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A review by sophiesometimesreads
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
PLEASE check the trigger/content warnings for this book before reading. CW for war, violence, death, genocide, classism, rape, child death, and animal death.
I'm still unsure what I want to rate this as it made me so uncomfortable and was so dark but I guess that was the point. War isn't supposed to be comfortable, the things people and nations do in war can be horrific and there is often no black and white good guy versus bad guy. I wanted to root for Rin and her friends but by the end I wondered if I really should.
Some scenes or descriptions were so intense that sometimes I wondered if they needed to be, but these things do happen in real life so why should we tone them down in fiction for the comfort of the reader? RF Kuang posed so many deep and thoughtful questions about the nature of conflict, war and genocide in this book and I thought that was good but I don't know if I can really say I enjoyed this book because there wasn't much fun about the content, but I found it interesting and well-written (though I could tell how much her writing has improved between this and her recent work).
I'm still unsure what I want to rate this as it made me so uncomfortable and was so dark but I guess that was the point. War isn't supposed to be comfortable, the things people and nations do in war can be horrific and there is often no black and white good guy versus bad guy. I wanted to root for Rin and her friends but by the end I wondered if I really should.
Some scenes or descriptions were so intense that sometimes I wondered if they needed to be, but these things do happen in real life so why should we tone them down in fiction for the comfort of the reader? RF Kuang posed so many deep and thoughtful questions about the nature of conflict, war and genocide in this book and I thought that was good but I don't know if I can really say I enjoyed this book because there wasn't much fun about the content, but I found it interesting and well-written (though I could tell how much her writing has improved between this and her recent work).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Animal death, Genocide, Death, and War
Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Classism, Racism, and Colonisation
Minor: Slavery