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

dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

This book came highly recommended by a couple of ppl and I feel like I should have checked what other places said the genres were not just storygraph bc I don't like high fantasy, grimdark, and young adult, and that's precisely what this was. This book was insanely predictable to a fault, I figured out all the "twists" and major plot points before they happened not bc they were well set up but bc it is like the most common and overdone direction to go in. One of the most grating things to me is how we have this historical setting yet the way the characters talk is PAINFULLY 21st century. I feel like there is zero immersion into the historical aspect other than "this is what high fantasy has to be, set before the industrial revolution". The writing was also meh, plain. The book starts off in the magic school genre and then switches to the war genre. But nothing bad ever happens to Rin, all the trauma porn happens to other characters and is recounted to her in horrifying detail which makes no sense bc literally who talks like that. The politics of this book is incredibly black and white, the ending is just ugh, I don't feel like Rin is justified in her support of Nikan, she doesn't seem to care for her country so much as like have blind patriotism. Especially when there are aspects that reveal Nikan is not perfect. You'd think that would have been taken into consideration with how she deals with the enemy at the end but nope. Rin is just totally in love with her country and will kill any number of civilians to defend it bc ????? In general Rin doesn't seem to have a full fleshed characterization/personality other than feeling like the natural attempt to copy cat the YA dustopian female lead. In general that's what this book feels like, like it came out 5-10 years back during the high of the Hunger Games and Harry Potter (the magic school first half) and everything that tried to copy it. Anyways, can you tell I didn't like this? I didn't like it. I expected something better and especially seeing the degrees and schools the author went to I expected something more nuanced and creative but this wasn't it.
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