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

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I can’t lie, I wasn’t sold on this novel until the very end. While I liked how heavily influenced it was by real-world Chinese history, I felt that such a perspective forced the characters to becomes archetypes, little more than pawns that had to fight in all the necessary battles to keep the history in-line with Chinese history. In addition, Rin could certainly be argued as a Mary Sue-type character for most of the first and second parts of the novel, succeeding and surviving against insurmountable odds. It was quite apparent that this was Kuang’s first novel, particularly due to the characterization of the first part.
The first part, as a whole, was quite enjoyable, if a little generic in terms of a YA-style magic school. It didn’t seem like anything particularly special, but I did enjoy becoming immersed in the world of Sinegard Academy because I’m a sucker for magical schools. The world building could veer into info dumping at times, but it didn’t really affect my enjoyment of it that much.
The second part wasn’t as strong for me, at least initially. The time skips confused the story a bit, but I did appreciate how thoroughly Kuang discussed the breakdown of soldiers in the face of war, as these characters who Rin had built-up images of were broken down by the war. It seemed like a sudden shift, but given all the references to war brewing in part one, it seemed inevitable.
Part three and that fucking ending though!
Blew the rest of the book out of the water completely. Really explained the why of Rin as a main character and her motivations, which aren’t truly her own. It makes her a tragic anti-hero, unable (presumably) to escape the same fate that beheld Altan and the rest of the Speerlies. The Phoenix and it’s shamans are inevitably tied to their fate, trying to avenge a country that, in all honesty, neither remember as much more than a vague concept. Yet, they remain loyally tied to it, because this generational trauma and self-destruction is all that’s been documented of their culture. Thus, they, as the two sole survivors, must bear the rage of an entire race that’s been boiling for centuries, and only that rage. They have nothing to fight for except for Altan’s vague recollections of a lush green island and the traditions they only vaguely experienced in shared hallucinations. Yet they still fight for it to feel some sort of connection to their ancestry. It’s a tragic way to live, but both seem fated for it.
The gradual reveal of bits and pieces of the Speerlies’ legacy was a deeply compelling portrait of the effect generational trauma has on minorities, particularly those separated from their culture, and I’m very intrigued to see how this will play out throughout the rest of the trilogy

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