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The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

R.F. Kuang

Start date: November 1, 2025

Finish date: November 30, 2025

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Shadow and Bone- 11/2025
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last updated Oct 29, 2025 09:02AM

The Poppy War- 11/2025
By Yeehawwlovesb… , Lead Moderator · 5 posts · 5 views

last updated Oct 29, 2025 09:01AM

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What Members Thought

Jul 08, 2024 sashenka 🖤 (hard book slump) rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, morally-grey, cop-bodyguard-military, ya, bipoc

I really wanted to love it, like so many of you (I was clearly hyped by friend's reviews). But I'm going to be honest. (And remember, I may have not like as much as you but it's fine, we can't all agree on everything)

It's not that bad, I would say a 3,5 ⭐

If I had to rate each part of the book, it would have been something like 4 then 3 then 2.
It started really great, Rin was an interesting FMC (view spoiler) I liked the academy part the I really wanted to love it, like so many of you (I was clearly hyped by friend's reviews). But I'm going to be honest. (And remember, I may have not like as much as you but it's fine, we can't all agree on everything)

It's not that bad, I would say a 3,5 ⭐

If I had to rate each part of the book, it would have been something like 4 then 3 then 2.
It started really great, Rin was an interesting FMC (view spoiler) I liked the academy part then... I don't know what happened, it started going in all directions in every way. Rin wasn't consistent, I had trouble following her way of thinking. I even think seeing the story through her eyes was irrelevant. I would have love a multi-POV. She was whiny and self-righteous and angry (whatever for) but with her little crush on her commander, she let herself being abused. Be consistent. I know she's supposed to be still young but that doesn't excuse her behavior most of the time. I don't mind her being a morally grey character, she can be the worst and I would enjoy it. But no, her main personality trait was that she's insufferable.

My other issue with this book is that I LOVE Chinese and Japanese culture (well, Asian culture anyway) so I had trouble with the world-building. Is that book supposed to be inspired by China's history or be some sort of retelling? Retelling was fine, I would have excused some racists things. But as an inspiration? Change some names (Confucius, Sun Tzu, some places too...) and you got it? Nah. What's the point. Using real events (Sino Japanese war, genocides, Unit 731...) for the story is fine but it needs a point. When chapter 21 happened, or more like, Nanjing Massacre happened, I thought okay, that's a copy and paste from a real event... I guess I can excuse that if there's a reason of why we have it here. Well not really, because I thought it would fuel Rin's famous anger but no, what pushed her to end a whole nation was (view spoiler) and not a fucking massacre.
Also, one genocide is awful, we get all the details but the other is so far from our protagonist that we almost don't care? Thanks god they were just Mugens. Thank you Kitay for having a logical brain by the way, our Speerlies had trouble with that.
By the way, why are the Speerlies written live savages? Dancing around fires and fueled only by pure fury? That's pretty lacking. If it was just a Nikan's point of view it would have been fine, they were biased, it happens. But no, that's just how they are and I find it sad.

Anyway, it's not a bad book, I'm just being a little more critical because I know it could have been better. Also, I found it kinda YA (because of most of the characters, the way they speak even tho they're gods or warlord) but with heavy stuff. Like, explain to me how a nation training kids in academy, having the best academy in the capital, having armies and shit, be surprised like that by an invasion? How did they not see it coming? I felt the story lacking. Like the author wasn't sure herself.

It's my first time reading R.F. Kuang and while I'm not sure I'll finish the trilogy, I'll still try her others books (I have Babel !) ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2021 akacya ❦ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: buddy-reads, genre-fantasy, own, ownvoices, asian-authors, audience-adult, format-ebook

buddy read with xuan!

rtc

6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 08, 2024 Kasia ✩࿔:･ rated it it was amazing

This book took me a while to finish, but it's without a doubt 5 ⭐️ rating.
The world building is great, the plot is really good and I'm looking forward to reading the other 2 books.
With that said, the book was veeeery heavy. There was a lot of information to process. The descriptions of some of the events that happened were very gruesome and detailed. Parts of the book are definitely not for the faint hearted. I can handle a lot but some of the things even had me uncomfortable. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review