Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

368 reviews

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

The writing is absolutely phenomenal. This book is so terribly beautiful. Everything about it is perfect - I can’t wait to read the second one.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Pretty much all of them. I will say if you don't want to read about triggering things then I'd advise against this one. Or at least find out where those parts are and skip them. I can't stress enough how violent it gets and Kuang does not pull back on the descriptions. I'm not talking about just some severed heads, either.

When I first began reading I was feeling like the writing was pretty YA and that concerned me because I've only heard how intense this book is. This might have been intentional since the main character is a teen. Kuang might have wanted to show her being forced to mature so quickly. If that's the case it definitely works. It feels like it "ages" as the story goes on and it lost the YA feel pretty much right after the first attack. As far as being intense...I almost had to skip over a certain part because I didn't want to have the imagery in my mind. Of course this is added to show how absolutely evil and twisted racism and war can make people and often does. I definitely will be reading Dragon Republic soon. It will be interesting to see how the decisions in the first book will affect this world and what the Pantheon has to say about it.

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring 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

Este libro... Este libro es perfección. En serio no cambiaría absolutamente nada. Avanza rápido pero no demasiado rápido como para perderse y tiene escenas de descanso por medio. Los personajes son uufff. Rin es la mejor, mi favorita, se merece el mundo. Espero que su relación con Kitay se quede en amistad porque lo estarían malogrando. Por último, no me creo que Nezha esté muerto de verdad. Apuesto todo a que vuelve.

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adventurous 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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adventurous dark funny informative tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark sad slow-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

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s a book with a strong message and it doesn’t shy away from the truth. It shows the reader how brutal a war really was. A lot of the thinks mentioned in this book really happend. People where this brutal they did hurt each other like they did in this book. No, humans couldn’t use special powers but the shamans where a strong metaphor. 

Thoughts about this book: 
1. the worldbuilding is beautifully done. It is diverse, realistic and detailed. The writer clearly took her time making this world. 
2. The characters in this book are realistic and they go through major character developments. They aren’t made to be lovable. They make mistakes, and f*ck shit up, big time. 
3. The writing is brutally honest and can be really triggering. Before reading this book do your research. Don’t go in without know the triggers. 

Favorite quote: 
Children ceased to be children when you put a sword in their hands. When you taught them to fight a war, then you armed them and put them on the front lines, they were not children anymore. They were soldiers.

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adventurous dark 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

This is absolutely one of my favorite books ever. The plot is so intense; the book is split into two parts, and the climax of the first part is good enough to be considered the end of the book in some other stories I've read. The characters are all amazing and three-dimensional. Everyone gets development, and everyone has their own motivations and values they follow. The writing style is amazing in describing the scenery, the characters, the action, and caused a visceral reaction in me when describing the effects of war. It's very obviously based on Chinese history; just enough connections are there for the reader to make assumptions while it still being its own world. There's content on racism, privilege, sexism, drug addiction, and rape that are all addressed very well and realistically. It's absolutely amazing, but please check the trigger warnings!

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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: Yes

AMAZING. One of the best books I’ve ever read. This book doesn’t romanticize war and violence the way a lot of fantasy novels do; the author doesn’t shy away from the reality of it. The world building is really well done and no description felt unnecessary. I’m a little scared to read the rest of the series but I know I will just because I was so blown away by book one.  

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This is literally the best book I have ever read and everyone should read it 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

This is a great read - but it is VERY gore filled as well as descriptive of horrible things. 
Also this is not a book for people who hate haveing a main character with mixed morality.


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