Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

19 reviews

allisonmspiers's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Racism, Physical abuse, Grief, Genocide, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Death, Classism, Violence, Cursing, Torture, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Sexism, Child death, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Drug use, Abandonment, Ableism, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, and Animal cruelty

Forced marriage, human experimentation, massacres, menstruation,

overbooked207's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

📖 The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang Book Review 📖

4th book of January 2023 and 4th of the year:

“War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who remains.” - R.F. Kuang.

A military epic fantasy novel inspired by the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking, this book was engaging, hard to put down, and very dark and harrowing, showing how absolutely horrid war is and the trauma, horror, and destruction that comes out of it. It had absolutely amazing writing and world-building, relevant commentary, intricate, brutal, and well-written fight and battle scenes, a beautiful cover, a great audiobook, and fleshed-out/well-developed and complex characters. I love reading about complex characters who make mistakes, aren’t perfect, and/or are forced to make big and hard decisions. I especially love consuming content with angry characters in it. Characters who see or experience injustice and are fueled by their rage. Many times, I find it very cathartic because everybody reacts to trauma differently, with there being no such thing as the ‘perfect’ victim that the media/world expects and wants when horrible things happen. And anger is an essential part of healing and can be very useful when channeled toward good, and, while there are more now, I don’t see as many books/movies/shows that have a main character who expresses this understandable anger, and Rin does, so I really appreciated that. I highly recommend this. Just please be aware of all of the TWs(which I started listing alphabetically to make it easier for people) because there are many heavy things in this, and it was very hard to read at times due to them. TWs for abandonment, ableism, abuse(child, domestic, physical, and sexual), addiction, alcoholism, animal cruelty/death, blood, body horror, body shaming, bullying, child death, classism, colonization, confinement, cursing, death, drugs/drug use, excrement, fatphobia, fire/fire injury, forced institutionalization, gaslighting, genocide, gore, grief, gun violence, hate crime, infertility, injuries/injury detail, kidnapping, medical content/trauma, menstruation, mental illness, mention of forced marriage and prostitution, misogyny, murder, panic attacks, pedophilia, police brutality, pregnancy, PTSD, racism, rape(mentioned a few times throughout and described in detail by a survivor toward the end of chapter 21(80% through the book and at around 14:57:35 to around 15:03:58 in the audiobook)), religious bigotry, self-harm, sexism, sexual assault/violence, slavery, slurs, stalking, suicidal thoughts, suicide, torture, trafficking, violence, vomit, war, and xenophobia.🎧⚔️🏹

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Classism, Excrement, Kidnapping, Self harm, War, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Slavery, Trafficking, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Grief, Bullying, Violence, Addiction, Child death, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Abandonment, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition

dark hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, Gore, War, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Genocide, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Racism, Addiction, Animal death, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Vomit, Child abuse, and Cursing

Minor: Fatphobia, Infertility, Religious bigotry, and Excrement

rowancaskey's review

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fatphobia

sarahgayflint's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia

matissebb's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Fatphobia

surefinewhatever_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I’m sorrrry, I know this one is a booksta darling but I just didn’t love it. My biggest complaint (besides it feeling slow) was that I felt Rin was always defining herself based on the relationships she had with the men in her life, From tutor Feyrik, to Kitay, to Irjah & Jiang, to Nezha & Altan, and even to Chaghan. Maybe this is also me just wishing there were other women in this book? Idk hard to say. I appreciated that Rin was imperfect and that the book is tackling a lot of different ideas. This book did get incredibly brutal though, and having had to read this one for class, I really would have appreciated some content warnings. Not to mention, the casual anti-fatness (trope of the greedy/wealthy constantly being depicted as fat) and casual ableism. All the same, I get why this book has meant a lot to so many people, it just wasn’t that for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and War

Minor: Fatphobia and Ableism

valpuri's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Excrement, Fatphobia, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Pedophilia

fiveredhens's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

favorite quotes:

"So you're not dying, sweetheart, your body is just shedding your uterine lining."

Rin's jaw had been hanging open for a solid minute. "What the fuck?"

... geometric assault of lines and shapes without form or color, without regard to any aesthetic value except randomness. You stupid shapes, she thought over and over again like a mantra. You stupid fucking shapes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Medical content, Rape, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Xenophobia

Minor: Fatphobia