Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Poppy War

Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

1121 reviews

origami_cactus's review against another edition

medium-paced

1.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. I think there is some good writing in here and I think the first part is strong. However, I think it doesn't follow through on the character development. It uses some horrific events but it doesn't feel like the main character was affected by those events as much as she was affected by a different character's reaction to those events. I felt the ending, while better in my opinion than the 6 or so chapters that came before it, wasn't earned from the set up. I think perhaps it's due to an over reliance on a relationship between two characters that didn't feel strong enough to justify the lengths that Rin went though for them. I'm a bit disappointed because there are great ideas in here, but the execution leaves me wanting.

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annmeyer's review against another edition

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dark 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

phenomenally engaging, horrifically graphic. main characters as morally gray as they could get. if there's a book that ought to have trigger warnings this is it.

i want to give the poppy war 5 stars, but i don't think it's without flaws. i think some things could have been done better later on in it and the lack of sufficient paratext about the very real historical background is the biggest one. i think the jarring shift from the pre-war to war periods worked very well at shattering the suspended sense of peace and finding humor in darkness then elevating the stakes of "petty" schoolyard spats and theoretical military conflicts to the unimaginably evil and horrific realities of war. i think rin is naive at times, which can come off as annoying and frustrating in the larger, horrific scheme of things, but that's a crucial part of the bildungsroman, baby, especially given the context of what she witnesses, learns, and experiences when confronting the horrors of the world up close and personal.

i think the fact that r.f. kuang doesn't include a note from the author or some other sort of acknowledgement on historical context is confusing coming out the other side and really irks me as a reader. (part of me is like oh, is it her responsibility to inform us of it, but she literally wrote the damn book. it feels almost icky, especially then seeing people romanticize some parts of the book.) i think the lines between fantasy and historical fiction felt blurred at times and affected the writing in subtle ways, perhaps treading the line of factual source material. i don't want to have to assume the intentionality or rationale of her decision to fictionalize the surrounding context and not address it, because that's not something i want to have to guess at. (did she worry it would make the fictional plot "too heavy" or somehow not immersive and believable enough? but how do you then draw on real horrors for the sake of entertainment?) of course, i'm "glad" to have been spurred to learn more about the real background (the nanjing massacre and the second sino-japanese war at large) that parts of the poppy war were "loosely" based on. like at least it prompts these sorts of discussions, that alone is obviously important, but surely there are people that don't pick up on it or find out? idk.

i think the ending is pretty strong, although there's at least one explicitly fictional plot point i'm fully refusing to believe is real and will just not be accepting. also, i think it's super weird that prior to reading this i'd seen tiktoks about how fang runin can do no wrong; that all makes me feel a little crazy now knowing the things she does by the book's end.

i'm heartbroken for so many of the characters. i think everyone deserved better, except the people who didn't. but i think how people draw the line to make that distinction is one of the main points of the book. what differs martyrdom in an effort toward emancipation and vengeance, an eye for the eye for the sake of it? who is to blame for a sequence of horrifically violent events if many people could have potentially altered the course of history? when is a war won or lost? how much blood is enough? can it ever be enough?

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quechaya's review against another edition

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This is not adult fiction. It is full of YA tropes and the characters are all shallow or caricatures. First the protagonist is a poor orphan turned "chosen one" at a very special academy with a mysterious mentor, and then she joins a group of teenage x-men. Then the story becomes very thinly veiled "fanfiction" of the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731. To exploit those atrocities for the plot of a fantasy novel (for personal profit!) is absolutely disgusting in my opinion. Writing a fantasy novel means you should come up with your own fucking war crimes. It's disrespectful AND it's lazy writing.

Anyway. If you want to experience secondhand trauma from reading about how horrible humans are, you can save yourself a lot of time by skipping this book and just reading the wikipedia pages for the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731.

This pales in comparison to the book's other problems, but protagonist went on and on about two male characters being "perfect." And the guy she was obsessed with physically abused her multiple times. Cool!

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hellichipmunk's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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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mmyup's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective 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’ll never skip a read from R.F Kuang, not only is her worldbuilding insane, but the characters have so much depth to them. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that establishes characters and their motivations to the extent Kuang does. She covers war SO well, if you read this trust you will be hurting by the end of it, but it’s so worth it.

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countesscaine's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

For someone familiar with the historical events that inspired this story, it feels a bit simplified in some places, but gratuitous in some descriptions as well. The story also feels quite predictable overall.

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