Review by ccrtb - The Poppy War

ccrtb 's review for:

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

3.0

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

RF Kuang's writing was very compelling as always. The depictions of the themes were also quite nuanced and realistic--poverty and misogyny being the driving force to join a tuition-free military academy, war not being black and white since every country has a militia that attacks/defends and innocent civilians, and drug use to cope with PTSD to name a couple. The transition from part 1 to part 2 was a bit jarring, but that's my only criticism regarding the pace.

I was pleasantly surprised at Rin's decision to

basically disable her uterus so that she wouldn't have to deal with periods and pregnancies

early on in the novel. I'm not an avid reader of dystopian, fantasy, or sci-fi novels so I'm not aware if it's been depicted before but this natural problem isn't tackled in the ones I have read with young female protagonists who are mainly soldiers/fighters.

It was a good book, I think it just depressed me too much. Will give the sequel a try.

Content Warnings