Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Poppy War

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

94 reviews

jaz_apples's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

I found the writing to be a bit juvenile and the pacing to vary wildly. It has an excellent premise and I think could have been something great. The execution lacked however. This was very nearly a dnf for me due to the lack of cohesion and flow within the plot. The character interactions were engaging however the character development and the development of the relationships between them were rushed, forced, underdeveloped, on several occasions did complete 180s, and overall were hard to follow. The lack of effective character development made it very hard to relate to the characters and even like them in some cases.

This book was incredibly graphic. It goes into heavy detail of body horror, death, murder and SA. The author did a good job of painting the picture of the scene but could have done so in a more tactful and effective way.

“The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.” -Richard Price

The author could have elicited an even greater emotional response from the reader, without being quite as triggering by using metaphors and focusing on a smaller, seemingly inconsequential aspect.

Another thing to be wary of is the heavy drug use and abuse within this book.

I believe that the most triggering chapter is chapter 21 and I’ll have a general description of the events for those who wish to skip it under a spoiler. This chapter covers exceptionally graphic and detailed descriptions of: murder, genocide, torture, body horror/mutilation, the postmortem state of bodies, SA, sexual violence, miscarriage/forced abortion/violence towards a pregnant women, and drug abuse. With that said, here is the general description of the chapter:

The Cike travel to Golyn Niis and find that the Federation soldiers had already reached the city. They had brutally killed almost every citizen and Nikan soldier within. There were very few survivors, of which two were students Rin went to school with: Kitay, Rin’s friend who suffered no lasting injuries, and Venka, a girl Rin shared a dorm with. Venka had suffered from repeated SA and explains to Rin the details of what happened to her and to other women and Rin swears to get revenge for them. Afterwards Rin goes to find Altan and finds him practically incapacitated from smoking mass amounts of opium.

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ehrycyna's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense

4.0

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alex_salamander's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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gaynidoking's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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kingspite618's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

Wow. I have no words to describe what this book means to me. Seriously. I am at a loss for words. It's the first time I read it, and it's very Very probably going to become one of my favorite books/series ever. I can feel it. It's making me go completely INSANE and DERANGED and LOSE MY ENTIRE MIND!!!! BECAUSE. IT'S. JUST. SO!!! PERFECT!!!!!!!! SXJSOXBSKXNQOXBQOZBQOXBWICBSOXBWIXNWOXNWKFBWKXJWLXKQODJQOSK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE THEMES OF THE EXTREMES OF MORALITY, OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMANITY AND INHUMANITY AND THE DIVINE, OF DEVOTION LINKED TO LOVE!!!! THE THEMES OF RAGE AND HATRED BEING BORN FROM LOVE!!! THE INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BOTH EMOTIONS AND THE WAY THEY BOTH DRIVE THE MC!!! THE SYMBOLISM!!!! THE WORLDBUILDING!!!! THE PLOT AND THE

(SORT OF) PLOTWIST AT THE END!!!!

THE CHARACTERS!!!! *THE CHARACTERS!!!!!!!* THE CHARACTER DYNAMICS??!?!? THE PARALLELS BETWEEN ALTAN AND RIN'S CHARACTER AND THE RAGE THAT DRIVES THEM!!!! THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN RIN AND KITAY!!! (purely platonic relationships are My Absolute Favorite and rarely seen in YA fantasy, I believe. As an aromantic-spec person who's not the greatest fan of romance it's SOOOO refreshing to see that the first character the female mc feels close to is a boy that she has a purely platonic relationship with and it never evolves into romance. and said character (Kitay) is not casted aside, but remains one of the mcs and he influences the mc's decisions greatly because they care about each other because they're bffs and DPXNSKXNDKFKDKFJWLDNWIFNSOFNDKFNDKDK. THEY MAKE ME BEYOND DERANGED).
ALSO!!!! JIANG IS SO COOL TOO!! AND NEZHA!!! AND FANG FUCKING RUNIN!!!!!?!?!?!?! I LOVE THEM ALL SO SO SO SOOOOOMUCH SKCJDKXJDKX!!!!!!
Seriously though. I've never felt such a connection to ANY other mc, (and characters, in general), since forever. It has been a long while since a character has made me so SO I N S A N E and Chronically Deranged as Rin (and Altan) does (probably since I met Maven from Red Queen). Her character arc is

on a Eren Jaeger-level

and one of the most impressive ones I've ever seen in any work of fiction yet. And it's only the first book :|
I sometimes couldn't completely understand her motivations, or the way she changes opinions rather quickly sometimes. But I could always get behind her reasoning, and I guess the sudden and extreme mood changes are due to the fact that she's living in an extreme situation, such as a war. Also, since she's an unreliable narrator, I LOVED the way she greatly influences the way the reader perceives the other characters (and all of her world). I can understand that she might not be likable to some, but I wouldn't argue that she isn't an INCREDIBLY well written character!!!
SHE MAKES ME SOOOOOOOOOO BEYOND INSANE IT'S CRAZY. NO ONE COMPARES TO FANG RIN. NO ONE EVEN COMES C L O S E. MI REINA <3333
Aside from that, and moving on to more serious matters. I've never seen someone in YA fantasy before deal with topics as sensitive as war,

g*nocide, and r*pe

(and other atrocities), with as much finesse and feel as R. F. Kuang, while simultaneously exposing the horrors of it all in the crudest way possible. idk but that balance seems completely deliberate and perfect to get across the message of the book - I don't know why but it felt completely different (and much, much better written) from any other (recent) YA fantasy book I've read until now. Her approach to these topics felt more real, more verisimilar and somehow more... respectful? both to the experiences of irl victims of these atrocities and to the readers. I have no idea if this even makes sense😭 but idk how else to word it, i just liked it so much.
(I want to add that this is just my opinion as someone who has never experienced any of the topics she writes about (mentioned before). Of course, a person who actually relates to them might have a very different and more valid opinion - I just wanted to share my thoughts anyway, but I thought it was important to mention this too).
Also, I wanted to add here that the theme of dehumanization of the enemy in times of war was so interesting and well-written, as tragic and fucked up as the parallels are

(Rin at the end of the story dehumanizing her "enemies" and the Federation like the Nikara were dehumanized.

That's on positive aspects.
On negative aspects, I felt like the pacing was a little too fast (4 whole years go by within the same book), and as a slow-paced books-lover, I sometimes would've wished that things happened more slowly. On the other hand, some chapters were a little hard to go through exactly because of this, because it seemed like not much of anything was going on. Despite this, the story was still immensely enjoyable, and the resolution for it was SO. GOOD. that it's worth reading through the whole book.
I just feel like this book caters specifically to my personal tastes in types of characters, themes, plotlines, worldbuilding, tropes etc... on such a scale that it's unimaginable. Like I would've never expected to like a book (ANY book) as much as I liked this???? AND AS AN ASPIRING AUTHOR IT WAS SO INSPIRING TOO OMG?!?!?!?!???? it's going to be on my top 3 favorite series of all time list FOR SURE. 2947293810191018492 STARS OUT OF 5
R. F. KUANG THE WRITER THAT YOU AREEE

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