Review by weslynn - The Poppy War

weslynn 's review for:

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

3.5

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I hate to say that I was let down by this book. I’ve liked Kuang’s later works (Babel and Yellowface) but The Poppy War fell flat for me. This is her debut novel, so perhaps I’m not being fair, but the story felt disjointed to me. There were times where I would rewind the audiobook because I thought I missed something, but nope, we were just suddenly jumping to the next thing. I wasn’t impressed with most of the dialogue and some of the relationships between characters felt rushed. However, I do like an anti-hero and imperfect characters who make bad decisions. Although, some of these decisions did seem against the character’s development. I appreciated the historical references regarding the Nanjing Massacre. While the sudden gore and violence seemed abrupt, I know it comes from a desire to educate. It is a book about war after all, violence and gore is more than implied. I’ll read/listen to the second book as I’ve heard the series gets better as it goes on, but this definitely fell flat for me. I didn’t hate it either. It was engaging enough for me to keep listening to, but I’m not sure if I’d have the same dedication to reading it.

Content Warnings