Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

126 reviews

abicaro17's review

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Well I gave it the good old college try but this sucked. To give credit, the first 150-200 pages were actually good and super interesting. This is immediately thrown out the window. Rin is a poor orphan who tests into an elite training academy for the military. The school/training portion of the book was fun for the most part and the plot made sense. Then we get to the attack and everything following. Rin is 19 by the end of the book but she feels 14. She's constantly whining and flip flopping morally and emotionally. Like genocide is bad! No it's necessary! The gods will consume me! No I can control them! Also every military tactic is stupid af. There are zero likable characters and this book is so dense and slow it took me two months to read. Save yourself the time and read basically anything else not by R. F. Kuang. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Torture, Vomit, War, Cursing, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infertility, Murder, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Violence

shottel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I thought the hype over The Poppy War was probably unwarranted. I was wrong. If you can handle the visceral horror of the second half - without spoiling anything, it gets really dark - this is a must-read. Set in a fictional world heavily based on the interwar period, it takes heavily from the Second Sino-Japanese War, a topic western audiences are less likely to be familiar with. This gives it an unfamiliar, original touch even as it enjoyably uses well-established character types and tropes. It’s a great time - again, if you can get past situations that outstrip the darker parts of Game of Thrones.

The book rests on two interconnected themes. The first: The horrors that occur when humans think they are bigger and more important than they actually are. The second: The line between justice and revenge, and the consequences of pursuing the latter. These themes are explored through bigotry in the form of racism, classism, and sexism (primarily in the first half) and total war (primarily in the second half). It strikes a masterful balance between being too subtle and too outright as the story plays out and revolves around these themes. Neither preachy nor cryptic.

I recommend this book to any fiction reader who can handle the all-too-real depictions of human-inflicted atrocities. [If you’re on the edge, I attempted to be as thorough as I could with my content warnings attached to this review. This is one of the few times I’d actually recommend checking content warnings prior to reading a book.]

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Genocide, Child death, Murder, Physical abuse, Addiction, Torture, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Classism, Body horror, Confinement, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Grief, Infertility, Excrement, and Pedophilia

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, and Vomit

astridrc's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.25

Well, this took a while. I got into these book fully convinced that I was going to love it and I really did not. It took me such a long time to go through it. The first part was the most enjoyable one: It was more lighthearted since it happens before war ensues and it felt quite exciting to get to know how this world worked and this girl with so much ambition. Then it just turned bleak. I know it's a book about war, but it's hard to go through a story in which none of the characters are really likeable, you just read about war tactics. It drags too much and I don't feel like anything interesting was offered to the reader. If we also add the fact that truly awful graphic things happen: it gets frustrating. I felt like Rin's destiny was obvious since at least half the book, so the story didn't have much to offer in that regard either. I won't be continuing with the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, War, Murder, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, and Genocide

allishortell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

2.75

I respect what the author was trying to accomplish, however, it was too clunky for me. This book is extremely graphic so if you’re sensitive to triggering content, I advise you to check the tags. For clarification, the graphic nature of this book is not what pushed me to give a low rating, it had more to do with characterization, world building, and plot development. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Colonisation, Gore, Drug use, Drug abuse, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Torture

Minor: Vomit and Blood

scholastic_squid's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.75

The Poppy Wars - the beginning of the story started out strong with Rin handling business as usual for her foster family when her foster mother breaks the news about her pending engagement. In a panic stricken state, Rin utilizes her connection with her tutor to take the “test” - the test that will determine her fate on whether she married a man twice her age or attends one of the military schools. Getting into the school would secure her future as a soldier not forced into marriage and birth offspring and die. She’d rather die fighting for her country. 

The beginning really took me in and I was loving it and the world building. The characters throughout the book as a whole are all memorable with unique personalities however, I began struggling with the story once the school lessons were fairly repetitive. Which fine.. I understand.. but, then when the war breaks out the book took a deep dive into darkness (again ok it’s about war and Chinese history told as fantasy) but damn.. the sudden change of tone to describe what I’m assuming was Nan King’s experience after being written almost like a YA book to incredibly descriptive language about that atrocity? Eek. This book is definitely not YA, but I would say that much of it is written in that style. I think what brought my rating down was the last 1/4th it was just a whine fest to me and didn’t really leave it as a nail biting cliff hanger so like I’m not jazzed about picking up the second book? Also, I would have loved a bibliography of sorts about all the sources she used to help tell her tale.. similar to how The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi ended. The author loaded up a chapter telling the reader many of her reference books. Also, I really feel like this book needed a trigger warning page? If I missed it that’s on me I guess but yikes haha there’s a lot that happens.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Grief, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Slavery, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Drug use, Drug abuse, War, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Torture

a_novi's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

‼️READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE READING.‼️ This is a truly devastating and descriptive depiction or war, war crimes, and genocide. Much inspired by real life events while still adding some mythology and fantasy elements. I’m eager to read the rest of the trilogy to see where we go with this character. Right now the reader may justify her actions but will she find justice or go to far? This is the ethical dilemma at the end of this book leading into the sequels. AGAIN. READ THE TRIGGER WARNING BEFORE YOU PICK UP THIS BOOK. IT IS DARK. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Murder, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Slavery, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Infertility, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Pregnancy, War, Gore, Sexual violence, Vomit, Medical content, Colonisation, and Genocide

jchappell's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

Incredible themes of destruction, isolation, politics, power and corruption all succinctly placed in a fantastical epic. Think Harry Potter crossed with Avatar and Band of Brothers

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, and Rape

vanessa_books26's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, War, Colonisation, Classism, Toxic friendship, Racism, Infertility, Grief, Gore, Pregnancy, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Drug use, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Genocide, Violence, Child death, Cursing, Death, Bullying, Racial slurs, Vomit, Sexual violence, and Rape

224ok's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Blood, Colonisation, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Genocide, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Gore, Addiction, Classism, Cursing, Death, Child death, Misogyny, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Torture, War, Rape, Sexual violence, Vomit, Bullying, Child abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Grief, Racial slurs, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

antiithesis's review

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Death, Violence, Addiction, War, and Slavery

Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, and Drug abuse