal fury and whole-hearted compassion at the same time. This book broke me, built me anew, and broke me again. A beautiful story of revolution and the conflicts that come with it, this is much more than an enemies-to-lovers romance. This book has easy-to-understand explanations of communist theory and discusses feminist revolution as well. It discusses racism, feminism, classism, ableism, homophobia and even ageism. I don't know of the last time a book felt like it really changed me the way this did. Cannot recommend enough.

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jacksons_books_and_music's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

Last year, I said Iron Widow was one of the best books I ever read. I love the sequel even better!

The characters and the circumstances in which they have to survive are incredibly messy and imperfect. They have to make difficult decisions that are sometimes right, sometimes wrong, and sometimes it’s hard to say. I felt the characters were realistic and nuanced in an incredibly engaging way. I wish all my friends would read this series so we could all talk about it often!

The narration was great! I think it was very smart to cast two different narrators, even if one of them didn’t narrate often. 

Please keep in mind this book series is upper YA/New Adult, with content not meant for younger teens. In terms of content and trigger warnings, it would be easier to say what trigger and content warnings it doesn’t warrant. There is graphic violence and spicy content, falling short of explicit (depending on your definition).

I’m not sharing any further thoughts due to spoilers! I look forward to reading the third book in the series when it comes out!

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njstew's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.5

Absolutely screaming oh my goodness
After waiting for YEARS for this book the plot was everything I hoped for.

Only criticisms would be that some of the writing about political ideas were just a little too on the nose, and that for most of the book it felt like the characters were overcoming obstacles too easy (although this did not hold up towards the end) 

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systemof5's review against another edition

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champagnerain's review against another edition

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  • Loveable characters? No

1.5


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sirpandacat's review against another edition

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

5.0


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kmart_ceo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

I don’t think the sequel is as good as the first book. Maybe that’s just because there’s WAYYYY more going on and
there was no Shimin (for the most part)
. The plot twists had my jaw dropping, and I started having a hard time keeping track of who I am supposed to hate. 

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juniperbranches's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I LOVE that Zeitian maintained So much of her feminine rage. Loved how hateable but reasonable Qin Zheng was. I’m a big fan of sneaking conversations about power wealth and consent into a YA novel but comes off a little dry and educational in some spots. I can’t decide if I like where the author seems to be directing the series, but I like that scope they’ve given the story. 

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