A review by 9brightshiners
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a dark, unflinchingly violent trilogy but the characters nestled close to my heart and won't let go. Even on my third reading I'm still on the edge of my seat watching everything unfold and wishing it could be different this time. The love, camaraderie, grief, horror, and rage leap from the page. Despite the fantastic nature of this world it is grounded in true atrocities and historical events which makes it all the more gut wrenchingly human. The addition of mythological creatures and gods adds to the beauty and terror herein. Emily Woo Zeller's audiobook narration of Rebecca Kuang's incredible writing is an act of true alchemy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

While this is fantasy set in a different world than our own it is at least partially based on real world atrocities and contains extremely explicit descriptions of violence, gore, torture, rape, desecration of corpses, war, use of opium and other drugs, fire/fire injuries, genocide, dehumanization, and medical experimentation on unwilling humans. There are graphic descriptions of child and infant death and forced abortion. There are also instances of animal cruelty and death.