Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

121 reviews

hailsatan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Abortion, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Deportation, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, War, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Excrement, Infertility, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Hate crime, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

moonymars's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Drug use, Physical abuse, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

marie_reads_again's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense fast-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

I was promised to read the best fantasy novel ever, which was a bad set up, therefore i can only give this book 4⭐. It was a great book, but I was expecting it to be outstanding. When i found the same themes that are in every fantasy book, i felt somewhat disappointed. However, there were moments were i thought "damn, finally someone whos not following the text book of how to write a fantasy novel. It was very engaging, there was only one time i didnt feel like continuing it, but that also had to do with lack of time. It's fast paced, in the sense that quite a few years pass in the first half of the book, which i thought was very rushed while reading - in hindsight i think it was necessary and well done. I also love that R. F. Kuang did plenty of research about the japanese/chinese war, you can really see that she knows a lot about this topic when reading the book! 

what really put me off, though, was the immaturity of the protagonist. I'm guessing shes around 16 to 17 years old, but I thought since it's maketed towards adults, ths protagonist will be more mature. I found her a little annoying sometimes, but i want to continue reading, because the last pages made me think, that maybe its just a necessary character trait (not immaturity but something more like hot-headedness), which is going to make the story very interesting. 

definitely gonna clntinue this series and can recommend it :) 
oh but it's very graphic and brutal at times, look out for that! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Drug use, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War

songbiirds's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Classism, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Drug use, Grief, Physical abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Infertility, War, Sexual assault, and Violence

pages_with_panda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The Poppy War is a strong start to a really good series. I liked how it was inspired by true events, but I think I found myself more interested in the real history than the story in this book. There was a lot of clear parallels that I ended up exploring but the overall pacing of book 1 felt a little off. 

The first half seemed to have a strong start - peasant girl Rin wants to become a soldier at the Sinegard Academy to escape an arranged marriage. She beats the odds, scoring perfectly and being accepted. However, that’s only the start of her troubles. Being at the school didn’t bring her the same opportunities as the other students because she was still just a peasant girl from the south in the eyes of the other students. 

That’s NOT the plot of the book though. That’s only 1 section of 3. If you just started the book and don’t like it, maybe keep reading. It gets really different from here on out. 

Book 1 felt VASTLY different from the rest of the book were everything seemed to change, including the writing and descriptions and even the story. While book 1 felt very YA, the rest of the book was decidedly NOT. It was full of dark violent scenes not meant for young adults. 

I liked the way Rin faced everything thrown at her during Book 1 and her time at the school, but I felt like Book 2 was full of worldbuilding where Rin was often in the background and no longer the main character. There was just a lot of information thrown at us and it didn’t feel steady enough to drag us through so much so quickly.

I also felt like some of the atrocities were mentioned in great detail as a way to shock the readers. We went from brief mentions of violence and battles, to multiple fully detailed scenes of sexual violence and horror. Nothing else seemed to be described that way in the rest of the book though, and I felt like Kuang wanted us to know that this had happened in real life and wanted to mention it here as well. It just seemed unexpected and jarring.

Overall the story was interesting and I’m definitely going to be continuing the story. 

Please check the content warnings. This book gets very detailed and very dark. It talks about colonialism and the horrors of war and everything in between. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Self harm, Colonisation, Genocide, Rape, Drug abuse, War, Violence, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Ableism

Minor: Vomit

kento's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Drug use, Torture, Animal death, Sexual violence, Gore, Classism, Genocide, Slavery, Racism, Mental illness, Blood, Animal cruelty, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Cursing, Body horror, Death, Violence, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, War, Drug abuse, Vomit, Child death, Addiction, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse

thedambookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, War, Addiction, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Misogyny, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Cursing, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Self harm, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Drug use, Genocide, and Grief

jeyjeyyy's review against another edition

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

4.0

This book was amazing.
Though I did find the middle part a bit slow, the beginning is very entertaining and has amazing world building and the third part is simply phenomenal. While a plot-focused  book as well, the reflections this story had on power, anger and how they impact history were truly fascinating. As always, we love flawed main characters, and they truly were. To the point where I kept switching between hating them or loving them with my whole heart. As I said, amazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and Rape

the_harlequin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Body horror, Drug abuse, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Torture, Addiction, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Colonisation, Classism, Self harm, War, Religious bigotry, Death, Child death, Blood, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Excrement, Infertility, and Suicide

sam_emerson6's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, War, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Rape, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Slavery