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A review by annmeyer
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
phenomenally engaging, horrifically graphic. main characters as morally gray as they could get. if there's a book that ought to have trigger warnings this is it.
i want to give the poppy war 5 stars, but i don't think it's without flaws. i think some things could have been done better later on in it and the lack of sufficient paratext about the very real historical background is the biggest one. i think the jarring shift from the pre-war to war periods worked very well at shattering the suspended sense of peace and finding humor in darkness then elevating the stakes of "petty" schoolyard spats and theoretical military conflicts to the unimaginably evil and horrific realities of war. i think rin is naive at times, which can come off as annoying and frustrating in the larger, horrific scheme of things, but that's a crucial part of the bildungsroman, baby, especially given the context of what she witnesses, learns, and experiences when confronting the horrors of the world up close and personal.
i think the fact that r.f. kuang doesn't include a note from the author or some other sort of acknowledgement on historical context is confusing coming out the other side and really irks me as a reader. (part of me is like oh, is it her responsibility to inform us of it, but she literally wrote the damn book. it feels almost icky, especially then seeing people romanticize some parts of the book.) i think the lines between fantasy and historical fiction felt blurred at times and affected the writing in subtle ways, perhaps treading the line of factual source material. i don't want to have to assume the intentionality or rationale of her decision to fictionalize the surrounding context and not address it, because that's not something i want to have to guess at. (did she worry it would make the fictional plot "too heavy" or somehow not immersive and believable enough? but how do you then draw on real horrors for the sake of entertainment?) of course, i'm "glad" to have been spurred to learn more about the real background (the nanjing massacre and the second sino-japanese war at large) that parts of the poppy war were "loosely" based on. like at least it prompts these sorts of discussions, that alone is obviously important, but surely there are people that don't pick up on it or find out? idk.
i think the ending is pretty strong, although there's at least one explicitly fictional plot point i'm fully refusing to believe is real and will just not be accepting. also, i think it's super weird that prior to reading this i'd seen tiktoks about how fang runin can do no wrong; that all makes me feel a little crazy now knowing the things she does by the book's end.
i'm heartbroken for so many of the characters. i think everyone deserved better, except the people who didn't. but i think how people draw the line to make that distinction is one of the main points of the book. what differs martyrdom in an effort toward emancipation and vengeance, an eye for the eye for the sake of it? who is to blame for a sequence of horrifically violent events if many people could have potentially altered the course of history? when is a war won or lost? how much blood is enough? can it ever be enough?
i want to give the poppy war 5 stars, but i don't think it's without flaws. i think some things could have been done better later on in it and the lack of sufficient paratext about the very real historical background is the biggest one. i think the jarring shift from the pre-war to war periods worked very well at shattering the suspended sense of peace and finding humor in darkness then elevating the stakes of "petty" schoolyard spats and theoretical military conflicts to the unimaginably evil and horrific realities of war. i think rin is naive at times, which can come off as annoying and frustrating in the larger, horrific scheme of things, but that's a crucial part of the bildungsroman, baby, especially given the context of what she witnesses, learns, and experiences when confronting the horrors of the world up close and personal.
i think the fact that r.f. kuang doesn't include a note from the author or some other sort of acknowledgement on historical context is confusing coming out the other side and really irks me as a reader. (part of me is like oh, is it her responsibility to inform us of it, but she literally wrote the damn book. it feels almost icky, especially then seeing people romanticize some parts of the book.) i think the lines between fantasy and historical fiction felt blurred at times and affected the writing in subtle ways, perhaps treading the line of factual source material. i don't want to have to assume the intentionality or rationale of her decision to fictionalize the surrounding context and not address it, because that's not something i want to have to guess at. (did she worry it would make the fictional plot "too heavy" or somehow not immersive and believable enough? but how do you then draw on real horrors for the sake of entertainment?) of course, i'm "glad" to have been spurred to learn more about the real background (the nanjing massacre and the second sino-japanese war at large) that parts of the poppy war were "loosely" based on. like at least it prompts these sorts of discussions, that alone is obviously important, but surely there are people that don't pick up on it or find out? idk.
i think the ending is pretty strong, although there's at least one explicitly fictional plot point i'm fully refusing to believe is real and will just not be accepting. also, i think it's super weird that prior to reading this i'd seen tiktoks about how fang runin can do no wrong; that all makes me feel a little crazy now knowing the things she does by the book's end.
i'm heartbroken for so many of the characters. i think everyone deserved better, except the people who didn't. but i think how people draw the line to make that distinction is one of the main points of the book. what differs martyrdom in an effort toward emancipation and vengeance, an eye for the eye for the sake of it? who is to blame for a sequence of horrifically violent events if many people could have potentially altered the course of history? when is a war won or lost? how much blood is enough? can it ever be enough?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail