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katiemcgregor 's review for:
The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
It's going to take a while for me to collect my thoughts on this. Honestly, The Poppy War feels like something I'll have to reread to fully appreciate and understand it's nuances.
I think my only real complaint about The Poppy War is something that probably falls under personal preference, since I feel the same about other books that do the same thing. It always bothers me when authors slip up and use modern vernacular, especially crass modern vernacular, in high fantasy novels. These words just take me out of the story. Kuang obviously invented her own interjections for this fictional world, and they fit really well, so mixing in swear words from our world felt jarring. There were a few other vocab choices that also felt odd to me, but these were minimal.
Other than that I don't think I have any complaints. This was an experience.
I think my only real complaint about The Poppy War is something that probably falls under personal preference, since I feel the same about other books that do the same thing. It always bothers me when authors slip up and use modern vernacular, especially crass modern vernacular, in high fantasy novels. These words just take me out of the story. Kuang obviously invented her own interjections for this fictional world, and they fit really well, so mixing in swear words from our world felt jarring. There were a few other vocab choices that also felt odd to me, but these were minimal.
Other than that I don't think I have any complaints. This was an experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infertility, Suicidal thoughts