Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

374 reviews

finn_1312's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, War, Violence, Xenophobia, Torture, Sexual violence, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexism, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Confinement, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape

Moderate: Self harm, Eating disorder, Excrement, Vomit, Sexual content, and Animal death

historical fantasy, informative, challenging,

shannon336's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Child death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Torture, Violence, War, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Blood, Colonisation, Addiction, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

lillibeth03's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Rape, Sexual assault, Drug use, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Drug abuse

becausebrenna's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, War, Rape, Genocide, and Blood

Moderate: Torture, Self harm, Vomit, Animal death, Infertility, Child death, and Fire/Fire injury

cowardlyteaman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is my second R. F. Kuang book, and she never seems to disappoint.

There's so much to say here that I'm sure other readers in these reviews can express much better than me.
Currently in history class, we're learning about the history of Emperial Japan (where much of it is also taught from the perspective of the Chinese), and the parallels are prominent. Sometimes it becomes hard to distinguish between what is real and what is fiction, because just like the Mugenese, the Japanese soldiers were terrible—terrible—terrible.

There's so much of this book to praise, and I did love Rin for a while. However, as she continued to go against her master's advice, I continued to dislike her. I see where her need is coming from, but it was very frustrating and frankly quite uninspiring to read about these very predictable consequences to her horribly naïve decisions.
This, however, is the ONLY complaint I had about the book, and I still very much enjoyed the book. I am looking forward to the coming books!

I deeply recommend this book, but be aware of the warnings. Many of the warnings are descriptions and mentions made from character's rather than the direct actions, but they can still be disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Misogyny, Rape, Blood, Animal death, Body horror, Miscarriage, Torture, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Child abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Racism, Suicide, Self harm, Animal cruelty, and Classism

Minor: Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, and Vomit

dancingprince's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

First half was phenomenal. The amount of research just to build the world must have been incredible.
It is wordy, not bad, just everything was drawn out. In the second half I felt like the characters' reactions and emotions started to get predictable. There was also a pretty intense amount of violence here as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Drug use, Death, War, Murder, Violence, Rape, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child death, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

atomicrobin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Animal death, Drug abuse, Death, Classism, Body horror, Blood, Infertility, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Violence, Sexism, Sexual violence, Bullying, Alcohol, Addiction, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, War, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The beginning and end were really strong, however the middle part felt a bit like a disjointed slump.
Whlile I always want to give the benefit of believing that maybe that was just how the character felt, this does not seem to be the case here.

Spoiler

The Fact, that there were mere chapters between the setup of the facility and arriving there annoyed me SO much. And then they were out again just as fast, ugh

One of the strongest parts of this book is the bluntness of talking about themes- as well as just vivid and brutal pictures, actually depicturing horrors and topics often glossed over. I have to mention the feminism here, loved everything about it!
Overall a great book with some annoying points, I am interested to see more and hope for an in depth journey of the mind of our main character!

Spoiler

The worst part were the animal deaths tho :c

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Animal death, Suicide, Slavery, Blood, Death, Abandonment, War, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Murder, Infertility, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Cursing, Body horror, Hate crime, Violence, Torture, Sexual assault, Rape, Mental illness, Excrement, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Animal cruelty, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Drug abuse, Child death, and Abortion

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was having such a good time for the first 80% of this book and really didn't get the War Crimes Book reputation. Then the last 20% hit. Oh my god. Like it's so good but oh my god I get it now. The characters are so interesting and the setting and magic system are great, but oh god. I will be reading the next book but I need a minute.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Hate crime, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Gore, Genocide, Addiction, Rape, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Torture, Sexual assault, Death, Colonisation, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Animal death and Pregnancy

aislinn_h's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Rape, Animal death, Death, Genocide, War, Colonisation, Gore, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Addiction, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicidal thoughts