Reviews with content warning for Genocide - The Poppy War

Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

1683 reviews

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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bergha1998's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This is a heavy book from start to finish. Definitely one where you need to read the trigger warnings. I enjoyed Rin as a main character quite a lot. She is all things resilience and tenacity. The horrors of this book, mostly because of war and genocide were a lot for me to handle. I couldn’t see myself ever rereading it, but I’m glad I did once.

Fantasy, Historical, Found Family

“I believe in gods as a cultural reference. As metaphors. As things we refer to keep us safe because we can’t do anything else, as manifestations of our neuroses. But not as things that I truly trust are real. Not as things that hold actual consequence for the universe.”

“Children ceased to be children when you put a sword in their hands. When you taught them to fight a war, then you armed them and put them on the front lines, they were not children anymore. They were soldiers.”

“It was, simply, what happened when one race decided that the other was insignificant.”

“And if your opponent was not human, if your opponent was a cockroach, what did it matter how many of them you killed?”

“If you were the victim, what could you say to make your tormentor recognize you as human? How did you get your enemy to recognize you at all?”

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joeynystrom's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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lynnd's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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

4.0

Content Warnings

geminireader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Get ready for this review. Because it’s not what I wanted it to be. This review will not contain direct spoilers but I wouldn’t read until after you finish the book so you can have your own opinion.

I don’t know what book I read but it was not anywhere near the 5 star book people have described it as. I really don’t even know where to start. The main character… I feel absolutely nothing. I’m not even sure I could give more than 2 characteristics that describe her. She is simply there to carry the plot as it must follow a character but I feel nothing for her. Others critique that they dislike her… I am jealous of that because at least they feel something. Dislike is more intriguing than nothing at all. Just absolutely no character development. And are her driving pain really isn’t even her own? Maybe if we got to spend time with her at the beginning or had a more compelling backstory but I really have a hard time even feeling bad for her supposedly abusive childhood. So all her “rage” comes off very superficial and egotistical. I would have rather followed Altan who had a more genuine backstory and understandable rage. I can understand plot-wise why Rin is the choice and not Altan but still. The reader pays for that choice. While we’re at it, a critique of this book is that it doesn’t have romance. I’d argue it has something much worse: it has a feeble “will they won’t they” with the main character and someone who is implied to their sibling/at least related. And when I say feeble, I mean FEEBLE. They barely talk. And quite honestly, the fact that there was even a hint of romance in this book really disgusts me considering the content this book contains. There is so much more issue I have with the “characters” in this book (put in quotations because they are so weak) but we’ve hit a good transition into plot time. The content of this book is devastating and unfortunately, the real atrocities of this book aren’t fiction. As you probably know, this book is derived from the second Sino-Japanese war, which was a really heinous time in all of human history. So, I agree with all the other reviews on here saying the reader takes on some heavy trauma. But what bothers me so much about this, is that I felt so emotional reading this content because it is historical and completely inhuman, not because the writing/story/characters or literally anything about this book made me feel that way. Which I guess brings me to a point where I would have felt nothing from this book or story if it hadn’t contained retellings of real events.

In summary (pat on the back if you actually read this), I am greatly disappointed. I was so excited going into this read. And now I feel guilty tearing it down because it’s an East Asian fantasy that has reached high popularity and has added some much needed diversity to the fantasy section (getting a little tired of the Greek mythology retellings over here). But a book still has to be good. And I would argue this book, objectively, isn’t good. If anyone is curious, I will still be attempting the second book as I’ve read it has major improvements on the first. Funny, im trusting those reviews even after the glowing reviews from the first book betrayed me. But alas, this is how badly I want to like this series. Stay tuned.

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sammyb154's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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

3.5

Content Warnings

dreamreader's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Definitely deserves all the hype it gets, and I would have no problem recommending this to people, but it wasn't really for me. I debated for a long time if I should even read this, and throughout the first part I was so glad I did, because I really liked the first part. It was an easy five stars. And then the second and third parts happened, and it felt like I was reading an entirely different book. I didn't like that a whole new cast of characters was introduced midway through. It was so jarring. And I was very confused by Rin's obsessive love for Altan. I think that part of the story would have worked much better if she had spent any time with him at school. He never felt like a real character to me. And actually, my major problem with the second and third parts of this book is that I just didn't care at all, no matter how dark things got (and they got suuuuuuper dark). I felt fully detached and in the end I actively disliked Rin. I think she would have worked for me more as a central character if her motivations were explored with any nuance at all, but it's just a constant "I want power!" without the necessary examination of what that means and why she wants it. Readers are left to just infer, which I did, but it wasn't really enough. I bounced off the end of this book pretty hard. HOWEVER. I still think this book will land for tons of readers. So if you've been curious, give it a try, and mind the content warnings. They are not a joke.

Content Warnings