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paigejohnson 's review for:
The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
This is such a fun book and having read her other works it’s fun to see where she started as a writer. There are definitely several consistent themes and patterns in her writing - academia and the specific style of learning in an academic setting is always emphasized. Which makes sense, given her background, but also has made me aware of the drawbacks of this style of learning and how much richer the novel could be if she incorporated more. Her characters are also pulled by plot strings rather than exceeding their own autonomous choices, which sometimes makes me visualize flat Stanley-equivalents: two-dimensional puppetry. She’s definitely improved on how she incorporates these themes in Babel and I’m excited to see how she further develops in Katabasis. Having stepped out of academia, there is a real-world urgency to life that her characters so far have not been able to grasp or communicate and I hope someday this urgency is unlocked.