Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

66 reviews

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

bookishreadersclub's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

When they say this book is dark, they mean it. Do not be fooled by the beginning chapters of this book that feign hopeful stories of aspiring soldiers. The darkness of this book has subjected itself to one specific chapter, chapter 21. There are gruesome, cruel, horrifying depictions of war crimes. Nothing will prepare you for it. Read trigger warnings. Please.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Mental illness, Abortion, War, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Grief, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death, Addiction, Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Vomit, Violence, Self harm, Genocide, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Forced institutionalization, and Cursing

bigoffka's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Blood, Abortion, Colonisation, Misogyny, Murder, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, War, Physical abuse, and Sexism

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

tariana's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Despite the fact that sometimes I thought the book was too much focused on explaining war strategies, which turned out to be boring, the story as a whole is very interesting and it kept me reading non stop. The end of the second part is kind of gore, I had to stop to breathe otherwise I’d have thrown up. I still haven’t decided if I like Rin or not, she is so smart but some times she makes some stupid decisions (but she’s only 18, so I’ll give her a break).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Gore, Genocide, Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Pedophilia, Violence, Torture, War, and Xenophobia

xsamwise's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I think most people who give the Poppy War a glowing review prefer the 2nd half of the book which is where I found the most contradictions and issues with mainly Rin. I tore through the first half of this book, I enjoyed Rin's life at school and learning

Spoiler

from Jiang. And the more I found out about Lore, the more I thought Rin would be the voice of reason and Altan would inevitably destroy himself in vain. Unfortunately, I was very wrong. Through out the latter half of the book I kept waiting for Rin to realize their errors, and she voiced them many times, but still somehow ended up down the completely wrong path.

There are multiple instances where Rin sees problems with Altan and his path of rage, yet she constantly chooses to follow in his footsteps despite identifying the glaring issues. While in the Chuluu Korikh she seems to have another realization that Jiang was right all along, but she contradicts this yet again. And there are multiple other examples of Rin having moments of clarity and then immediately doing the exact opposite.

While in the temple she shifts all blame to fate, that she hasn't made a single choose on this path of destruction. The Phoenix corrects her, she has made every single choice that has led to this moment, had been given multiple chances to choose a different path... yet here we are. And then after everything she as seen, in the end she naively thinks she can control the gods. The gods may act at the discretion of the shamans, but not without great sacrifice (ultimately themselves). It's also glaringly obvious that the will of the gods takes over their human minds and they act with only the wishes of the gods.

Rin is so painfully naïve, hypocritical and stupid, but I guess that's what happen when children are the only ones left with connections to the gods... they make childish decisions without any real understanding of the dire consequences.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Abortion, Rape, and War

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Drug use

murielreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Jajajajajaja. Que acabo de leer?? Alguien me lo puede o quiere explicar? Este libro se sintió como si estuviera viendo una fucking película. Es demasiado épico para ponerlo en palabras. De principio a fin me sentí en una montaña rusa emocional y ahora que acabo de terminarlo la cabeza me da vueltas a 1000 kilómetros por minuto sin parar. No sé que más decir. Me saco el sombrero ante Rebecca.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Murder

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Rape, Blood, Genocide, Hate crime, and Torture

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Abortion, Addiction, Vomit, Slavery, and Drug abuse

sanyu_reads's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Violence, Abortion, War, and Self harm

Minor: Rape and Bullying

ann99's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Violence, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Genocide, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Rape

cassiacow's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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

4.75

Fuck. Wow.

I'm not okay and it's going to take me time to recover.

Some sections of this book are BRUTAL. As for the ending - I don't think Rin was justified, but I can see why she did what she did.

The fact that lots of it mirrors real life is... depressing. War is horrible. 

The only minor issue I have is the pacing - the last few chapters felt rushed and some of the characters suffered as a result of their stories being tied up too quickly. Other than that, I loved this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Racism, Rape, War, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Classism, and Drug use