The Poppy War

This book is hard. Don't read it if you want some fun fantasy because it's very much so not that. I knew that going in because I read Wikipedia article (and I read Babel lol), but I still didn't expect it to be this heavy immediately.

The fact that the events in the book are based on things that actually happened is disheartening. Not because of the book, but because it's horrifying that people could commit such atrocities--n fact, they still do and it's never less horrifying.

Rin is a fool of a girl and the world is cruel. I'm frusrated and upset. I'm marveling at the nuance R.F. Kuang manages to convey. It's complicated.

Read up on Nanjing, read up on Unit 731. I don't think you can properly see this novel for what it is if you don't.

I kind of liked this (as in I would have given it 3 or 4 stars), then I read the bad reviews on goodreads and... (rest of review in reply because I'm going to need a spoiler warning)

I saw lots of enthusiasm for The Poppy War from other book reviewers and bloggers over the past few years since its publication so put it on my wishlist, but I didn't make any further efforts towards reading this book until it was suggested for February's Readalong and I realised it is actually a perfect My WorldReads fit. I learned that The Poppy War series, while being an imaginative fantasy adventure tale, is also strongly reflective of China's twentieth century history. While I am not knowledgeable enough on that topic to spot all the references, I could recognise significant events such as the Opium Wars themselves of course and also the horrors of Nanking which is retold here in a city called Golyn Niis.

From the early chapters where young Rin is mercilessly driving herself to achieve and then succeed in an education to which many people feel she is not entitled, I could understand that The Poppy War was not going to be a light tale, but that didn't prepare me for the grim darkness that Kuang takes us to. This is not a novel for the faint-hearted, especially when considering that its most gruesome scenes aren't fantasy at all. That said, I found Rin's story to be a compelling read which has left me eager to plunge into the sequel.

Rin herself is brilliantly complex and, frequently, not someone with whom I could easily sympathise, even though I could always understand why she makes certain choices. Kuang is skilled at making her protagonists utterly believable while giving them jaw-dropping supernatural abilities and incorporating mythological aspects. This combination allowed me to completely suspend my disbelief while I was breathlessly immersed in Rin's reality.

I'm delighted to have finally started to experience The Poppy War series and hope that I won't wait so long before starting on the second novel!

I enjoyed this book very much, both for its approach to fantasy through Chinese (rather than European) culture and for its basis in real-world history. The last third of this book is filled with the graphic horrors of fascists at war, so I wouldn't recommend this for young readers. (Thinking of my niece, who loves to read.) I particularly like the end of the book, because in the end our hero commits an act of fascist evil herself, and we are forced to think about things like the nature of justice, the cost of vengeance, and the dangers of power. Looking forward to jumping into The Dragon Republic!