Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

107 reviews

cora_aossey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

I would’ve enjoyed and appreciated this book so much more if it wasn’t falsely sold to me as enemies to lovers  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Violence, Cursing, Child abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Racism, Slavery, and Rape

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Body horror, Classism, Death, Addiction, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Xenophobia, Torture, Medical content, Drug use, Confinement, and Racism

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Bullying, Child abuse, Rape, Suicide, Colonisation, Animal death, Grief, Slavery, Child death, and Sexual violence

Minor: Pedophilia, Self harm, Alcohol, Infertility, Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Excrement

treestostars's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

The writing is fantastic. The storyline is heavy and complex and the flow was extremely engaging. Im docking a star for 2 reasons: 1) the relationships between characters was largely underdeveloped- more told than grown. And 2) the gore and genocide atrocities were discussed in too much detail for me. She spent pages discussing and often revisiting horrific acts of violence and rape. I had to skim over large chunks just to get through the book. And a few times i nearly tabled it because of it. Outside of those 2 things I really enjoyed this book, the culture intertwined, and the style of writing. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Torture, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Sexual violence, Genocide, Drug abuse, Child death, War, Addiction, and Blood

Moderate: Bullying

literaryloquacity's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, War, Addiction, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Sexual assault, Child death, Murder, Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, and Torture

abicaro17's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Well I gave it the good old college try but this sucked. To give credit, the first 150-200 pages were actually good and super interesting. This is immediately thrown out the window. Rin is a poor orphan who tests into an elite training academy for the military. The school/training portion of the book was fun for the most part and the plot made sense. Then we get to the attack and everything following. Rin is 19 by the end of the book but she feels 14. She's constantly whining and flip flopping morally and emotionally. Like genocide is bad! No it's necessary! The gods will consume me! No I can control them! Also every military tactic is stupid af. There are zero likable characters and this book is so dense and slow it took me two months to read. Save yourself the time and read basically anything else not by R. F. Kuang. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Torture, Vomit, War, Cursing, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infertility, Murder, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Violence

shottel'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

I thought the hype over The Poppy War was probably unwarranted. I was wrong. If you can handle the visceral horror of the second half - without spoiling anything, it gets really dark - this is a must-read. Set in a fictional world heavily based on the interwar period, it takes heavily from the Second Sino-Japanese War, a topic western audiences are less likely to be familiar with. This gives it an unfamiliar, original touch even as it enjoyably uses well-established character types and tropes. It’s a great time - again, if you can get past situations that outstrip the darker parts of Game of Thrones.

The book rests on two interconnected themes. The first: The horrors that occur when humans think they are bigger and more important than they actually are. The second: The line between justice and revenge, and the consequences of pursuing the latter. These themes are explored through bigotry in the form of racism, classism, and sexism (primarily in the first half) and total war (primarily in the second half). It strikes a masterful balance between being too subtle and too outright as the story plays out and revolves around these themes. Neither preachy nor cryptic.

I recommend this book to any fiction reader who can handle the all-too-real depictions of human-inflicted atrocities. [If you’re on the edge, I attempted to be as thorough as I could with my content warnings attached to this review. This is one of the few times I’d actually recommend checking content warnings prior to reading a book.]

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Genocide, Child death, Murder, Physical abuse, Addiction, Torture, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Classism, Body horror, Confinement, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Grief, Infertility, Excrement, and Pedophilia

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, and Vomit

kirstyn444's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Bullying, Cursing, Misogyny, Classism, Genocide, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Racism, and Animal death

raindrops723's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Violence, War, Child death, Torture, Classism, Rape, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Pedophilia

scholastic_squid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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

3.75

The Poppy Wars - the beginning of the story started out strong with Rin handling business as usual for her foster family when her foster mother breaks the news about her pending engagement. In a panic stricken state, Rin utilizes her connection with her tutor to take the “test” - the test that will determine her fate on whether she married a man twice her age or attends one of the military schools. Getting into the school would secure her future as a soldier not forced into marriage and birth offspring and die. She’d rather die fighting for her country. 

The beginning really took me in and I was loving it and the world building. The characters throughout the book as a whole are all memorable with unique personalities however, I began struggling with the story once the school lessons were fairly repetitive. Which fine.. I understand.. but, then when the war breaks out the book took a deep dive into darkness (again ok it’s about war and Chinese history told as fantasy) but damn.. the sudden change of tone to describe what I’m assuming was Nan King’s experience after being written almost like a YA book to incredibly descriptive language about that atrocity? Eek. This book is definitely not YA, but I would say that much of it is written in that style. I think what brought my rating down was the last 1/4th it was just a whine fest to me and didn’t really leave it as a nail biting cliff hanger so like I’m not jazzed about picking up the second book? Also, I would have loved a bibliography of sorts about all the sources she used to help tell her tale.. similar to how The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi ended. The author loaded up a chapter telling the reader many of her reference books. Also, I really feel like this book needed a trigger warning page? If I missed it that’s on me I guess but yikes haha there’s a lot that happens.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Grief, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Slavery, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Drug use, Drug abuse, War, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Torture

amelia_d's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Violence, Gore, Child death, Sexual violence, Murder, War, and Suicidal thoughts