Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

1078 reviews

rsheli's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

kris_tea516's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Synopsis: Rin is a poor, foster child to a drug-dealing foster mother & opium-addicted foster father. However, she is incredibly intelligent and convinces a local teacher to teach her before a big exam that lands her a place in a prestigious school. During her training, Rin discovers she can commune with gods and access powers other humans cannot. A quirky professor takes her under his wing to train her privately. Soon war breaks out and Rin joins a special team of mercenaries to battle the evil Federation of Mugen. 

 

Review: There were times when I genuinely liked this book and others when I absolutely hated it. What I hate about the book outweighs what I enjoyed so I’m giving it 2 stars. So many people love this book so I had high hopes for it but, sadly, I was disappointed. I will also add that, even though I would not recommend this to anyone under 17 or 18 years old, it felt like & has been classified as a Young Adult novel. That is a genre that I cannot honestly say I’ve ever found anything that I enjoy; so, my dislike of this book might be partly due to the genre style. 

 

This audiobook is almost 20 hrs long. I think it could have been half that and been a better book. I don’t mind long, epic sagas but they need to draw me in so much to the story that I don’t want to leave that world. This book just wanted me to escape as soon as possible. It's a book about war & has many unnecessarily graphic & horrific descriptions of child abuse (physical & sexual), rape, torture, and violent death. I know war is horrible but I really couldn’t figure out what was so great about this nation that made these people want to fight so hard for it. None of the descriptions about the world made me want to be there. 

 

This book is also about a group of humans who can call upon their gods to give them supernatural powers. I like that idea but the motivations and how this magic worked were very confusing to me & I still cannot explain it. I understand that this is the first book in a trilogy and that most of my questions and confusion may be answered in subsequent books but I felt like the direction of how the magic worked in this world changed so much that I wasn’t sure if even the author knew where she was going with it all. There was one part that really got me interested in the history of these gods & what their motivations were but it never came up again. In my opinion, that was probably the most interesting moment of the book & it was just dropped in at a weird moment and then never to be revisited or tied into the rest of the story. I would also say that this book felt like it really should have been divided into 2, possibly 3, books. It felt like such distinct stories being told that it was almost unsettling. By the time I finished, I had forgotten about so much of the beginning that it felt like it had been an entirely different book. 

 

I understand that this is the first book in a trilogy but I don’t feel like I was given enough information in this first book to draw me into the next. And, so much of this book was so disgusting and horrific that I don’t have any desire to return to the story anytime soon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

kingspite618's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny 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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

maritzelle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-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

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Wow, wow, wow. Sin palabras.✨ No thoughts, just murderous vibes✨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Violence, War

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death

vermilliontoad's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark tense 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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The beginning with the gifted school environment was a little hard to get into, but by the midway point I was fully engaged and tore through the rest of the book! It’s definitely dark, but so captivating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War

potatolord's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark reflective 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Classism

chronicoverthinker's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

eemahlee's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Grief, Toxic friendship

Minor: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Vomit, Abandonment, Classism

bunchberry's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This is one of the book series that has truly gotten me back into reading. Each time I picked it up it was difficult to put down.
It’s dark, with a complex main character and beautifully written. One of the tragic aspects of this book which I love is that even though there are moments where you know what the main character isn’t right, you as a reader cannot think of an alternative. It makes you question what you would do different, if there is anything you could do different. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury

taylorlohman1991's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail