Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

1078 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

it started off as the weirdest book i have ever read, and ended with it being the most tragic and horrific book i have ever read. i have never felt such strong and compelling emotions towards a book before, and had such vivid images of the story. the storytelling was beautiful, and perfectly captured the world and every minor detailing within it. all the scenes where i had previously disliked or thought odd were perfectly intertwined and explored with the ending - everything was intentional and gruesome. the characters within were all so morally grey, and it really was hard to truly love or hate a character. 

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging 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: Yes

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dark reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark sad tense
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark tense medium-paced

audiobook + ebook read

despite the low rating i may still read the rest of this trilogy, i’m interested in seeing where this goes. 
my main issue with this book was the character work… they were all underdeveloped and the characterization that was there felt inconsistent. both the characters and some parts of the story are very trope-y, and nothing interesting is done with those tropes. the world building is lacking and pulled me out of the story a few times. i don’t know how i feel about how the speerlies are depicted either…

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dark tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Sometimes it's good to pick up a book without really knowing what it's about in order to avoid your expectations. And this is not one of those books. I really am conflicted about this story, it's so vividly written but jarringly sewn together that it should have been multiple books itself. I loved the first half where Rin is at the academy, and it is a good juxtaposition to the war in the second half. But by the end of the book I didn't like any of our main characters, especially Rin. The end of the book left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don't think I can continue with the series. (Just for notes: this is the first time I'm using the content warnings feature on this site and I've had to list 14 explicit warnings)

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