A review by reka111
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I have become something wonderful, she thought. I have become something terrible. Was she now a goddess or a monster? Perhaps neither. Perhaps both.

The review contains spoilers!!!


Right now I feel so many things that I can't say; I want to burn the world, sob until I'm nothing but an empty dustpan and dance with the wild wind at the same time. So right now I feel everything and nothing, death and life, sorrow and happiness at the same time. I just finished reading it a few minutes ago and I can't get the words out of my head, I have so many thoughts about this book. 

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I have never read - and probably never will - another well-crafted book in my life.  This story has a past, present and future.  It tells about gods and mortals at the same time. The world itself was very interesting and I can't wait to go back there again, I'm not exaggerating when I say that although it was brutal (definitely not for those who can't stand blood and death, etc.) it still had its own beauty, something unfathomably beautiful in it.  I really liked that the writer drew a lot from mythology and brought real nightmares to life. 

Rin (Zsin in Hungarian) was a great main character, a real unquenchable flame.  I simply loved that we could trace what fire, power and so much death were able to do to that innocent little girl. Runin was very nice to me at first and still is, but I feel that later on I will lose her, she will be burned by her own flames and I can't do anything to save her. The knowledge that history will (probably) repeat itself fills me with great pain.  But actually I understood, I understood her soul, her whole damned being.  Although she didn't do the right thing many times, in the end most of us would have done exactly what she did in these situations, even the strongest will break during a long fight (just like Altan) and I'm sure that sooner or later Runin will break too. It's fate, you can't avoid fate and finally you can't make a deal with it, but you can indeed delay it. 

Nezha (Nö-Csa in Hungarian) I'm not lying when I say that I fell in love from the beginning, but really, but who's to blame?  I'm begging you, this boy knows something, he chains people to himself, I'm not at all surprised that Runin falls in love with him later on.  I liked his character. He goes through a huge development during the book (I've rarely seen character development like his).  He went from being a spoiled and cruel tyrant to an understanding and relatively forgiving person. Basically, Nezha is an excellent fighter, but he doesn't always think through what exactly he wants.  I want to know what happened to him and I want to let him know that he is not alone, that Runin wanted to go after him, that she was trying to save him even at the cost of her own life.  I hope we get more of him in the next book. 

Kitay and Venka are secondary characters, but they are very important in shaping the main character (Runin) into what she is.  Despite everything, Kitay stuck by her, he was her friend and one of her most devoted allies in the academy and beyond.  The voice of common sense, although he too was broken by the war, he did not forget that he is human, like anyone else, that he lives and breathes like any other living being and nothing is more important than that.  A part of me died because of Venka and I haven't recovered from it since, it's unbelievable that one of the best students of the academy, one of the most dangerous girls, was treated like this. It's disgusting what they did to her, it's disgusting what they did to women, but in war there really is no such thing as a winner or a loser, only broken souls, I feel that she will never recover from what she had to go through, I think she suffered more than anyone else.  I wish she had died, she would have been a real blessing compared to what they did to her. 

Jiang (Csiang in Hungarian) is my guardian, my hero and my support.  When I first read about the disappearance of the Gatekeeper, I didn't even suspect him, I saw him as a simple, a bit sloppy, but kind master (even after what was revealed), but then the gatekeeper who released monsters into the world started to suspect him, but he disappeared in  from picture.  And it made the seal even more suspicious.  My heart bled for him in prison, he never deserved what the empress did to him, it was simply cruel. 

Altan was so broken, so damned broken, it's a wonder he didn't fall to pieces.  He still fought bravely for his people, his country and himself. I'm glad he got the closure he deserved, I'm glad he got the revenge he deserved and I don't regret supporting him at all, because he deserved everything and even more.  They ruined his life, he carried more bleeding wounds than anyone else.  He needed this, he really needed this, he needed to find peace and be reunited with his people and family. 

I don't want to go into the Cike itself, but I loved them very much, each and every one of them with my whole soul.  They are a real family, not just outcasts and not just criminals, they are a real team. 

Betrayal is nothing new, especially not in books like this, but it still hurt, because a ruler's job is to rule her people, to protect them like gods, not to turn against them.  Not only Rin wants to kill the empress but also me. 

Other characters who died and deserve at least one mention: 

Tir 
Although we knew very little about him, I felt sorry for him and I feel that if I had been there, I would have tried to save him and help him. 

Irjah
(Ircsa in Hungarian)
I thought my soul would never stop sobbing. He deserves a thousand times better.

Raban 
my dear Raban, I am so used to his presence as to his air, my heart stopped when he died. 

Basically, the plot was easy to follow, but sometimes the time jumps really bothered me, we literally jumped weeks, months and years in just a few pages, which is fine, but I would have been very happy if the author had prepared me a little for these.It was terribly interesting, even though it took me so long to read it, although it is not exactly an easy afternoon's read with its 580 pages, and it dissects topics that cannot exactly be called easy.  Despite the fact that this was the first book about actual war, torture and death that I read, I took the hurdle quite easily. I'm not a big fan of these acts of violence, but they didn't really bother me either, because they showed me what a bloody war is like, the unvarnished truth. I can't wait to read the next book! 

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