Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

538 reviews

esdiecinueve'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

This was unexpected. I would give many more stars, it was so good. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Vomit, and Xenophobia

elizabeth_helmer's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Rape, Torture, Gore, War, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, and Addiction

imds's review against another edition

• 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, Addiction, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Child abuse, Abandonment, Death, Bullying, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Hate crime, Infertility, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

jays_secret_garden's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

“How could she compare the lives lost? One genocide against another—how did they balance on the scale of justice? And who was she, to imagine that she could make that comparison? ‘What have I done?’”
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•6/5⭐️ 

Nothing could have prepared me for the third part of this book. I foolishly thought that the second part was absolutely crazy, but the third? Devastating. This book completely changed my perspective on life. It was so beautifully written that I feel like people don’t write books like this anymore. The FMC, Rin, is one of the best characters I have read in my entire life. From the first line she had in the book, I knew. Her absolute rage and hate actually means the world to me because how dare they make women and children hurt this much?

The topic of war, genocide, r*pe, etc., is HEAVY. I didn’t really read the trigger warnings because I like to go into books blind, but please read them :). Nothing could have prepared my heart for the heartbreak it would experience while reading the Golyn Noriis part, and even more so after reading the author’s note and finding out everything was inspired by real-life experiences of Chinese people. It broke my heart to read Venka’s story—I was sobbing!!!

I cannot wait to continue with the series because every two pages, something insane and unpredictable happens, and I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT BOOK!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, War, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Self harm, Physical abuse, Child death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gun violence, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Blood

funguyreads's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

4.75

I really loved the last 3rd during the war. The world building is amazing. This book really captured the horror of war on an individual and country wide scale.  The characters, especially how they change from the military academy to actual war, are fascinating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Self harm, Genocide, Murder, Rape, and Xenophobia

afinebordeaux's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, War, Death, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture

ldod's review against another edition

dark fast-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

Became much more brutal than I expected. Well written but not going to read the next books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Genocide, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Murder, Xenophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Child abuse, War, Torture, Sexual violence, Racism, Sexual harassment, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Colonisation, Death, Violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, and Drug abuse

saffic's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

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

1.5

Around 70% of the way through this book, the author got tired of writing a YA and decided to leap up to Adult. It was not done tactfully, in my opinion. The things I liked about this book were far outweighed by the things I didn't. 

Now that I'm thinking more about it, the more upset I am about this book. There are hints of some really good stuff in here, but it's all brought down by how boring and tonally all over the place this book is.

Very petty comment I have: Every cover I've seen of this book has Rin wielding a bow... when her main weapon has always been a sword???

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Xenophobia, War, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, and Drug use

This book is very bog-standard YA until Part 3 of the book. One of the first chapters of part three has pretty graphic depictions of genocide. And the second or third chapter of Part 3 has an extremely graphic retelling of rape on a large scale.

renorsomethin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny 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: Addiction, Violence, Drug abuse, Murder, Torture, Genocide, Sexual assault, Blood, Physical abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Gore, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Self harm, Colonisation, Infertility, Cursing, Vomit, Classism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Child death, Classism, Xenophobia, Animal death, and Death of parent

silviekg's review against another edition

dark lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Gore, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, Xenophobia, Rape, Death, and War

Moderate: Drug abuse, Self harm, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, and Sexual assault