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abbie_ 's review for:
The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
I absolutely INHALED The Poppy War over two very intense days one weekend and holy moly macaroni - even when this book was literally TURNING MY STOMACH with the brutality, I could not put it down! Such brilliant world-building, characters, style - everything except the slightly heavy strategic military detail in a few sections was nothing short of excellent!
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If you think the violence in this book might be too much for you, that’s fine, but I urge you to go and read Kuang’s blog post ‘on the necessity of brutality’ to understand why she she lays it out so starkly in her book. The Poppy War is based around the sickening Rape of Nanjing, a real life even that is so often glossed over in the history books or just plain ignored or even DENIED. As Kuang points out in her blog post, it’s necessary to depict rape, sexual assault, torture, massacre, genocide, because the West simply still does not care enough about these things, and not forgotten about. I’m ashamed to admit that I hadn’t heard of the Rape of Nanjing and when I went and read about it afterwards I felt sick to my core. You may think this doesn’t make for a very pleasant book to read, and it’s fine if you don’t want to, but shit is it important.
.
But it is of course, a fantasy novel. Kuang weaves shamanism into the historical side of the narrative to create a truly powerful story. Our protagonist Rin beats all odds through sheer force of will and determination to be accepted into the most elite military academy in Nikan, and when she gets there she must fight against all the prejudices that come with being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the South.
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I LOVE the development that Rin goes through, I love that she’s not clearly in the right or in the wrong as Kuang dissects the horrors and futility of war, the effect that power has on people, the devastating psychological effects of everything that comes with being used as a weapon... honestly I felt wrung out by the last page of this book, it’s exhausting but incredible.
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EAGERLY awaiting the sequel which is out in August!
.
If you think the violence in this book might be too much for you, that’s fine, but I urge you to go and read Kuang’s blog post ‘on the necessity of brutality’ to understand why she she lays it out so starkly in her book. The Poppy War is based around the sickening Rape of Nanjing, a real life even that is so often glossed over in the history books or just plain ignored or even DENIED. As Kuang points out in her blog post, it’s necessary to depict rape, sexual assault, torture, massacre, genocide, because the West simply still does not care enough about these things, and not forgotten about. I’m ashamed to admit that I hadn’t heard of the Rape of Nanjing and when I went and read about it afterwards I felt sick to my core. You may think this doesn’t make for a very pleasant book to read, and it’s fine if you don’t want to, but shit is it important.
.
But it is of course, a fantasy novel. Kuang weaves shamanism into the historical side of the narrative to create a truly powerful story. Our protagonist Rin beats all odds through sheer force of will and determination to be accepted into the most elite military academy in Nikan, and when she gets there she must fight against all the prejudices that come with being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the South.
.
I LOVE the development that Rin goes through, I love that she’s not clearly in the right or in the wrong as Kuang dissects the horrors and futility of war, the effect that power has on people, the devastating psychological effects of everything that comes with being used as a weapon... honestly I felt wrung out by the last page of this book, it’s exhausting but incredible.
.
EAGERLY awaiting the sequel which is out in August!