The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang REVIEW

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Started: 28/02/19

Finished: 14/03/19

Spoilers: Yes.

Despite what you may read here, I did enjoy this book and am interested in the sequel, but I won’t be dying if I don’t read it immediately.

Characters Well, they’re numerous. I’m all down for a lot of exciting characters . . if they’re exciting. There were so many characters throughout and most of the time I couldn’t remember who was who because I could barely differentiate one from another. Only a couple really had their own ‘voice’. Rin, Altan and Jiang are the only stand out characters for me because they were the only characters that had an iota of development and personality.

Qara, Chaghan, Baji, Nezha, Kitay; these characters were interchangeable to me and other than their powers - which we barely see, btw - there’s nothing unique about them.

P.S. Is it me, or didn't Altan tell Rin that Nazha was a Shaman at one point because of how quickly he healed? Like, that did happen right? Are we not going to talk about that? Just going to sweep that under the rug? Oh, okay.

For the most part, I found Rin whiny and annoying, until she got super powerful at the end, then I had a new found interest in her. Instead of being a typical heroine ‘burdened with great power she doesn’t want’, she actually instead became ambitious, greedy and power-hunger. There was a moment in the last chapter where we even crossed into grey territory where it felt like she was willingly becoming the villain to save her country. I enjoy these grey patches in books a lot, where harsh and brutal characters do bad things for the sake of good because everyone else is too busy being moral and noble. Characters like these get my vote, and I really hope we see more of this cold, brutal version of Rin.

Plot This was a good book and 3.5 isn’t a bad rating, I just didn’t think this book was quite as excellent and original as everyone is making out. When you get to the crux of the plot, it was actually very formulaic and often reminded me of a lot of other books, mainly The Name of the Wind.

Let’s dissect this plot for a minute. A seemingly average girl with little prospects in her current life. A rather grim fate awaits her in the form of an arranged marriage unless she can pass the super hard, elite test for a prestige academy at the capital that trains soldiers. Naturally, she passes with the highest score in the entire fucking village, cause what kind of story would this be if she was only average or - god forbid - if she failed entirely.

So she goes to the fancy school and causes ructions being the only peasant girl among noble children, and especially ruffles the feathers of the fighting master, who kicks her out his class. But fear not, because her specialness attracts the attention of the only teacher considered by all to be the ‘weird, quirky’ one who never takes on any students because all are beneath him.

Of course he trains her and teaches her everything, including magic, and of course she’s the ‘special one’ who discovers previously untapped powers and learns to become a powerful Shaman.

Sound familiar? It should. This is the basic premise to many, many fantasy books. Luckily, this borderline YA plot-line only constitutes about half of the book (maybe a little more.) The second half of the book is decidedly better, but it isn’t until, say, the final quarter of the book that shit gets real.

During this book’s release, back when everyone was reading it at once and raving about it, there was one recurring observation: the book was dark. Literally everyone commented on how dark the book was. Now, I’ve read some dark books - some really grim, uncomfortable shit - so I was totally down for a dark book. It wasn’t until that aforementioned final quarter that things got dark. So here is how I would categorise each section if we were to split it into 4 equal parts.

Parts 1 & 2: YA Fantasy - predictable. Part 3: Adult Fantasy - basic violence and gore. Part 4: Grimdark - graphic violence and gore.

I know it sounds like I’m moaning (and I am, but only a little), but the hype for this book, and more specifically, how dark it was supposed to be, was high. As someone who’s read a lot of Grimdark, a couple of graphic descriptions of the destruction and spoils of war does not a Grimdark make. Perhaps the people who read this and said it was very dark, aren’t used to reading violent books.

That being said, I was interested enough in what was happening to finish it. It’s just a shame that it ended right when it felt like it was getting good. I had the feeling of wading through fluffy YA treacle in order to get to the juicy adult bits. And right when I had it, it was snatched away from me.

It felt like the author was slowly easing us into the violence. No, please, just throw us in the deep end, we can handle it; and if you can’t, don’t read it. I do, however, have higher hopes for the sequel as we’ve now done our time in the baby pool.

Setting Let’s be real. I’m here for the setting. I really loved the setting. It was definitely the best part for me. I haven’t read any Chinese-inspired fantasy before, but having read this book, I now have a new appreciation for its culture and find it very fascinating. I’d very much like to read more fantasy books based in an Asian inspired setting.

The map in the front of the book was very helpful as a lot of different places are mentioned. I liked how the war wasn’t fixed in one place but was happening in different cities across the country. It gave the feeling that the world was continuing and struggling around the characters, even if they weren’t directly involved or affected.

The descriptions of Sinegard when Rin first went to the academy were rich and vivid and I could easily imagine this world in my head. When it came to developing the world, no corners were cut and no stone was left unturned. It was done fantastically well and I really enjoyed exploring this world, it’s history and its culture.

Writing Style The writing was also very good. I have nothing to critique on that, no complaints. The author has fantastic flow and pacing and knows how to keep the story moving.

I’m not a fan of ‘training’ sequences - there’s a reason why these are always montages in films; they’re boring - but the author did a very good job of making each training sequence different from the last, as well as not dragging it out for chapter after chapter. This way it didn’t feel so much like watching the characters train as just watching the story progress. It helps a lot that the scenes following all the training chapters are ones of war and brutality. It bursts the proverbial bubble the students are in. The reader sits in this bubble of ignorance too, as the characters discuss the war as if it’s a far off thing that won’t affect them.

Because that’s the thing, isn’t it? I think that’s how we all feel about war. It’s terrible, but it’s not something that affects us . . . until it does of course. The author did an excellent job of conveying this. Whether it was intentional or not, this is how I perceived this change in pace and reading how these soft, comfortable students adapt during a time of war was the most interesting part to read.

Hold the phone. I do have one critique after all. I’ll just leave this here . . .

“Rin let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.” *Eye-roll.

Final Impression Good, but not for me personally as good as everyone’s been saying. I’ll certainly be reading the sequel, but sometimes hype can make a great book merely a good one.