A review by seetaslibrary
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

4.75

War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who remains.

RF Kuang has never once missed. I had incredibly high hopes for this book and my expectations were met without fail. Her prose is, as always, brilliant. The world-building was done so wonderfully - I was so immersed in the harsh world of the Nikan Empire, both inside and outside the walls of Sinegard.

The gradual slip between the gritty, competitive academia setting at an elite military academy to a downright horrific war was executed perfectly.

Each character was constructed with so much thought - they were all flawed and complex in their own ways, and it was so interesting reading about how not one of them was perfectly good or bad. 

“I have become something wonderful, she thought. I have become something terrible. Was she now a goddess or a monster? Perhaps neither. Perhaps both.”

The incorporation of the opium addiction was so powerful, considering its role in colonialism and the West’s attempt to control China. I’m such a sucker for fantasy mixed with elements of history. And the mythology too, of course! I have always been so fascinated by shamans.

I’m taking 0.25 off solely because there was a graphic description of

rape

in one of the later chapters (yes, I know it’s a very silly reason to decrease a rating considering the TWs were loud and clear and it is literally a book about the horrors of war. But that page is going to scar me for life so this felt like necessary payback)

“I don't need your pity. I need you to kill them for me. You have to kill them for me,"

Venka

hissed. "Swear it. Swear on your blood that you will burn them.”