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alyxbeau's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
There were parts of this book that I loved, and characters that I loved. I thought it was well written and so well done, but whether I want to actually spend my time reading about what I think is coming is a whole seperate question.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, Bullying, Body horror, Sexual violence, War, Toxic friendship, Torture, Xenophobia, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Racism, Emotional abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Child death, Addiction, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Sexual assault, Death, Rape, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Infertility, Gore, Forced institutionalization, and Confinement
harrimyers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual assault, Addiction, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, War, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Bullying, Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Blood, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Abandonment, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Infertility, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
laraamaee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
But the story is intensely gripping and Kuang’s writing is incredible as ever, even if the book’s pace speeds up Very quickly after Rin’s training. Each time I thought, No, the situation can’t get any worse… it did … and there’s 2 more books?!? How am I going to cope…
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Sexual violence, Body horror, Torture, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Genocide, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Death, Sexual harassment, Gore, Animal cruelty, War, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Violence, Rape, Child abuse, and Abandonment
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Suicide, and Pandemic/Epidemic
graffitithesky's review against another edition
- 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.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
farosh's review against another edition
4.75
[Characters]
Rin is probably one of the most well-written female fantasy characters I know. She's been perfectly crafted from page one. I felt deeply intertwined with her story, her origin; her every feeling, frustration and wishes from beginning to end. Kuang always made me be able to relate to her or at least understand why Rin is acting the way she does. You can literally follow the evolution of her character and personality and while it hardly was surprising, it is very understandable indeed.
Rin curled her fingers into fists at her sides, suddenly pissed off. True suffering? She had seen her friends stabbed with halberds, shot full of arrows, cut down with swords, burned to death in poisonous fog. She had seen Sinegard go up in flames. She had seen Khurdalain occupied by Federation invaders almost overnight.
"That boy is beyond redemption," said the Woman. "That boy is broken like the rest. But you, you are still pure. You can still be saved."
"I don't want to be saved!" Rin shrieked. "I want power! I want Altan's power! I want to be the most powerful shaman there ever was, so that there is no one i can't save!"
"I taught you better than this." Jiang put a hand on her shoulder. He sounded as if he were pleading. "Didn't I, Rin?"
He could have have helped them. He could have stopped the massacre at Golyn Niis. He could have saved Nezha. But Jiang had hidden. His country had needed him, and he had fled to ensconce himself there, without any regard for those he left behind.
He had abandoned her. He hadn't even said goodbye.
But Altan... Altan had not given up on her. Altan had verbally abused her and hit her, but he had faith in her power. Altan had only ever wanted to make her stronger.
"I'm sorry, sir." she said. "But I have my orders."
Rin grew up a peasant, terrorized and physically abused by terrible, terrible "adoptive parents" who only used her as a free worker. She physically tortured herself to get into the Academy and left behind the little things she knew. She arrived there only to be mentally and physically tortured more, treated like less than human by 99% of the academy. She only has one true friend there. She learns under Jiang, her closest thing to a Mentor and father figure but he abandons her multiple times and is quite unreliable, even if he had good reasons for it. War breaks out and she sees more than half of her class and teachers die, she's forced to continue and when everyone finds out she's Speerly, she's forced to fight under the Cike. Now she's part of one of the most feared and hated races, one of the last two Speerly alive and part of an 8 member crew, hated by everyone else as well. The only other person she now knows there is Nezha, her ex-arch enemy. Nezha dies a tragic death and she has to watch him die, her only remnant of a friend. Altan becomes something close to her tutor as a commander and he's the only person she feels somewhat normal around until Altan breaks under the pressure even more so than before and he physically hurts and torments her too. She has truly no one, until she has to witness an entire genocide happening right in front of her eyes, is abandoned and needs to witness Altan being tortured until they fight for their freedom, just for Altan to sacrifice himself and her almost dying multiple times to end up in the hands of the Phoenix God, where Rin essentially gives up her soul so she can pledge her allegiance to him to end Mugen. If I understand someone turning into a bloodthirsty, mentally unstable and deeply bitter warcriminal, it's Rin.
What makes the story so tragic besides the obvious paragraph above is that the book cleverly highlights that it's her decisions that led to all this. She could have chosen many a times to not follow this path, but she did. It makes sense, it's understandable, but it leaves me asking for all the possibilities, all the alternative futures she could have had. Could she have been happy in any of them, with Nezha, Venka, Altan and the others?
My only critique of the plot:
We got such a well written deep-dive of Rin and Altan's characters and so much geopolitical worldbuilding and warfare, that the relationships between Rin and Altan, Rin and Nezha and Rin and Kitay were a little underdeveloped at times. I wished for a scene where Rin would have been able to *really* talk to Altan about all the trauma that made him up. One scene where she is able to calm him and distract him of all his burdens for some hours. I wished for some scenes where Nezha and Rin get the chance to actually become friends, because like pointed out multiple times; if the circumstances were different, they would have made great friends and fighting partners. I would have wished for scenes where Rin gets to enjoy Sinegard without any prejudice and hate, surrounded by Kitay and more girls. I would have wished for Rin to get some more chances to live without fear and worries and enjoy girlhood, before so much was taken from her and everyone else.
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War
thedrtaylor's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: War, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Genocide, Colonisation, Addiction, Violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, and Drug abuse
thegr1mreader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Self harm, Racism, Rape, War, Violence, Torture, Death, Child death, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Medical content, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Drug abuse, Cursing, Body horror, Blood, Animal death, and Addiction
Moderate: Xenophobia, Gore, Genocide, Animal death, Medical content, Rape, Sexual violence, Addiction, War, Violence, Torture, Drug use, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Grief, Death, Colonisation, Child death, Bullying, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Cursing, Classism, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Death, Medical content, Vomit, Violence, Rape, Xenophobia, War, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexual violence, Self harm, Racism, Physical abuse, Cursing, Colonisation, Blood, Murder, Gore, Miscarriage, Grief, Drug abuse, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Classism, Child death, and Addiction
mir_frog73's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Vomit, War, Abandonment, Body horror, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Sexism, Trafficking, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Violence, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Cursing
taemd58's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Genocide, Murder, Rape, Infertility, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Body horror, Addiction, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Classism, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Violence, Vomit, War, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, and Hate crime