Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

68 reviews

lillypillygooseberry's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.75

lots of horrific imagery in this book. Definitely read the trigger warnings, especially if you identify as female: I consider myself pretty numb to most things in book but some of the descriptions were truly horrifying, especially because they are based on real-life events.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Self harm, Sexual assault, Confinement, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, War, Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, and Infertility

aya1403's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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: Misogyny, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Xenophobia, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Colonisation, Slavery, Suicide, Genocide, Infertility, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Gaslighting, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, War, Bullying, Addiction, Cursing, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

velociraptor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Death, Genocide, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Misogyny, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Addiction, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Torture

ibroughtyouknives's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Confinement, Body horror, Classism, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Genocide, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, War, and Cursing

Moderate: Abortion, Alcohol, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Sexual violence

Minor: Ableism

raisinbrann's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Violence, Gaslighting, Drug use, Mental illness, Drug abuse, War, Sexual harassment, Murder, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Gore, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Slavery, Trafficking, and Vomit

Minor: Pregnancy, Body horror, and Infertility

peggy_racham's review

4.75

Such a strong book for a first time writter. Had me hooked from the very start. This is a book about war and as such there us a lot of triggering content but it was handled well. The age of the writter is evident in the entire book in the best possible way
(Check the tws theres a lot)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Misogyny, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug use, Torture, Rape, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual violence, Slavery, Addiction, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Bullying, and Medical content

kys831's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Violence, War, Torture, Bullying, Addiction, Drug abuse, Genocide, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, and Death

andrea_carroll123's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Toxic relationship, Torture, Rape, Addiction, Blood, Drug use, War, Death, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Murder, Hate crime, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Colonisation, and Domestic abuse

stitchof's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcohol, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Rape, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Torture, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, War, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Violence, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child death, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, and Suicide

whiteshadow's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

Nothing could have prepared me for this book, this was a heck of a ride.

Here is a quick summary and maybe small spoilers

it’s starts cool and easy you have a school arc and the main character gets a bunch of enemies because she’s not as rich as the rest of them, it’s not really new to read about but ofc I love it.
And then the second arc, a whole fucking war, it happened so fast I was not prepared suddenly from a classroom to a battlefield and thing is the more and more I read the more hopeless I got for the main character to succeed and it just gets harder and more depressing (which is not a bad thing for the story but it’s definitely bad for my mental health) especially in chapter 21, you really need to be prepared for that shit.


Now here is my review

The book is really good, especially how R F kuang showed the horrors of war, and not like a fictional war but a real war, if you know your history then you know that Mugan is obviously inspired by ww2 Imperial Japan and their war crime especially to the Chinese.

I loved the characters, RF Kuang really knows how to make you feel and connect with them.

As much as I loved this book I can’t help but see some flaws, 
1-the book is way too fast paced
We got from a classroom to a war in one chapter, and I didn’t feel there was a lot of character exploring for Rin because of how fast the story was going, especially in the first half. A lot of things don’t get their fair share of description.

And some get too descriptive,
2-Subtext, I swear I know how to read subtext and most readers do, don’t treat your readers like idiots, you don’t need to spell out everything for them, LEAVE SUBTEXT!
Also there are way too much telling and not enough showing.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Physical abuse, Child death, Cursing, Self harm, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Infertility, Rape, and Sexual violence