Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

911 reviews

quechaya's review against another edition

This is not adult fiction. It is full of YA tropes and the characters are all shallow or caricatures. First the protagonist is a poor orphan turned "chosen one" at a very special academy with a mysterious mentor, and then she joins a group of teenage x-men. Then the story becomes  very thinly veiled "fanfiction" of the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731. To exploit those atrocities for the plot of a fantasy novel (for personal profit!) is absolutely disgusting in my opinion. Writing a fantasy novel means you should come up with your own fucking war crimes. It's disrespectful AND it's lazy writing. 

Anyway. If you want to experience secondhand trauma from reading about how horrible humans are, you can save yourself a lot of time by skipping this book and just reading the wikipedia pages for the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731.

This pales in comparison to the book's other problems, but protagonist went on and on about two male characters being "perfect." And the guy she was obsessed with physically abused her multiple times. Cool!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

alysha714's review against another edition

This book started off nicely but quickly became too graphic in its descriptions of war. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

countesscaine's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

For someone familiar with the historical events that inspired this story, it feels a bit simplified in some places, but gratuitous in some descriptions as well. The story also feels quite predictable overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mariah_g's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

solarfia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

major plot twist in the middle. The book starts one way thinking you’re in a coming of age war college book and then throws you into graphic depictions of war and shamanism.

abril6's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, and War

loveat1stwrite's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Drug use, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, and War

Minor: Confinement and Sexual violence

In terms of content warnings, this book is essentially a retelling of the Second Sino-Japanese war with minor fantasy elements added. There are graphic depictions of the Nanking Massacre and minor descriptions of Unit 731.

vero_fab's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Torture, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

mhill423's review against another edition

4.25

It’s only book 1 and I am already so emotionally invested and stressed out 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, and War

Minor: Drug use

bubblebot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative tense slow-paced

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

4.75

would give five stars, but this book is going to give me nightmares. i dock points for bringing me trauma.
would i recommend? if you want to get your soul wrecked answer is yes. if you want to smile again, my answer is no.(the amount of tw:s I listed feel inadequate. THAT should tell you something).

anyway, going to go read more about rin becoming a crazy vengeful god or imagine she is one

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Infertility, and Alcohol