2nd read: I will never not think that this was anything short of heart wrenchingly amazing.

“If you want to lead, you can’t wait for everyone to line up behind you.”

1st read:

“Out of small resentments, spring great wars.”

The way Fonda Lee weaves crime and gangster narratives into endearing family and brotherhood dynamics really is nothing short of clever. This is a brutal but politically dynamic and action-packed urban fantasy revolving around incredibly well designed fantastical and realistic elements. By the end of this book, I feel like Fonda Lee carved out 10 years off of my soul.



I never thought I would love geopolitics and economics in fantasy as much as Fonda Lee made me love them. And she did it so expertly that it was impossible for me not to be hooked.

This story exemplifies on a whole other level the cost, consequences, and machinations of war because it also so successfully portrays the complex characterizations and heart-felt family dynamics that go with it. Jade War expands everything we already knew and added even more scheming, betrayal, and political power plays.

If your selling point to read a book is “You will be destroyed”… this series is the epitome of that.

An underlying but potent theme of this story is in how Shae and Wen express time and time again the duality of what a “powerful” woman means. Crime and gangster type of stories is usually set in a very male-dominated society but the girlbosses women of this series were portrayed to have just the same (if not more) amounts of conscientiousness, passion, perseverance, diligence, and (sometimes) cruelty as their male counterparts without feeling the need to outright say it. Even then, it was able to show the expectations of being a woman in modern society, in both the No Peak and Mountain clans *wink*

At the end of the day they were able to show how freedom and strength lies in letting women (and people, in general) choose the role they want to uphold in the first place.

“There were so many things a Pillar could not accomplish solely with his own will and strength, that relied instead on other people, even in matters as personal as vengeance.”

Life is cruel and so is this book.



The pre-established relationships that we got to learn and love in the first book follows through in the second book in the most intense and heart-wrenching way that Fonda Lee has the power to ruin me at this point and I have consciously put myself in her hands to be destroyed.

The characters are definitely at the forefront and are leading factors of this story. However, it never feels like they’re being swept away by the plot no matter how complicated it gets. I love how certain actions and the meanings behind their respective interactions are nuanced enough that when you catch the underlying implications, makes it extra fulfilling. It feeds the complex character dynamics flowing while tugging you in with it. I never feel like the conflicts in this story are too heavy even though they objectively are about killers if we all take a step back and forget about how attached we all are to the Kaul Family.

“There’s a difference between a dog that picks garbage outside your house, and one that jumps through your window to still from your table. One is a nuisance you can ignore; the other is a problem and has to be killed.”

The way this book is written made me feel like I just lived through a whole life time.



What I didn’t expect for this series was for it to span years. Though the way the passage of time was written into plot points like helps you imagine the time skips without having the need to be told specifically how much time has actually passed. If I am not mistaken, this might be the first book that I have read from that wrote time skips so casually and flawlessly... genius.

The intriguing narrative is written in a way that shows perspectives of the social ladder from the bottom to the top, and everything in between. I honestly find it very intriguing and it creates a multi-layered feeling to the setting, especially since the perspectives we read from most of the time are from those at the top of the social hierarchy. I also love that we got to see how the conflict plays out even outside of Kekon.

One of my favorite aspects about this series is how well-done the multi-POV was especially given how fast the timeline goes. Fonda Lee said this in an interview and I agree: the beauty of the multiple perspectives is that you get to see how every main character has a view into every other main character. They had such a complete view of each other and as readers, we have a complete view of every one of them that leaves us invested in all of them…. down to the most minor of characters.

“If you're not sure you're in love, then you're not.”

For a little extra something: These books are one of the farthest things from a romance book there is but the romance sub plots are so well-written that if Fonda Lee comes out with a romance novel I’d read it to be honest.

This book was so easy to read but that doesn't mean anything was simple.

↣ It's vividly written, it's brutal, action-packed, filled with complex character dynamics and an immersive writing style. Pick up this series if you want to be destroyed. Let’s be destroyed together. ↢

I suddenly have the urge to reread the whole thing. Definitely a new favorite of all time.

”I know something of clan war, and one thing I know is that they're fought on many levels.”

— 5.0 —
⇢ content warnings// Ableism (minor), Abortion (off-page), Animal death (off-page), Blood, Body horror, Death (including parental), Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence (mentioned), Suicide ideation, Torture, Violence (graphic)
⇢ representation: Gay main character, Bi/Pan main character, Asian-inspired setting and characters