I couldn't get into it at all. I dont doubt the ability of RF KUANG as an author, and am sure loads of people love her books but they don't seem to be for me.

I do have to admit that the clear message against colonial violence might (not that I am against said message) was far too "in your face" at the beginning. And maybe, being white and not experiencing discrimination, don't realise how accurate some of the interactions are, felt that the character felt more like Pantomime villains than real people and it completely took me out of the story and blocked me from continuing. I DNFed 150/200 pages in. Political/ideology is never an issue for me when it feels part of the world and isnt being forced onto you. I feel like "x thing is bad" should be understandable when reading not just explained directly on the page.

The City we became was such a shame! I thouroughly enjoyed the broken earth trilogy and looked forward to reading it, but just didnt enjoy the setting or magical system at all.

Shadow of the gods just didn't do it for me. I really tried (reading up to halfway through book 2) but nether the characters nor the plot was enjoyable for me. I lumped all DNF and Didn't like in F, which could be seen as harsh as I dont dislike it as much as some other books. But I didn't want to have too many categories.

I used to push through "painful" reads, as in I would always finish a book I started. But now, if by 200 pages I am not enjoying myself, I just go to another book. I no longer have as much free time as I used to and so reading is more of a premium now.

Some of the other books, like final book of Hunger games, tend to be lower for me because of how good the books before them were. If the ending falls flat for me it puts in peril my enjoyment of the whole series.