The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

by R.F. Kuang

Because if she could just erase her past, then she could write herself into whoever she wanted to be in the present. Student. Scholar. Soldier. Anything except who she used to be.

“I believe in gods as a cultural reference. As metaphors. As things we refer to keep us safe because we can’t do anything else, as manifestations of our neuroses.

War doesn’t determine who’s right. War determines who remains.”

“Great danger is always associated with great power. The difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take that risk.”