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tragicanemone42 's review for:
The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was…a tough read, for many reasons. I don’t always look at content warnings in books because usually I can manage them, but I really did not know what I was going into here until it was too late. I have a LOT of thoughts so I’m organizing them by category. Long story short: lots of plot potential, a fascinating magic system, ultimately bogged down by details in the wrong place and a wild tone switch halfway through that I really struggled with. I don’t think I’ll read the rest of the series. Perhaps grimdark isn’t for me!
Spoilers abound ahead!
Pacing/tone: I loved the first half of the book, and was ready to rate this at like a 4.25, but the second half was ROUGH. I know this book is about war, but the details are graphic. The problem is, the first half kind of reads like YA fantasy—funny, emotional, and adventurous—while the second half goes straight into graphic descriptions of extremely dark and horrific war crimes. That really threw me off balance, and I think if I had known that was coming, I wouldn’t have read this book.
Setting: The setting was a challenge. This isn’t quite historical fantasy so much as a mishmash of true, horrific events. The events in the latter half of the book are clearly copied and pasted from the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731, going so far as to have a “Dr. Shiro” as a character. The Mugen Federation is clearly just…Japan. The problem here is that the very real atrocities took place in the 20th century, whereas the rest of the book is much further behind in history (maybe like, 1600-1700s or so, if I had to make a wild guess as a non-history buff). It almost feels like an anachronism to have these more modern levels of war crimes committed in an otherwise older setting. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it just doesn’t feel right to copy and paste some of these very real, very horrific events into a plot device into an otherwise fantasy world and just change the names.
The characters: ok so I guess I don’t actually like morally gray characters I love characters with a secret heart of gold! I have a hard time with unlikeable protagonists/characters in books, and by god, Rin got more unlikeable every page. There were actually so few likeable characters (Ramsa and Kitay, I guess? Jiang, but Rin’s perspective ruined that) that it made it hard for me root for anybody. I found myself more and more annoyed and outright angry with Rin for her choices, though I guess it’s good she owns them at least. Like, maybe we should listen to the multiple people including the OG Gatekeeper who keep saying this is a bad idea? And then when we do the thing we’re shocked it’s a bad idea? I know there’s probably going to be some long, hard character development here but honestly I don’t think I’m patient enough to stay with Rin and deal with her atrocious choices until then.
Pacing: this book is…weird with pacing. It covers a LOT of time, maybe like 4 years? And wow, so much happens. This book could’ve been two or three books and maybe it would’ve been a little better? I would’ve been in the pit of Rin’s shitty choices more, but maybe I would have had a better understanding of her. For a long book, I found myself missing a lot of character development and wishing there was less time spent on the war march detail of it all and more on certain important events. Rin’s relationship with Altan could have been a fascinating exploration of love, manipulation, and cruelty—he was a broken man who was physically and verbally abusive, and we kind of skipped over delving into the complicated feelings there. The same goes for her relationships with Nezha, Jiang, Kitay…so much potential wasted for me. I guess I wanted more feelings, less war tactics. And yet, when Rin used the phoenix at the end, it almost felt anticlimactic for me. I’m sure the next book will delve into her feelings more, but again, I would have liked to have that be a more intimate and detailed experience of what happened and the ramifications in this book.
I’m rambling here and I’m sure there’s more but—not worth the trauma for me, I fear.
Spoilers abound ahead!
Pacing/tone: I loved the first half of the book, and was ready to rate this at like a 4.25, but the second half was ROUGH. I know this book is about war, but the details are graphic. The problem is, the first half kind of reads like YA fantasy—funny, emotional, and adventurous—while the second half goes straight into graphic descriptions of extremely dark and horrific war crimes. That really threw me off balance, and I think if I had known that was coming, I wouldn’t have read this book.
Setting: The setting was a challenge. This isn’t quite historical fantasy so much as a mishmash of true, horrific events. The events in the latter half of the book are clearly copied and pasted from the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731, going so far as to have a “Dr. Shiro” as a character. The Mugen Federation is clearly just…Japan. The problem here is that the very real atrocities took place in the 20th century, whereas the rest of the book is much further behind in history (maybe like, 1600-1700s or so, if I had to make a wild guess as a non-history buff). It almost feels like an anachronism to have these more modern levels of war crimes committed in an otherwise older setting. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it just doesn’t feel right to copy and paste some of these very real, very horrific events into a plot device into an otherwise fantasy world and just change the names.
The characters: ok so I guess I don’t actually like morally gray characters I love characters with a secret heart of gold! I have a hard time with unlikeable protagonists/characters in books, and by god, Rin got more unlikeable every page. There were actually so few likeable characters (Ramsa and Kitay, I guess? Jiang, but Rin’s perspective ruined that) that it made it hard for me root for anybody. I found myself more and more annoyed and outright angry with Rin for her choices, though I guess it’s good she owns them at least. Like, maybe we should listen to the multiple people including the OG Gatekeeper who keep saying this is a bad idea? And then when we do the thing we’re shocked it’s a bad idea? I know there’s probably going to be some long, hard character development here but honestly I don’t think I’m patient enough to stay with Rin and deal with her atrocious choices until then.
Pacing: this book is…weird with pacing. It covers a LOT of time, maybe like 4 years? And wow, so much happens. This book could’ve been two or three books and maybe it would’ve been a little better? I would’ve been in the pit of Rin’s shitty choices more, but maybe I would have had a better understanding of her. For a long book, I found myself missing a lot of character development and wishing there was less time spent on the war march detail of it all and more on certain important events. Rin’s relationship with Altan could have been a fascinating exploration of love, manipulation, and cruelty—he was a broken man who was physically and verbally abusive, and we kind of skipped over delving into the complicated feelings there. The same goes for her relationships with Nezha, Jiang, Kitay…so much potential wasted for me. I guess I wanted more feelings, less war tactics. And yet, when Rin used the phoenix at the end, it almost felt anticlimactic for me. I’m sure the next book will delve into her feelings more, but again, I would have liked to have that be a more intimate and detailed experience of what happened and the ramifications in this book.
I’m rambling here and I’m sure there’s more but—not worth the trauma for me, I fear.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death