Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

748 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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and just when i thought yellowface was r.f. kuang’s magnum opus. i was pleasantly WRONG

ok so easily, EASILY, the best part of this book is rin. sorry i love female protags who take no shit, are in the military/fighters, cause chaos and do shit no other dreams of. she’s such a likeable protag in the sense of personality, and god i just wanted to root for my girl. i love when women commit crimes and rin is no exception!!!!!!

altan can get it fr, as well as the rest of the

cike

, i really enjoyed all the side characters!!!! special shout out to nezha

i liked the mini redemption arc he got!!! hopefully homeboy and the rest of the sinegard sluts are kicking

.

i’ll be real i did not like the whole…. Spiritual aspect of this book. it certainly grew on me by the end, but throughout most of this book i was read to give this 4-stars simply because i didn’t like the Lore portion of the story (lore in the sense of this book not lore as a component of a story). like i said by the last 100 pages i’d finally wrapped by head around the concepts so i was enjoying them, but i can’t tell if it’s because im dumb or it wasn’t properly explained until the last third of this book. 

anyways i cant explained how addicted to this i was. like i was an hour late to uni because i didn’t want to stop reading this. i was so immersed not only did i forget when my class was, but when i did realise i was gonna be late….. i just didn’t care. because i wanted to read this.

the worldbuilding at times was weak, but when it was good…. god it was good!!!!! some of the best worldbuilding i’ve read in a fantasy novel (minus the lore concepts that were beyond me). i was so down for whatever was happening, and i was along for the ride. i felt every emotion. every shift in story. god just this book is great RF KUANG YOUVE DONE IT AGAIN

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Racism, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War

Moderate: Child death, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit

vin_eeta_3's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Infertility, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

kmart_ceo's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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How far would you go for revenge?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicide, Kidnapping, Abortion, Abandonment, Classism

Minor: Infertility, Pregnancy

I would look up the warnings yourself. There are a lot, and I likely missed a couple.

jaxistired's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, Classism

persephone__'s review against another edition

5.0

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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail

lolooooooooo's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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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This book was all fun and games in the beginning then it got real serious real fast.When Rin was studying for the exam and dripping hot wax on herself I thought that’s a bit intense but no biggie ,then when the war started and her friends began dying I realized that this book was very much serious ,at times I wished rin would listen to her master more but of course for character development she didn’t 😭.When she was walking through the massacred city the descriptions were uncomfortably detailed.I can’t believe that Nezha died I was pretty sad .When she destroyed the federation  I was in  shock I didn’t think she would actually do it ,and now she has lost all her friends(well most of them)and ist addicted to opium and has a huge need for vengeance things can only go downhill from here .

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Toxic friendship, War

nmfigueroa's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Slavery, Grief, Murder, War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy

lalastitch's review against another edition

3.0

dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I was really into it at the beginning, and I found her hardheadedness intriguing and how dedicated she was to being the best. However by the end of the book it just felt like all of the things I liked about her in the beginning were gone. It also felt like a lot of the character connections happened during the time skips in the book, which there were a lot of nothing happening until the time skips. For example, her falling in love with Altan didn't make sense because from what we read there was literally nothing that happened between them for her to feel so strongly for him other than admiration. It all just felt very shallow reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail

Very intense trigger warnings. The second half of the book gets really intense, so read with care

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

ruune's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Not for everyone. Pay attention to the content warnings, but if you are okay with them, it is an incredible read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail