Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

378 reviews

bergha1998's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, War, Blood, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Gore, Grief, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Xenophobia, Addiction, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

nushka_online's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

3.75-4.0 stars

I enjoyed the Poppy War and devoured it rather quickly but I did have some things I didn't love so much. I read about half of this as an e-book and the other half I listened to the audiobook, switching frequently between the two and the narrator also did a great job.

I see a lot of comments comparing Book One to The Name of the Wind, initially I saw some minor similarities but I felt as though the school thing was a fairly common trop in fantasy, especially YA/middle-grade so it didn't feel that comparable, but admittedly nearly everything to do with Jiang/Lore brought The Name of the Wind to mind. The tone shift after they leave Sinegard was a little sudden, Rin's relationship/feelings towards Altan felt a little inconsistent too but maybe that's understandable given circumstances.

I also felt that since it was a fantasy, but almost everything had a direct real world equivalent (aside from Speer which was Taiwan but only barely), I felt a lot less drawn in by the world-building than I normally am in fantasy. That being said, I still enjoyed the historic parallels, though at some points I was like oh so that's literally just the Art of War, or recounting 

Spoiler

near exact accounts of the Rape of Nanjing. Some of Venka's accounts of the relaxation house felt a little much for me

. I do recommend checking for trigger/content warnings because there were some graphic descriptions. Also, just a small pet peeve is using a lot of modern swears/language in fantasy seems to ruin immersion for me. I'm glad they had a few terms of their own, but sometimes the language was jarringly modern.

I still found it an easy book to get into and enjoy, although there were some scenes especially listening to the audiobook made me uncomfortable, and I did enjoy most of the characters. I like (view spoiler) I have somewhat mixed feelings about Rin and Altan's characters but I do like how their choices were portrayed and I'm interested to see how the story progresses in the next two 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Physical abuse, Torture, War, Sexual assault, Genocide, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Xenophobia

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, and Infertility

lizy's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Genocide

Moderate: Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual violence, and Drug use

Minor: Kidnapping

jiaozi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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: Rape, Body horror, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

adn_v's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Rape, Violence, Genocide, Sexual assault, Drug use, Self harm, Xenophobia, Drug abuse, War, and Racism

_justjess's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Physical abuse, Torture, Vomit, Addiction, Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Genocide, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, War, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, and Sexual violence

brainrot_197's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Classism, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Drug use, Emotional abuse, War, Xenophobia, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Torture, and Violence

pages_to_go_until_i_sleep's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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, Blood, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Suicide, Slavery, Murder, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Genocide, Bullying, Addiction, War, Violence, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Sexual assault, Drug use, Racism, Gore, Drug abuse, and Death

wcont's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

I read Babel first and it immediately become an all time favorite. Starting the Poppy War I was not disappointed as RF Kuang is just an author I click with. I love getting to know her characters and living in her worlds. 

This didn't quite hit the same highs as Babel and I feel she's improved as a writer since this first book- but I enjoyed it very much. I'm super eager to continue on in this series (and I'm ready for the emotional damage that is to come.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Child death, War, Torture, and Genocide

andilikepeaches's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

There were so many twists and turns throughout this book! I recognized scenes from WWII China immediately, and many of those moments were very difficult to read. I also got the sense as the story progressed that Rin was becoming something of an anti-hero, which turned out to be true. I found her choices at the end of the novel to be deeply disturbing and I really hope her growth takes an upward turn in book 2!

Spoiler

As an aside, I also hope Nezha is not dead (words I never thought I would say aloud).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Addiction, Drug use, Torture, Xenophobia, Death, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Bullying, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Genocide, Murder, Racism, and War