Book review ||: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

The Poppy War by R.F. Kaung #1

Rating: ★★★★

Genre: High Fantasy

Publisher: Published by Harper  Voyager on May 1, 2018

Summary

When war orphan Rin aced the keju— the empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—she surprised everyone: test officials, the guardians who wanted to marry her odd and further their criminal enterprise, and even herself. But being a dark military school in Nikan. Targeted by rival classmates for her color, poverty. She possesses a lethal, uncarthy power – an aptitude for the nearly mythical art of shamanism that would be the empire desperately needs. While Nikara is at peace, its enemy and former occupiers, the federations of Mugen, bides it’s times …. and the Third Poppy War is just a spark away. Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. Yet as she discovers more about the god that has she choosen, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity. And it may already be too late.

Content Warning:

War, gore, rape, violence against babies, arson, drug use/addiction, experiments on humans

The Poppy War is a book that was written by R.F. Kaung when she was 19 years old. She then went on to write Yellow Face, Babel, and now Katabasis.

Yellow Face was the first book I wanted to read by her. Still, for some reason, I’ve never felt the full urge to pick up the Poppy War book. Recently, I decided to challenge myself. I wanted to pick up something way out of my comfort zone. You can say curiosity got the best of me in the best way possible.

You can’t stop an avenger . You can’t reason with a madman

Commander of the cike – poppy war

Recently, I have been looking for books with people of color and a strong protagonist. For some reason, I decided to try high fantasy. Oh boy, was I in for a treat with this one!!!. One minute I was enjoying the flow of the story; the next minute I was frustrated, angry, and emotional. All the emotions erupted out of me at once. I felt so much for Rin. She fought so hard and strong. She dealt with racism, colorism, bullying, and abuse from her foster parent. Rin felt out of place among her peers. They made her feel like she didn’t belong. With all that being said, Rin was not good or bad; it’s war, after all.

Overall, I loved the story. I especially enjoyed learning about the history of the Chinese war in certain aspects. The story kept it fiction. I did not know who to trust in this book; I didn’t even trust the gods themself.

I also loved the writtening in the book; it was so beautiful writing.

Okay, with that being said, this is not an enemies-to-lovers story. Forget everything that TikTok has told you about this series. This is not a love story. This is war, and it’s very disturbing. Be careful of chapter 21. That one thing they weren’t joking about.