A review by mochalirious
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

This was a miserable read but in the best way possible. 
After finishing the last page I sat on my desk uneasy and alittle dazed. I thought I was pretty good with reading violence and I started this book with "how bad could it be?",oh it's bad. It gets real dark real bad. 

While I cant say I had 'fun' reading this, I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed the author's choice in building her characters, relationships, and her decision to depict some of the scenes as disturbing as she could and not to romanticise or sugarcoat it especially since the book is inspired by real historical events in China. War is horrifying and the author did a damn good job nailing that message.

the lack of romance in the book which I find a tad annoying and repetitive in other fantasy books with war heavily embedded in their plot, was super refreshing. I don't mind a slow burn and maybe book 2 contains romance in it but so many fantasy books have the  obvious oh-those-two-people-are-gonna-end-up-together romance in it when I just want to enjoy the world the author created. 
Also am very terrified of and for Rin. I totally understand why kitty was disgusted by rins decision at the end but I also get rins view too. This girl is going to set the world on fire and I am terrified


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