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A review by zlewis
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Pretty good. I was really into the world building at first and I liked the academy and the political intrigue, but then it felt like all the characters from the first 1/3 of the book are abandoned when the war starts, and the driving conflict of the war didn’t really make sense to me. Like, mugen wanted the land, okay, but why is the empress so weird about it and then a traitor? Why is Rin SO loyal to the empire?
The other piece I don’t reaaaaallly get is the pantheon and how it works, and the nature of Jiang’s power. Like they call the gods, but they need drugs to do it, but Rin didn’t need drugs the first time she did it, and apparently you are like assigned a god? And there was this entire subplot of ki manipulation and that scene where Rin cracks the stone by discharging ki using the animal martial arts forms, but it just gets abandoned.
The other piece I don’t reaaaaallly get is the pantheon and how it works, and the nature of Jiang’s power. Like they call the gods, but they need drugs to do it, but Rin didn’t need drugs the first time she did it, and apparently you are like assigned a god? And there was this entire subplot of ki manipulation and that scene where Rin cracks the stone by discharging ki using the animal martial arts forms, but it just gets abandoned.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Xenophobia, Violence, War, and Sexual violence