Look, Kuang, I just want to talk. I want to understand why you made me love Rin, Kitay, Nezha, Venka, all of them, just to do THAT. Like, what the fuck?

I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I really do NOT want to spoil this for anyone (trust me, it's better if you go in expecting nothing but concentrated PAIN). This book was good, this series was good, and I don't think I'll ever read a series that better looks at war, oppression, and colonization from so many angles. This series has overall been one of the best political fantasy series I've ever read, and this final book only cements that.

Kuang pulls no punches with this one (not like she did with The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic, to be fair). She writes war in such a brutally honest way that each line just hurts, each new twist and turn and development just hurts more and more. War isn't pretty, from any angle, and this book reminds us of that. It also is not just about winning or losing a war, but about the consequences of actions taken within them, and touches on pandemics, famine, and power vacuums that follow in the wake of years of fighting.

On top of all the horrors, though, is a writing that's so hauntingly beautiful that makes reading about endless war and atrocities bearable. The Poppy War has been a series that, from the start, has been insanely well written, and the finale is only more so. Kuang has only grown with her story, and I'd honestly read anything she writes even if I care fuck all for the content. She writes war in such a way that doesn't make it beautiful or suddenly worthy, but shows it in all its brutality and pain that it makes you ache. She shows you the truth of the world (Nikara, but also in a sense, our own), but does so in a way that's enjoyable as well as painful.

I don't think I'll ever get over this series. Kuang finished this series in such a way that made it impossible to, even if I wanted to try. This book is dark, painful, yet fantastic, and is overall a work of art. The Burning God remains consistent with the rest of the series as well, and you can make of that vague statement what you will. I loved this series, and I can't wait to hold a physical of this book come November, and see how everyone else reacts to the end of this fantastic series.