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Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Опиумная война by R.F. Kuang

220 reviews

adventurous dark slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark 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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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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 challenging dark funny informative mysterious reflective 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

Stunning. Thoughtful. Grim.

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark reflective 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

(2022 Reread)

Almost three years after my first read through, The Poppy War remains one of my favorite books of all time. It is a book where you know that the characters are doomed from the beginning — whether subconsciously or not. It does not shy from the brutality of war, and every page you are reminded that whatever forces at play, there are thousands of lives being gambled. Dare I say, this book gets better the more you read into it—if you ever recover well enough to pick it back up again.

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adventurous dark 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

This book was a RIDE. I loved the first half in Sinegard, but struggled to stay engaged for the rest of it. That's not necessarily a fault of the book, I might just not be into reading about war! Some of the plot was just too confusing, or I didn't feel like the actions of the characters were justified by their characterization up to that point. I also didn't feel like I knew any of the characters besides Rin that well - but they all had foundations of characters that were really interesting. At the end of the day though, I am so impressed by how well R.F. Kuang translated/wove in real life Chinese history into this story, especially for someone who was literally still in college when she wrote this. Actually, this might be the first time I've read something by an author who is currently younger than me! In that sense, I'm excited to see what else she writes in what I imagine will be a long, successful career. The Poppy War was fascinating and dark, but maybe just not my cup of tea.

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