Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

913 reviews

fckastel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

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

3.75

First of all, really well written and loved the first half but after that quickly realized it’s not for me because I wasn’t really rooting for the main character once I realized where it was heading. I didn’t really feel the connections with supporting characters either though I wanted more of the existing connections to lead somewhere (maybe it does in the next few books but I don’t see how it can get better after where it ended). I did find the ties to real historical events interesting though I had read about the history of the war before and it was just as gruesome as I remember and the „justice“ at the end was purposefully not satisfying. Just too dark for me but again, really well written and I had trouble putting it down in between.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, and War

haskapberries's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

The fire doesn’t give, the fire takes, and takes, and takes.

harrowing, devastating and beautiful portrait of a complex and traumatized girl. at times funny!! Didn’t shy away from the bleak and dark parts of war. 

I’d say the best part of the book was somewhere around the middle. Near the end, it felt like I was being overly spoonfed the point it was trying to make, (I.e. “war bad”, “racism bad” which like yes of course) and it became so graphic that I felt nauseous. Not for the weak stomachs. 

Although I will say that

nezha stabbing that soldier and saving rin

moment had me giddy, kicking and screaming like a little girl, which is always what you want in a book. Or at least what I want. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

pmaan0613's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

lalastitch's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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, and Injury/Injury detail

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

ilanamarie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

This might actually be a 5 stars reading but a couple of things threw me off, i can't wait to read the second one though.
So yup this book was everything, my favorite series is the hunger games and this first book had similar vibes, i love my girl Rin, went from adoring Altan to hating him, and i'm now rooting for Nezha (surprinsingly enough)

Lots of TW so beware of this, especially the war times, very very very explicit, and the fact that it's all inspired by true events is truly disturbing, shows how violent men can be and how quickly we forget 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Colonisation

Minor: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Medical content

rsheli's review against another edition

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

4.5

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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, and Injury/Injury detail

kris_tea516's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

 

Synopsis: Rin is a poor, foster child to a drug-dealing foster mother & opium-addicted foster father. However, she is incredibly intelligent and convinces a local teacher to teach her before a big exam that lands her a place in a prestigious school. During her training, Rin discovers she can commune with gods and access powers other humans cannot. A quirky professor takes her under his wing to train her privately. Soon war breaks out and Rin joins a special team of mercenaries to battle the evil Federation of Mugen. 

 

Review: There were times when I genuinely liked this book and others when I absolutely hated it. What I hate about the book outweighs what I enjoyed so I’m giving it 2 stars. So many people love this book so I had high hopes for it but, sadly, I was disappointed. I will also add that, even though I would not recommend this to anyone under 17 or 18 years old, it felt like & has been classified as a Young Adult novel. That is a genre that I cannot honestly say I’ve ever found anything that I enjoy; so, my dislike of this book might be partly due to the genre style. 

 

This audiobook is almost 20 hrs long. I think it could have been half that and been a better book. I don’t mind long, epic sagas but they need to draw me in so much to the story that I don’t want to leave that world. This book just wanted me to escape as soon as possible. It's a book about war & has many unnecessarily graphic & horrific descriptions of child abuse (physical & sexual), rape, torture, and violent death. I know war is horrible but I really couldn’t figure out what was so great about this nation that made these people want to fight so hard for it. None of the descriptions about the world made me want to be there. 

 

This book is also about a group of humans who can call upon their gods to give them supernatural powers. I like that idea but the motivations and how this magic worked were very confusing to me & I still cannot explain it. I understand that this is the first book in a trilogy and that most of my questions and confusion may be answered in subsequent books but I felt like the direction of how the magic worked in this world changed so much that I wasn’t sure if even the author knew where she was going with it all. There was one part that really got me interested in the history of these gods & what their motivations were but it never came up again. In my opinion, that was probably the most interesting moment of the book & it was just dropped in at a weird moment and then never to be revisited or tied into the rest of the story. I would also say that this book felt like it really should have been divided into 2, possibly 3, books. It felt like such distinct stories being told that it was almost unsettling. By the time I finished, I had forgotten about so much of the beginning that it felt like it had been an entirely different book. 

 

I understand that this is the first book in a trilogy but I don’t feel like I was given enough information in this first book to draw me into the next. And, so much of this book was so disgusting and horrific that I don’t have any desire to return to the story anytime soon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

freya_h's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative medium-paced

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

5.0

overall i loved this book, the start was amazing and i love how rin was shown to be so dedicated to her studies due to her other opportunities in life and how they motivated her.

i feel like because of that it really set her up to being speer and becoming the host for the phoenix

as it shows she will not just sit back and do nothing she will be a strong minded fc and because of that i loved her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War

Moderate: Racism

ruune's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

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, and Injury/Injury detail

ringofkeyz's review against another edition

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

4.5

i really loved this book and r. f. kuang truly has a way with words. the world-building was incredible from beginning to end, whether it be through the history of the nation and provinces or the continuously building lore around shamanism in both the characters and warring nations. 

while the tonal shift between parts i and ii was jarring, it felt necessary in terms of story-telling. upon reading part i, you assume that you're in for a more magical/martial arts focused schooling story; something where the education aspect is the primary focus. when part ii hits, you're IMMEDIATELY thrust onto the frontlines of the war and kuang does not hold back. the tone immediately becomes gruesome and dark, almost unexpectedly so. however, this works narratively because it mirrors the experience of the protagonist, rin, in the novel. there is no lead-up, no warning to the prompt arrival of pillaging, murder, r*pe, and bloodshed for the reader because there is no warning for that in real life. while it was definitely off-putting at the start, in hindsight it not only makes sense but also feels necessary in order for kuang to accomplish what she set out to write.

the book was incredibly well-written, the world-building sucked me into the story immediately, and the downfall of rin's morality has me eager to read the second book. 

it just needs to be said to incoming readers that this book is dark, gruesome, and describes the perils of war in extremely vivid detail to the point where i had to put the book down and walk away before picking it back up because it made me nauseous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Racism, Slavery, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Infertility, Excrement, and Colonisation