Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

476 reviews

readybee's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Death, Drug use, Grief, Infertility, Gore, Addiction, Abandonment, and Child death

namna's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I read this last year and am writing the review now and it is still fresh in my mind. This book is intense and does not hold back on the horrors humans are unfortunately capable of but the characters are compelling, flawed, and complex. With the plot, there is no right or wrong character and it really works. This book will make you both needing to look away while also glued to the pages

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Colonisation, War, Torture, Sexual violence, Rape, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Child death, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body horror, and Addiction

scholastic_squid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Poppy Wars - the beginning of the story started out strong with Rin handling business as usual for her foster family when her foster mother breaks the news about her pending engagement. In a panic stricken state, Rin utilizes her connection with her tutor to take the “test” - the test that will determine her fate on whether she married a man twice her age or attends one of the military schools. Getting into the school would secure her future as a soldier not forced into marriage and birth offspring and die. She’d rather die fighting for her country. 

The beginning really took me in and I was loving it and the world building. The characters throughout the book as a whole are all memorable with unique personalities however, I began struggling with the story once the school lessons were fairly repetitive. Which fine.. I understand.. but, then when the war breaks out the book took a deep dive into darkness (again ok it’s about war and Chinese history told as fantasy) but damn.. the sudden change of tone to describe what I’m assuming was Nan King’s experience after being written almost like a YA book to incredibly descriptive language about that atrocity? Eek. This book is definitely not YA, but I would say that much of it is written in that style. I think what brought my rating down was the last 1/4th it was just a whine fest to me and didn’t really leave it as a nail biting cliff hanger so like I’m not jazzed about picking up the second book? Also, I would have loved a bibliography of sorts about all the sources she used to help tell her tale.. similar to how The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi ended. The author loaded up a chapter telling the reader many of her reference books. Also, I really feel like this book needed a trigger warning page? If I missed it that’s on me I guess but yikes haha there’s a lot that happens.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Grief, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Slavery, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Drug use, Drug abuse, War, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Torture

megsssss_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cultural appropriation, Deportation, Hate crime, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, War, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Colonisation, Blood, Child abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Rape, Slavery, and Xenophobia

averyadventurous's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There’s been talk in a lot of bookish spaces about fantasy as a genre having an empire problem. R.F. Kuang completely subverts that trope. Empires are bad. Power of any type is bad. She pulls no stops with this book. It’s brutal. It’s disgusting. It’ll make you question your life choices and reconsider everything you think you know about world history. I need the rest of the series immediately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Violence, War, Drug use, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Torture, Body horror, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Infertility, Sexual violence, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child death, Addiction, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

danisaur's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my second time through and I still absolutely love this book. There is so much that challenges my worldview while also shaping the same worldview. I agree with some aspects and disagree with others. There are times that I forget just how young the characters are, but it makes it that much more impactful. The book has a lot of challenging scenes. It is based on Chinese history and some parts of it make me question my own Japanese heritage. It feels so far removed from myself and yet so obviously tears at the fabric of the societies that it affected. I am glad books like this exist and I’m looking forward to the next in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Self harm, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, Addiction, Sexual violence, Infertility, Drug use, Death, Child death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Drug abuse, Blood, War, Violence, Genocide, Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

graffitithesky's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Drug use, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Colonisation, Genocide, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Classism, Cursing, and Racism

Pulls from real events from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanjing, graphic depictions of brutality, murder, and outright genocide.

fantasynarwhal's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Murder, Rape, Violence, Sexism, Sexual assault, War, Gore, Suicide, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Infertility, Bullying, Colonisation, Cannibalism, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Death, Torture, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Slavery, and Suicide attempt

hunterkat's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow. So tws for this book? All of them. Not even kidding. I read the most graphic and horrific chapter I have ever read in this book. 

I have a hard time rating this book. It gets 5 stars because it did what it wanted to do extremely well. But it’s not an *enjoyable* read. I don’t mean because the plot is boring, it’s badly written, anything like that. In fact it’s extremely hard to put down and written well. But what this book wants to do and what it does well is show the horrors of war. The danger of seeing your enemies as less than human. The futility of revenge and anger and how it makes everything worse in the end. You may hate the main character but you can track along with her mindset and why she makes the decisions she does. 

It’s a rough read. Every violent tw I can thing of happens in this book. It does not hold back. But if you can stomach the gruesomeness, it’s very successful at it’s points. Don’t read this expecting a light hearted military fantasy. Read this expecting to cover your face or mouth with one hand, turning the page with another, and reading with one eye between your fingers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Trafficking, Self harm, Sexual assault, War, Violence, Gore, Body horror, Rape, Physical abuse, Addiction, Torture, and Animal death

Moderate: Body horror, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Sexism

booking_along's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

i don’t know yet how to feel about this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Genocide, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Death, Blood, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Murder, Medical content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, War, Sexism, Rape, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Drug use, Bullying, and Addiction