Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

1794 reviews

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

hermoninny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Medical trauma, War, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual assault, Grief, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, and Gore

lilaudio'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? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Racism, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Addiction, Classism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

laraloops's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.0

Woof, this book was a rough one to get through. Not because it wasn't well written or the characters bad but because it was well written and the characters by extension were good. They were not good people per se but the characterization of them made sense for the story and you really can't blame the main character for their choices. 

I find Rin's character to be very well established from the get go in studying for the test. She is a flawed,  fascinating character to follow. 

As someone who went from Babel to this story I could definitely feel the same themes/writing style present in this book. I appreciated it, and found this one to be much easier to parse without the Oxford jargon. Its a simpler book but the themes are just as dark and challenging as Babel. Its certainly a more gruesome book. Heed the warnings people give for this book the atrocities of war are very explicit here. The author does not hold back. 

I'm torn if it is excessively descriptive. I believe its a matter of personal taste. Though it was hard to stomach it really helps to convey why the characters choose the things they do. I will not go into spoilers but I think the author is good at showing the realities of how life does not give black and white choices.  

If you are looking for an empowering, uplifting story this will not be for you. This is a story that is about sacrifice and how war is HELL. The fantastical powers are more akin to real life guns and bombs than the usual fantasy fare. 

I'm sure I'll continue the series but as the end of this one made me a bawling mess it will be after several cups of hot coco and a few cuter reads. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical trauma, Genocide, Gore, War, Drug abuse, and Physical abuse

toriwatson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Drug use, Drug abuse, Torture, Rape, and Murder

might_be_may's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Bullying, Drug use, Vomit, Racism, Death, War, Child death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Classism, Sexual violence, Violence, Genocide, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Addiction

Minor: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Body horror, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Gore

laniloureads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.75

This series has my heart. R.F. Kuang pulls you in, builds this world brick by brick and throws you into the deep end. 

This is definitely a reflective fantasy, with social and political commentary I dont often see so horrifically and wondrously written. This whole series is a must - though prepare for a decent book hangover after book three. I had a good cry and stared at my ceiling for a while after finishing this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Sexual assault, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Addiction, Body horror, Physical abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

My tags are not covering everything but mostly can be applied to all three books in the series.

snaileton's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

rf kuang the woman that you are.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, and Genocide

Moderate: Drug use, Torture, and Rape

Minor: Sexism and Addiction

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

(re-read) It was so interesting to come back to this story knowing where the series goes. I underlined so many things that I totally didn't pick up on my first time reading and really made me appreciate R.F. Kuang's ability to world-build with so much detail, history and lore. This book does read almost like two books, the first 1/3 to half-ish being almost dark academia-esque with our MC Rin getting into this prestigious military school and she is one of the only poor students whose family isn't well connected. Then a war breaks out and she along with her fellow students must join to fight against an invading country. The rest of the book really sets up the rest of the series.

Rin is a very... interesting main character to read as she is extremely morally gray. Is actually told constantly by her professor Jiang that the magic ability she is learning is dangerous, but she does not heed the warnings. This is an overall theme throughout the books, so it's important to know going in that she can be often unlikeable at times due to the decisions that she makes.

I really can't wait to continue my re-read of the whole series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Drug use, War, Colonisation, Racism, Violence, and Addiction

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

Minor: Animal death

This book contains very graphic gruesome and hard to read passages of the effects of war and genocide.

amberreadsgood's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Murder, Child abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Gore, Sexual violence, Torture, War, and Rape