Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

617 reviews

sophie221010's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced
  • 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


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astralfeline's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • 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

This is an amazingly well written book with a ton of world building and very complex characters and themes. At some points it felt like it dragged a bit but I think that's because we see a very long development and I don't think I was prepared to get so sucked in. That's why I gave it a 4.5 star. But I would LOVE to come back at a later time and really closely reread and annotate this book because I think it is the type that would be fun to comb over like that. Definitely recommend if you enjoy historical fiction and fantasy, this book is a great combination of the two genres. I will also add this book has some tough to read moments. It does deal with war, drug use/addiction (opium), murder/death, and has some really dark parts -- definitely check out the TWs. 

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averyadventurous's review

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced
  • 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

There’s been talk in a lot of bookish spaces about fantasy as a genre having an empire problem. R.F. Kuang completely subverts that trope. Empires are bad. Power of any type is bad. She pulls no stops with this book. It’s brutal. It’s disgusting. It’ll make you question your life choices and reconsider everything you think you know about world history. I need the rest of the series immediately.

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cr1na's review

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

Whenever I'm in a reading slump, I can come to this book and be emotionally destroyed but it breaks me out of my rut. 

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aishaslittlelife's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

Definitely check trigger warnings before reading this book.

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. 

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graffitithesky's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0


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fantasynarwhal's review

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adventurous dark sad slow-paced
  • 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


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biaaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.0

Oh my god!!! This book!!!!! I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did!!! 

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. 

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chiaraculpo's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.0

la parte iniziale è quella che mi è piaciuta di più, mentre era l'accademia. non mi aspettavo he la parte della guerra fosse così lunga sinceramente e mi sono annoiata in molti punti. le parti in cui descrivevano gli dei non mi hanno fatto impazzire e molte volte non capivo. è un libro molto duro e non so se continuerò la trilogia: in questo momento non andrò avanti ma non escludo che potrei farlo in futuro.

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katrod's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced
  • 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

2.5… I wanted to love this book so much… all of the ideas were there, but I just really didn’t like some of the ways Kuang told this story.  

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!

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