Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

56 reviews

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, War, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Torture

cemeterygay's review against another edition

5.0

I cannot recommend this book enough if you are looking for fictional interpretations of the Sino-Japanese wars. It is one of the best adult fantasy books I've read and one of the best depictions of war I have read. It is definitely a very dark and heavy book but if that is what you are looking for I cannot stress how phenomenal this book is. It left me an emotional wreck and not in a cheap shock value way. RF Kuang is truly a once in a lifetime author.

I cannot emphasize enough please take the content warnings seriously, the first half of the book is quite deceiving as the book is divided in half between the academy and the war. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gore, Drug abuse, Animal death, Self harm, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Xenophobia, Racism, Violence, Ableism, Classism, Rape, War, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, Excrement, Drug use, Sexual assault, Bullying, Addiction, Child abuse, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Death, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Additional CW: Genocides are plural, Colorism, Featurism, Human Experimentation, child marriage and pedophilia discussion, corpses, vague mentions of cannibalism

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Genocide, Drug abuse, Death, War, Rape, Torture, and Gore

Moderate: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Medical trauma, Slavery, and Body horror

Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Bullying, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Xenophobia

arisaenz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

4.75

The only reason it doesn't get the full 5 stars is because it's a VERY slow start. Reading this in 2022 as a BIPOC female in the US it RESONATED. I felt this so deeply while reading it. One of my favorite things so far is that none of the characters are inherently good or bad. There is no black or white. It's varying shades of grey because everyone things that where they are coming from is what is best. There are a lot of things that really resonate with me but I feel like that is the most nonspoilery thing I can mention. The last like 150 pages I spent them as an absolute mess crying as everything just kind of toppled over around me. I love this book and will be doing a reread with a much deeper annotation once I've finished the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Drug abuse, Ableism, Sexual assault, Grief, Colonisation, Rape, Racism, Drug use, Addiction, Suicide, Murder, Misogyny, Medical content, Genocide, War, Torture, Sexual violence, and Cursing

deadbookishsociety's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual assault, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, and War

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Xenophobia, Addiction, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, Abandonment, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Excrement, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Trafficking, Abortion, Classism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, and Self harm

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Police brutality, and Pedophilia

saojimenez's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.5

i am at a loss for words. truly. it was good, but it left me wanting for more. which i guess is a good thing because there’s two more books in the series 😃 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Animal death, Infertility, Misogyny, Genocide, Ableism, Racism, Animal cruelty, Gore, Murder, War, Bullying, Cannibalism, Rape, Self harm, Abandonment, Torture, Blood, Drug use, and Violence

romiress's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

This book feels like two totally different books - maybe even three. The first part feels like standard magic school, the second part feels like weird group-of-people-with-powers hijinks, and then part three goes full HORRORS OF WAR and never stops. It feels very disjointed. The pacing is sloppy. None of the characters from part 1 feel particularly interesting, where as the part 2 ones feel more fleshed out.

Felt like the worldbuilding was just straight up bad, but it had some good ideas (mostly the way the pantheon was handled), so it wasn't a total wash.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Xenophobia, Sexism, Murder, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Gore, Body horror, Ableism, Violence, Toxic relationship, Racism, Child death, Torture, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Infertility, Colonisation, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Animal death, War, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Classism

Literally if you are even mildly bothered by gore, violence, the murder of children, the horrors of war, steer WELL clear.

matissebb's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Fatphobia

virgoreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Murder

Minor: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence