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

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I was really into it at the beginning, and I found her hardheadedness intriguing and how dedicated she was to being the best. However by the end of the book it just felt like all of the things I liked about her in the beginning were gone. It also felt like a lot of the character connections happened during the time skips in the book, which there were a lot of nothing happening until the time skips. For example, her falling in love with Altan didn't make sense because from what we read there was literally nothing that happened between them for her to feel so strongly for him other than admiration. It all just felt very shallow reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Very intense trigger warnings. The second half of the book gets really intense, so read with care