jukebox1168 's review for:

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

3.75

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The book was somewhat dry. Run sees some terrible things and I never felt like she connected emotionally with what was happening. At times it felt like a list of things instead of the terrible things she witnessed. As this was a debut novel and Babel was so good, I will be reading the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism