Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

2397 reviews

sentient_blob's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

sablar's review against another edition

5.0

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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I’m a Fang Runin enjoyer and understander. It was so refreshing to actually read from the perspective of an actual antihero. Kuang is an expert at creating a character and at leaving no stone unturned in the efforts to build her world and explore the themes she is writing about. 

I read Babel before I picked this up and it was fascinating to see the seeds of Babel that were planted in this novel. Not that there’s an direct correlation to Babel and Poppy War, rather, in how she presented and explored human suffering, dehumanization, and colonialism in Poppy War; it was evident that this was the writer who was always going to write Babel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Classism

steelban89's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, War

kaleighnance's review against another edition

3.0

dark sad

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I’m having a hard time with this book… there are aspects that have me intrigued and I will likely read the rest of the series to see where we end up. However, the world and character building was not fleshed out enough for me. Rin is an unlikeable main character - I understand the use of a morally grey / antihero trope but I also think for this to be done correctly we need to understand more or have the reasoning behind their actions be more fleshed out. I didn’t feel like this was done well so there were several times when I just couldn’t understand Rin’s thought process. Are we committing genocide for a boy versus revenge for her people (that she has no memory of)? Love the mythical aspects and wish we spent more time talking about the influence and power of the gods - but also the juxtaposition of the fantasy elements set on a world inspired by real life atrocities felt icky at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Murder, War

brooke_piercy's review against another edition

2.25

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The first half was decent, everything else has problems.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Classism

alexandrarose's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Classism

It’s incredible but, my god. There’s brutality throughout, but around page 400 it gets to be too much. Important to remember that what is written is researched, borrowed from history - not invented by Kuang. An amazing writer, but goddamn.

naimar's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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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I’m bumping this up to 4.75 because wow. I mean there are unfortunately minor flaws I can’t bring myself to overlook (the language is fairly simple especially compared to other rf kuang books) but this book is genuinely so good. Rin is one of my favorite fantasy main characters ever, I love the depiction of this deeply messed up protagonist so much 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War

urnsreads's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

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holy shit what in the actual fuck

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

kathispathi's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark 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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I went in expecting a YA fantasy, and what I got was a dark, brutal, and deeply graphic depiction of war and trauma. 😬 Definitely check trigger warnings before diving in!

That said, the writing and the plot were great. The political scheming was dense at times - as an epic fantasy should be - but I found it complicated at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, War

Moderate: Torture, Blood

Minor: Confinement

quetzalli101's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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One of those books that I’ll think about for the rest of my life. It is written beautifully and there is so much depth to each character. So much to analyze, i could re read it over and over again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, War

Moderate: Body horror, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Pregnancy, Classism

Minor: Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail