Review by thefoxyreader - The Dragon Republic

thefoxyreader 's review for:

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

4.5

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

OMG. THAT ENDING.

I thought The Poppy War’s ending couldn’t be topped but holy hell was I wrong.

The Dragon Republic may be just a tad less brutal and grotesque than The Poppy War but it still delivers on the emotional impact as Rin has to grapple with finding her place in the middle of a continuing war.

I don’t want to give anything away from The Poppy War so just read that so you can then read The Dragon Republic, which is even better than its predecessor.

Like The Poppy War, this book gets ALL the trigger warnings. It has graphic violence, drug use, rape, abortion, child death, self-harm, etc. All of this is taken up to eleven because while being a fantasy book, it still has a very real basis in Chinese history.

R.F. Kuang is obviously insanely intelligent, and that shows in her writing. She’s not the best in terms of pacing as the story does meander here and there, but the basis in actual history is commendable and adds realism to this very fantastical story.

I love that there are several things she could just solve using magic, but whenever something can be presented realistically, she does it.

I’m mainly thinking of the underwater bombs. She could have easily just had a shaman doing some shaman things but instead she explains how they made the bombs waterproof using practical means and I’m here for the nerdy science/history stuff.

It’s like a director going through the trouble of utilizing practical effects when they could just use CGI. I see the work and skill and I appreciate it more.

I will also praise this book to the stratosphere for having a legitimate, real enemies-to-lovers premise. I hate that most of the enemies-to-lovers media is just two characters who bicker with each other. That’s not enemies. In this series,

Rin and Nezha

start out absolutely hating each other, become friends, start to become more than friends, and then

BOOM LITERAL KNIFE TO THE BACK

Put a captain’s hat on my head and a parrot on my shoulder because I am navigating this ship to its inevitable doom.

As I said, this book isn’t perfect. Along with the pacing, a lot of the characters I liked from the first book

aka - the Cike

don’t have much to do in this book. However, the ending is flawless and it has me so HYPED for the final book in the trilogy.

Content Warnings