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skepticalsatan 's review for:
The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Whew, okay. I got on my laptop to write this, so know that I mean business.
First of all, heed the trigger warnings on this book: self harm, rape, genocide, the general horrors of war. There's probably more that I can't remember right now. I don't consider myself easily triggered, but this book is explicit in its discussion of these topics. The self harm occurs for the first time less than 10 pages in, and it all goes downhill from there.
I did not enjoy this book. And while no one enjoys a book like this, I really did not like this book. At all.
I think I might end up being rather unfair to this book, partially because it was incredibly hyped, partially because I'm using this as a break from my Stormlight reread. Books that are overhyped usually end up disappointing me, even if they're good, because they're not great. That, coupled with the slow driving plot and intense character development that a 10 book, each about 1200 pages, fantasy series offers meant that this 500 page really probably a YA in plot novel was pretty much doomed from the start.
Nonetheless, I think that Stormlight only highlighted issues that I would have had with this book regardless. Things started going south when I really hated the first part of this book which, for most people, was the best part. I think I'm learning that I don't really enjoy magic training academies all that much. However, I also felt like the pacing was bad. Kuang has made it clear that this book isn't supposed to be a training academy book. Unfortunately, in her haste to get to the actual war, I felt like she sacrificed the first 40% of the book. Kuang covers three years in Part One and then maybe a month in the last two. The academy training is necessary for the story, but there were probably ways to accomplish it more elegantly so that the entire first half didn't feel like the boring set up that Kuang needed to get out of the way so that she could get on with the rest of the book. Furthermore, there is a copious amount of telling rather than showing. Rin has to study for the Keju in two years, when most people spend their entire lives studying for it. She actively engages in self harm in order to do so. The studying takes up a small portion of the book. While I understand the necessity to be brief, I didn't really feel anything: a connection to Rin or an investment in the story. Rin got the highest score in the province and entrance into the most elite academy in the country as a poor peasant girl and I felt nothing because the lead up to and discussion of the event itself were so brief. Rin didn't even really want to go to Sinegard to be a soldier; she was simply trying to escape an arranged marriage. While I respect that, her descent into being a mindless soldier is kind of shocking. After she arrives at Sinegard, there is more telling. In four sentences, Rin rises from the worst student in one of her classes to the best. Nothing she did felt earned because Kuang simply told us that Rin worked really hard and harmed herself in order to succeed. It's hard to root for a character when you can't actually see them developing. The telling rather than showing was an issue throughout the entire first part. Rin is exceptional at everything she does, another thing that I hate in characters. Once again, Kuang tells us that she works hard, but there is no demonstration of her actually doing so. In addition, I didn't like Jiang as a character. I found him annoying, and even though he was revealed to have great powers, I didn't find him all that interesting even then. The rest of the characters, including Rin, aren't much better. Many of them die, and I didn't feel any emotional response at all. Thankfully, we leave the academy setting pretty quickly, and things seemed to be looking up.
I actually enjoyed Part Two the most. The descriptions of war and how Kuang dealt with them were fascinating. However, I quickly lost the thread. At times, Kuang's training as an academic comes through, and I felt like I was reading a textbook. While there is a time and place for that, it doesn't make for a very compelling novel. I think, perhaps, my biggest issue with this book is that I just Did Not Get It. And there's a good chance that's on me. But Kuang is a discovery writer, and that shows; it felt like there were too many storylines, with the result that the overarching narrative was essentially incoherent and wandering. There is somehow a training academy, war, secret, magical shaman prison, evil scientist in lab, and genocide storylines without a clear way in which they fit together. There is also very little discussion of who the person they break out of that prison is. The magic system took a while to win me over, and showed flashes of brilliance: taking psychedelics to commune with the gods so that the gods act through humans and walk in them? Cool as shit! But I felt like it wasn't carried off well. I think I have a preference for hard magic systems and this was simply not that. The world building, especially around the magic system, felt nonexistent. There were always ominous warnings about what would happen, but I'm not sure I ever really saw the results. That, coupled with the wandering main narrative, left me confused about literally everything from the main narrative to the magic system to the world, but in the "it feels like there's supposed to be something smart going on here but I'm too stupid to get it", which is the worst kind of confusion. I really felt like I was reading a bunch of incoherent ideas that were vaguely strung together. In addition, Rin barely uses magic for the entire book, and then chooses to use it at the end to commit genocide. While that was an interesting discussion from a moral standpoint, it was frustrating to see her be able to wield this power only at the very end of the book. What was the point of following her for the entire 527 pages then? I'm also confused about why Rin being Speerly mattered. Even though Kuang seems to offer reasons for why it mattered, none of them felt sufficient. Rin was also consistently called brave or strong, even though she really didn't do much? The issues from the first part reared their heads again: it felt like Rin didn't earn anything, and that is a major pet peeve for me.
Some other minor issues contributed. I don't like Kuang's writing style. It's choppy, both in sentence and narrative structure. She had some sloppy grammatical errors, which annoy me despite my best efforts. The world was also based on late 19th and early 20th century China but they sure did drop a lot of fucks and shits. While that's fine, it didn't really feel like it fit in a world where people were still fighting with swords, especially since there is an in universe swearing system.
If this review feels incoherent, that's how I felt reading the book. I may have even DNF'd it if I hadn't heard such good things about it. I do think I wouldn't have enjoyed this book no matter what, but Stormlight being fresh in my mind really threw into relief the issues that I had. Ultimately a cool concept, but a combination of my personal tastes and the actual content meant that it was a supremely terrible read for me. I will probably continue with the series, because I've heard that Kuang's writing gets better, but I'm definitely in no rush to do so.
First of all, heed the trigger warnings on this book: self harm, rape, genocide, the general horrors of war. There's probably more that I can't remember right now. I don't consider myself easily triggered, but this book is explicit in its discussion of these topics. The self harm occurs for the first time less than 10 pages in, and it all goes downhill from there.
I did not enjoy this book. And while no one enjoys a book like this, I really did not like this book. At all.
I think I might end up being rather unfair to this book, partially because it was incredibly hyped, partially because I'm using this as a break from my Stormlight reread. Books that are overhyped usually end up disappointing me, even if they're good, because they're not great. That, coupled with the slow driving plot and intense character development that a 10 book, each about 1200 pages, fantasy series offers meant that this 500 page really probably a YA in plot novel was pretty much doomed from the start.
Nonetheless, I think that Stormlight only highlighted issues that I would have had with this book regardless. Things started going south when I really hated the first part of this book which, for most people, was the best part. I think I'm learning that I don't really enjoy magic training academies all that much. However, I also felt like the pacing was bad. Kuang has made it clear that this book isn't supposed to be a training academy book. Unfortunately, in her haste to get to the actual war, I felt like she sacrificed the first 40% of the book. Kuang covers three years in Part One and then maybe a month in the last two. The academy training is necessary for the story, but there were probably ways to accomplish it more elegantly so that the entire first half didn't feel like the boring set up that Kuang needed to get out of the way so that she could get on with the rest of the book. Furthermore, there is a copious amount of telling rather than showing. Rin has to study for the Keju in two years, when most people spend their entire lives studying for it. She actively engages in self harm in order to do so. The studying takes up a small portion of the book. While I understand the necessity to be brief, I didn't really feel anything: a connection to Rin or an investment in the story. Rin got the highest score in the province and entrance into the most elite academy in the country as a poor peasant girl and I felt nothing because the lead up to and discussion of the event itself were so brief. Rin didn't even really want to go to Sinegard to be a soldier; she was simply trying to escape an arranged marriage. While I respect that, her descent into being a mindless soldier is kind of shocking. After she arrives at Sinegard, there is more telling. In four sentences, Rin rises from the worst student in one of her classes to the best. Nothing she did felt earned because Kuang simply told us that Rin worked really hard and harmed herself in order to succeed. It's hard to root for a character when you can't actually see them developing. The telling rather than showing was an issue throughout the entire first part. Rin is exceptional at everything she does, another thing that I hate in characters. Once again, Kuang tells us that she works hard, but there is no demonstration of her actually doing so. In addition, I didn't like Jiang as a character. I found him annoying, and even though he was revealed to have great powers, I didn't find him all that interesting even then. The rest of the characters, including Rin, aren't much better. Many of them die, and I didn't feel any emotional response at all. Thankfully, we leave the academy setting pretty quickly, and things seemed to be looking up.
I actually enjoyed Part Two the most. The descriptions of war and how Kuang dealt with them were fascinating. However, I quickly lost the thread. At times, Kuang's training as an academic comes through, and I felt like I was reading a textbook. While there is a time and place for that, it doesn't make for a very compelling novel. I think, perhaps, my biggest issue with this book is that I just Did Not Get It. And there's a good chance that's on me. But Kuang is a discovery writer, and that shows; it felt like there were too many storylines, with the result that the overarching narrative was essentially incoherent and wandering. There is somehow a training academy, war, secret, magical shaman prison, evil scientist in lab, and genocide storylines without a clear way in which they fit together. There is also very little discussion of who the person they break out of that prison is. The magic system took a while to win me over, and showed flashes of brilliance: taking psychedelics to commune with the gods so that the gods act through humans and walk in them? Cool as shit! But I felt like it wasn't carried off well. I think I have a preference for hard magic systems and this was simply not that. The world building, especially around the magic system, felt nonexistent. There were always ominous warnings about what would happen, but I'm not sure I ever really saw the results. That, coupled with the wandering main narrative, left me confused about literally everything from the main narrative to the magic system to the world, but in the "it feels like there's supposed to be something smart going on here but I'm too stupid to get it", which is the worst kind of confusion. I really felt like I was reading a bunch of incoherent ideas that were vaguely strung together. In addition, Rin barely uses magic for the entire book, and then chooses to use it at the end to commit genocide. While that was an interesting discussion from a moral standpoint, it was frustrating to see her be able to wield this power only at the very end of the book. What was the point of following her for the entire 527 pages then? I'm also confused about why Rin being Speerly mattered. Even though Kuang seems to offer reasons for why it mattered, none of them felt sufficient. Rin was also consistently called brave or strong, even though she really didn't do much? The issues from the first part reared their heads again: it felt like Rin didn't earn anything, and that is a major pet peeve for me.
Some other minor issues contributed. I don't like Kuang's writing style. It's choppy, both in sentence and narrative structure. She had some sloppy grammatical errors, which annoy me despite my best efforts. The world was also based on late 19th and early 20th century China but they sure did drop a lot of fucks and shits. While that's fine, it didn't really feel like it fit in a world where people were still fighting with swords, especially since there is an in universe swearing system.
If this review feels incoherent, that's how I felt reading the book. I may have even DNF'd it if I hadn't heard such good things about it. I do think I wouldn't have enjoyed this book no matter what, but Stormlight being fresh in my mind really threw into relief the issues that I had. Ultimately a cool concept, but a combination of my personal tastes and the actual content meant that it was a supremely terrible read for me. I will probably continue with the series, because I've heard that Kuang's writing gets better, but I'm definitely in no rush to do so.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape