Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

54 reviews

aya1403's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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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greciamj1958's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25


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loup's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75


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3nd3rch3st's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

SOO GOOOOOD, would recomend, however it does have very dark sections so find the trigger warnings 

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stitchof's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0


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nat_kiverse's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0


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leighann13's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-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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kat1105's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0


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hailsatan's review against another edition

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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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maricasement's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective tense fast-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

4.0

I'd heard great things about The Poppy War in the high fantasy bubble of booktube, so I was excited to read it. It is a story that takes place in a fantastical China, in a period in between wars. Our main character, Rin, is a war orphan and she has grown up working for opium smugglers in a little town. When she discovers that she is going to be sold into marriage, she decides to try and get in to the most prestigious military academy in the country so that she can run away from this fate. You can probably already tell from that description, but please check the content warning for this if you want o read it, it does get quite heavy and graphic at times.
I won't get into many detail, but I thought it was only ok at the beginning. Rin was someone I could sympathise with, but her temperament and attitude were hard for me to connect with. Because of this, some of her choices frustrated me immensely. Unfortunately, this just got worse as I approached the end of Part 1 and started Part 2, and I decided to stop reading the book for a while. After I had let it stew in my mind, I finally got back to it, and my goodness did it pay off!
Some of the discussions and themes at the start of the book were very good and set some of the scene for the rest of the book, but they truly hit hard as the book progressed. (Spoilers ahead, maybe?) Lots of the themes relate to
how we see other humans and how that influences how we treat them (basically what leads people to kill and commit genocide), what pain and suffering makes people do, what war can do to people, fate and free will and how present choices affect the future
. What I thought was particularly interesting was how Kuang explored these themes from the perspective of different character's and leaves it up o the reader to decide who we think is right. She has the characters discuss these things and you can see Rin's and other character's opinions change and develop. As this happens and we accompany the characters' journeys, our thoughts change and Kuang makes this natural thing explicit on the page.
The end of the book is a culmination of all these themes and it is devastating, but you can't help wanting more.

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