Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by pages_with_panda
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The Poppy War is a strong start to a really good series. I liked how it was inspired by true events, but I think I found myself more interested in the real history than the story in this book. There was a lot of clear parallels that I ended up exploring but the overall pacing of book 1 felt a little off.
The first half seemed to have a strong start - peasant girl Rin wants to become a soldier at the Sinegard Academy to escape an arranged marriage. She beats the odds, scoring perfectly and being accepted. However, that’s only the start of her troubles. Being at the school didn’t bring her the same opportunities as the other students because she was still just a peasant girl from the south in the eyes of the other students.
That’s NOT the plot of the book though. That’s only 1 section of 3. If you just started the book and don’t like it, maybe keep reading. It gets really different from here on out.
Book 1 felt VASTLY different from the rest of the book were everything seemed to change, including the writing and descriptions and even the story. While book 1 felt very YA, the rest of the book was decidedly NOT. It was full of dark violent scenes not meant for young adults.
I liked the way Rin faced everything thrown at her during Book 1 and her time at the school, but I felt like Book 2 was full of worldbuilding where Rin was often in the background and no longer the main character. There was just a lot of information thrown at us and it didn’t feel steady enough to drag us through so much so quickly.
I also felt like some of the atrocities were mentioned in great detail as a way to shock the readers. We went from brief mentions of violence and battles, to multiple fully detailed scenes of sexual violence and horror. Nothing else seemed to be described that way in the rest of the book though, and I felt like Kuang wanted us to know that this had happened in real life and wanted to mention it here as well. It just seemed unexpected and jarring.
Overall the story was interesting and I’m definitely going to be continuing the story.
Please check the content warnings. This book gets very detailed and very dark. It talks about colonialism and the horrors of war and everything in between.
The first half seemed to have a strong start - peasant girl Rin wants to become a soldier at the Sinegard Academy to escape an arranged marriage. She beats the odds, scoring perfectly and being accepted. However, that’s only the start of her troubles. Being at the school didn’t bring her the same opportunities as the other students because she was still just a peasant girl from the south in the eyes of the other students.
That’s NOT the plot of the book though. That’s only 1 section of 3. If you just started the book and don’t like it, maybe keep reading. It gets really different from here on out.
Book 1 felt VASTLY different from the rest of the book were everything seemed to change, including the writing and descriptions and even the story. While book 1 felt very YA, the rest of the book was decidedly NOT. It was full of dark violent scenes not meant for young adults.
I liked the way Rin faced everything thrown at her during Book 1 and her time at the school, but I felt like Book 2 was full of worldbuilding where Rin was often in the background and no longer the main character. There was just a lot of information thrown at us and it didn’t feel steady enough to drag us through so much so quickly.
I also felt like some of the atrocities were mentioned in great detail as a way to shock the readers. We went from brief mentions of violence and battles, to multiple fully detailed scenes of sexual violence and horror. Nothing else seemed to be described that way in the rest of the book though, and I felt like Kuang wanted us to know that this had happened in real life and wanted to mention it here as well. It just seemed unexpected and jarring.
Overall the story was interesting and I’m definitely going to be continuing the story.
Please check the content warnings. This book gets very detailed and very dark. It talks about colonialism and the horrors of war and everything in between.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, Colonisation, War
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Vomit