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sophie221010's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Mental illness, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Classism, Domestic abuse, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Minor: Abandonment, Colonisation, Cursing, and Bullying
The first book is ok, but near the end and in the following books especially, it quickly descends into madness. I would have to use almost every content warning available.astralfeline's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, Classism, Death, War, and Addiction
Moderate: Genocide, Body horror, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Torture, Child death, Kidnapping, and Self harm
averyadventurous's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Violence, War, Drug use, and Death
Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Torture, Body horror, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Infertility, Sexual violence, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Child death, Addiction, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping
cr1na's review
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Addiction, Colonisation, Rape, Torture, Drug use, and Genocide
Basically think of any war crime and it is in this book or series so tread lightly.aishaslittlelife's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
The first 100 or so pages are slow paced but then after that it gets fast faced really fast until the end.
Absolutely broke me into a thousand tiny hurting bits. Altan is my favourite nobody understands him like I do.
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Torture, Colonisation, Death, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Drug abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Addiction, Animal death, and Drug use
graffitithesky's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Drug use, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Colonisation, Genocide, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and War
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Classism, Cursing, and Racism
Pulls from real events from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanjing, graphic depictions of brutality, murder, and outright genocide.fantasynarwhal's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Murder, Rape, Violence, Sexism, Sexual assault, War, Gore, Suicide, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Infertility, Bullying, Colonisation, Cannibalism, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Death, Torture, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Slavery, and Suicide attempt
biaaaa's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
It took me a while to really get into the book, tbh the first part was a little boring to me, but I think that if or when I reread I'm going to appreciate it so much more!
But the second and third part broke my heart!!! And I know that the characters didn't make the best or the right choices but they're literally teenagers, Rin is just 19 years old at the end of the book and she's already gone through so much trauma, so I really can't dislike her even after what she did at the end, same with Altan, even if he was awful to Rin through the majority of the book.
Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, and War
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Minor: Toxic relationship and Slavery
chiaraculpo's review
- 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? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Kidnapping, Self harm, Colonisation, Genocide, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Racism, Rape, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Violence, Addiction, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Animal death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Infertility, War, Abandonment, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Vomit
katrod's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
First, it read like all 3 books of a trilogy. It was just wayyyyy too much for one book, without getting some of the human relationship details I love. It was literally just war. I felt like our main character had 3 almost fleshed out relationships, but besides that, she kind of lived in a vacuum.
Second, the amount of real history that Kuang used as inspiration for the book was extremely graphic and detailed and felt wrong in the context of a fantasy book (that starts off with her innocently taking a test to get into school at the age of 16… it goes from 0-100 real quick). I didn’t know about the Massacre of Nanking and other details from the second Sino-Japanese war in the early 20th century. Kuang drew heavily from these events in her writing of The Poppy War. I can see why she wanted to write about it and bring awareness to such a heinous part of human history. I just really felt uncomfortable reading about it through the lens of a fantasy novel. And there was nothing about the book or descriptions that prepared me for that or for how absolutely horrifying and disturbing some of the things she describes are. Seriously… just google trigger warnings and this book. It’s like every trigger you could ever think of.
Third, I had no one to root for. I’m all for writing about flawed characters, but I felt like I truly had no one I could get behind. And Rin, our main character, kind of flip flopped a lot. Sometimes she behaved in a way that made her seem really sensitive and scared, and other times she was this unflinching, unyielding, fearless radical. It was confusing. I felt like I never really understood who she was at her core… and why she cared so much about a country that really didn’t give a rat’s ass about her.
I really reeeeally wanted to love this, but I almost put it down so many times, I really didn’t like it.
Love Kuang’s other stuff though (Yellowface and Babel). I won’t be reading the rest of this series but I still look forward to whatever she does next!
Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, War, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, Classism, Gore, Addiction, Colonisation, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Torture