Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

1316 reviews

lighterthaneyre's review against another edition

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

4.5

Extremely good. Extremely good. It's clear to me that the main character is supposed to be likeable, but she is not meant to be a good person.

Main Character reflection:

She's terribly clever, but at several points willfully dense. Because sometimes it's easier to not acknowledge truth when anger and retaliation feel so good in the moment. Every warning she gets, she reflects later on with something like regret. It's not regret, it's almost nostalgia for the person she was allowed to be before she choose her path. She's told repeatedly about costs, and refuses to internalize it. But at the same time, the anger and fear and rashness are this very relatable Thing. This series is going to be a tragedy, it seems. Rin will be her own destruction.

Themes:

The way trauma and violence changes Rin is very interesting. She's always been driven (possibly too much) but prior to Golyn Niis, she doesn't react to war with retaliation. She thought striking back against the Federation in Khurdalain was "halfhearted, disrespectful and pointless" (Ch 16). By the end, she's pivoted entirely, so that striking back is the most important thing. More important than safety of her own side, or the ability to live a "avenged" life in peace. There is only the next Real Enemy. I think exploring that change is sort of fascinating. She suffers terrible traumas, but it's pointed out repeatedly that her friends suffered worse. Kitay lived through the actual events of Golyn Niis. Alton spent years enduring torture and more direct memories of the genocide of his people. Not that this is a suffering Olympics, but it's to say that this wasn't inevitable. Some of her friends are horrified by what she's done. And I think is the difference is in the lies Rin tells herself. "I won't go out like this", "power is the only solution", "a good martial artist is a good commander/wise leader". She wants to believe, so she turns off her other lines of thought. And she becomes a monster. A monster who lies and says she's in control.

The trigger warnings are no joke, as a heads up.

The most graphic violence is an after the fact recounting and a review of the aftermath. That being said, it is pure human evil ripped from real life history books. It is the sort of trauma that creates monsters. Even as presented it's pretty disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Bullying, Classism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Xenophobia, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, War, and Mental illness

Minor: Drug use, Addiction, and Animal cruelty

lorendia's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Death, Violence, Gore, War, and Domestic abuse

sunriseat0519's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Violence, Blood, Drug use, War, Addiction, Murder, Rape, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Mental illness

Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

ctucker94's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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? No

4.25

R.F. Kuang does an excellent job creating a new, gripping fantasy story with influence from some of the darkest events in history. Excellent first book for a trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Child death, Genocide, Rape, Death, and War

Moderate: Addiction

tornasunder's review

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Addiction, Grief, Torture, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, and Genocide

taque's review against another edition

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Child abuse, Blood, Torture, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Rape, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Death, Child death, Sexual assault, Racism, Physical abuse, Bullying, Murder, Drug abuse, Abortion, Medical content, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Animal death, and Addiction

Minor: Vomit and Excrement

wytherwytch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

Brilliant. Looking forward to the next one in the series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Rape, Gore, War, Grief, Addiction, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Death, and Genocide

Minor: Animal death

evermoremylove's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

Moderate: Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape

jessievonv's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, War, Torture, Drug use, Sexual violence, Murder, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Child death, Death, Rape, and Violence

iniiri's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.75

I don’t know what I expectef when I picked up a book called ”poppy war” but it was not this (I will be adding quite a bit of warnings). I knew basically nothing about it except there was a test, a school and based in china. Everything else came as a suprise and if I was surpirsed. 
Things seemed well thought out and nothing gave the impression of being shallow; just a character because it was needed which I really liked.

Slight spoiler because I don’t know how to talk about this book otherwise.
I really liked the time skips in the first half of the book. It didn’t need to tell certain things in detail so I’m glad it didn’t. It took me by surprise, that’s for sure, but I liked it. It also made things more convincing to learn that significant time had passed without anything noteworthy because that’s just life.

Still in the slight spoiler zone, but my closing thoughts. It was quite difficult to read at times. Again, I didn’t know anything going into this book so I didn’t expect the turn it took. I’m used to books glossing over a lot of things, but again, it delivered on the name.
I honestly don’t know if I’ll read the other books. I’m quite overwhelmed by everything. There were moments where I didn’t even want to read  because it would just lead to more missery. It was a good book on its own and as of right now, I don’t feel any need to read the next one. I think I need to leave this world for a while before I light pick up the next one.

All in all, would recommend with caution :)

(Audiobook)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, Genocide, Death, Drug abuse, and War

Moderate: Torture, Rape, Cursing, and Body horror

Minor: Kidnapping, Sexism, Self harm, Racism, Classism, and Colonisation