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A review by ryter89
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Pretty much all of them. I will say if you don't want to read about triggering things then I'd advise against this one. Or at least find out where those parts are and skip them. I can't stress enough how violent it gets and Kuang does not pull back on the descriptions. I'm not talking about just some severed heads, either.
When I first began reading I was feeling like the writing was pretty YA and that concerned me because I've only heard how intense this book is. This might have been intentional since the main character is a teen. Kuang might have wanted to show her being forced to mature so quickly. If that's the case it definitely works. It feels like it "ages" as the story goes on and it lost the YA feel pretty much right after the first attack. As far as being intense...I almost had to skip over a certain part because I didn't want to have the imagery in my mind. Of course this is added to show how absolutely evil and twisted racism and war can make people and often does. I definitely will be reading Dragon Republic soon. It will be interesting to see how the decisions in the first book will affect this world and what the Pantheon has to say about it.
When I first began reading I was feeling like the writing was pretty YA and that concerned me because I've only heard how intense this book is. This might have been intentional since the main character is a teen. Kuang might have wanted to show her being forced to mature so quickly. If that's the case it definitely works. It feels like it "ages" as the story goes on and it lost the YA feel pretty much right after the first attack. As far as being intense...I almost had to skip over a certain part because I didn't want to have the imagery in my mind. Of course this is added to show how absolutely evil and twisted racism and war can make people and often does. I definitely will be reading Dragon Republic soon. It will be interesting to see how the decisions in the first book will affect this world and what the Pantheon has to say about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Murder, Hate crime, Gore, Death, Child death, Blood, Sexism, and Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol and Drug use