Rin, a war-orphan with bleak prospects, takes a test to enter the Empire's most elite military school. Everyone is shocked when Rin aces the test, but if she thinks her time at Sinegard will be easy she is very much mistaken.
Targeted because of the colour of her skin and for being from the South, Rin has to work hard to work her way to the top to ensure that she makes it to the second year.
Then Rin discovers shamanism and that she has a deadly power.
With Rin's nation, the Nikara Empire, and the Federation of Mugen on the the brink of a third Poppy War, Rin will have to ask herself how far she will go to protect her homeland.

I'm not sure what I expected going into The Poppy War, but I don't think it was this.
I have mixed feelings about Rin. On the one hand, I liked how determined she was. She worked hard to get to where she wanted. On the other hand, some of her decisions bothered me but I could kind of see where she was coming from.
I really liked Kitay and Jiang was an intriguing character.
The plot was interesting - especially the shaman aspects and the bits about the gods - but I wasn't gripped.
I expected more of the book to be about Rin's time at the military school.
There are some very gruesome things that happen, so if you've got a weak stomach you might want to give this a miss.
The writing style was easy to follow.
I have mixed feelings about The Poppy War but I enjoyed it overall.
I'm not sure if I will read the sequel or not.

Overall this was an enjoyable, unique read.

So this is yet another very delayed review from #readtheworldathon - this time for the 'Celebrate WOC' square. I'd owned this for ages, having actually received it as an ARC but I forgot all about it until suddenly I started seeing hype for it everywhere and knew I had to read it.

This book can be split into several parts and so just when you think you know what's going on, things take an unexpected turn and suddenly it's a completely different novel. I adored this book for a multitude of reasons and it's hard to narrow it down.

Firstly, this book is incredibly heavily inspired by Chinese history and culture which makes the world so rich and interesting. Some of the events are inspired by real events (I won't say what because of spoilers, but suffice to say that a lot of the "bad" things that happen are based on real events) but as well as big things like that, it was also nice spotting the much smaller references. For example, the Keju is clearly inspired by the Gaokao and then there are throwaway remarks such as warning Rin to be careful of 'gutter oil'. There's probably way more references that also completely flew over my head due to my lack of in-depth knowledge about China and I definitely think I'm going to want to read this again to try and spot as many as I can.

The novel starts off with Rin at her academy and I'm a huge fan of novels that involve studying (I love school) so the setting appealed to me straight away. We don't stay at the school for the entire novel, but the other settings are just as interesting. The characters are all very interesting too and it's really rewarding to watch Rin evolve as a person throughout the novel.

There's a lot I could say about this book, but I'm aware of the levels of hype surrounding it and I want to avoid saying too much because of potential spoilers. All I'll say is that I highly, highly recommend it and have been recommending it to a lot of people. Indeed, the only people I wouldn't recommend this to are those that don't enjoy books with a lot of violence.

As the cliché goes, "With great power comes with great responsibility."

The Poppy War is a coming of age story that will make you crave for more fantasy story about mystical arts and shamanism. At first, you will be intimidated as the book is gigantic with its 544 pages but once you have started reading, all you wanna do is finish it. With this, you'll likely agree with the hyped that is going on with the book.

The story has a similarity with Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. Unlikely with GoT it doesn't have dragons, but it has lots of PG 18 scenes like gruesome, drugs, rape, brutality and misogyny and the likes. It also tackles the existence of Gods, magic, and shamanism. All in all, you should prepare to a roller coaster ride.

Regards with the writing, the writing is unique. Unique in a way that you can't predict what will likely to happen. It also let you imagine the things that are happening in the story. It takes you to experience, feel the emotion that the characters are portraying. Once you are reading it, it makes the reader go to the world where he/she doesn't want to stop reading but continue finishing the book.

The characters are well-developed where you can relate to each of them. When a new character is being introduced, the reader find themselves to attached and listen to another story that will enable them to understand more of what the story is all about.

To wrap it all, the poppy war is a story that everyone should read. It is the kind of story that will teach you what is love, friendship, family, finding and accepting who you are. And lastly, how having a great power comes with a responsibility on your shoulder and what the consequences it has to give you in owning them.

I got The Poppy War from Netgalley a while back, but I've loved it so much I since decided to buy it for my girlfriend as an audiobook.

I couldn't put this down. This was one of those, 'I will stay up until the early morning hours if necessary' books.

Just look at the cover. It's gorgeous. The themes in this book, however, less gorgeous. Let me begin this review with a warning. I don't often do trigger warnings, but the beginning of this book may as well be YA, so I feel the need to point out: this story is dark, awful, dreadful, terrifying, horrific, etc. There are war themes, self-harm, children dying, genocide, abuse, animal cruelty, torture and off-screen rape.

The Poppy War is told in three parts. The first part starts out fairly fluffy with Rin passing an exam (against all odds, of course) to join a prestigious military academy where she must study hard or lose her place. We've seen that part many times, usually in YA, and it follows more or less the expected tropes. However, Kuang writes in a very pleasing way, and the pacing swiftly pulls you along and before you know it you start reading the third part.

Until that third part, I enjoyed myself, a lot. But I didn't get what all the fuss is about. The third part is what turns this debut from a great read into an amazing read.

Why not five stars? Because ultimately, a lot of the book is fairly predictable, and I did not enjoy the ending. It's not a bad ending, but Rin develops in ways that made me want to close the book to stop it from happening (that's how it works isn't it? you close the book and just like that, you stop the events!) and it left me unsettled.

The world is inspired by Chinese history, and the world building is fascinating and different. (I must admit I don't know much about Chinese history.) Rin is a great protagonist, well developed and fleshed out. Some of the side characters felt a bit generic at times, but it didn't distract from the story. Simply because everything flowed at such a quick pace, and it just worked.

I recommend this to fans of fantasy who like grimdark worlds, and I think especially Mark Lawrence fans who love his Red Sister / Book of the Ancestor trilogy will enjoy this one.

Okay I LOVED the poppy war. The action scenes were well written out, the characters were fleshed out and i loved the mythology. This is quite a heavy book because of the war crimes, the discrimination and so many other things , i had to take several breaks while reading it so as not to get overwhelmed. I love Rin, she goes through a lot and makes a lot of bad decisions, she is headstrong yet vulnerable. I like how the gods were portrayed and the use of drugs to get to them. So many things happen in this book but it never gets messy, you follow it well all through till the end. I seriously cant wait for the sequel. This is the best military adult fantasy I've read in a while and OMG where has this book been all my life.
Rating: 4.5 stars

4.5 stars

A wonderful Asian influenced epic fantasy debut.

There are 3 parts to this book and the tone of each of the three parts is rather different. Part one, we have a coming of age tale of a young talented peasant girl with a wonderful opportunity to make something of her life. It is fairly lighthearted, particularly with the hi-jinks of Jiang. In part 2 our main character is a little older and the fantasy elements are beginning to show. Things are beginning to get a little more serious. Part 3, the story becomes incredibly dark. Actually, one of the darkest grimmest scenes I have ever read occur in this book (and I'm a big horror fan!).

I found the pacing to be a little odd. In general the story reads at a stead speed but then there are sudden jumps. We have an army approaching and then suddenly they are fighting at the gates with the events in between totally skipped. I wasn't sure if maybe sections were edited out to shorten the story a little?

The characters were enjoyable and varied. A few were a bit cookie-cutter - the mean girl, the loyal underdog friend, the "enemy". Though there weren't any characters that I didn't like.

One of the main themes of the story is revenge. This is a common theme in many books and usually the moral is that revenge is wrong and the main character learns this just in time to take the higher road. This is not one of those stories.

Overall, an excellent story from a very promising author.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

In short:

An interesting and imaginative debut that unfortunately has its longueurs and inconsistencies.

In long:

Thank to Netgalley, R. F. Kuang, and HarperVoyager for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Poppy War is an intruiging fantasy debut by R. F. Kuang and the first book of a series. The fantasy novel is a war novel in the first place. Inspired by modern Chinese history, especially the Second Sino-Janapse War, the book follows Rin, a war orphan who manages through hard work to attend the famous military school Sinegard.

The first part of the book focuses on Rin’s time at school, where she learns everything about military tactics, fighting, and shamanism—and that life is still hard and unfair. Although she achieved her dream of attending the elite school, she is not accepted by all her teachers and peers. She remains the same outsider she was at home; too dark-skinned, too poor, and too ambitious to be taken seriously. I enjoyed the first part immensly because Rin is a hard-working, likeable character who fights for her dreams. Furthermore, the school setting is interesting and the teachers and peers are well-developed.

The second part, in contrast, focuses on war. It is bloody and violent. And that’s totally fine with me, because war is bloody and violent. However, Rin, the independant and strong-minded character from the first part, changes. It is as if both parts do not really belong together. She becomes dependant and insecure; and even the tone of the novel itself changes as it turns from an inventive and intruiging story into a war report. I didn’t enjoy this development very much and all Rin’s whining made the second part far less enjoyable.

All in all, it is an interesting debut, but the book has its longueurs and, I think, you have to be really into military stuff to be captivated the whole time.

This book was a very strange read for me. First of all, I don't often go for fantasy stories this big. I'm more into smaller books or smaller books that belong to a bigger series. I read people saying that this book should have been two books and that would have worked better, but I'm not so sure it would have. It is a story from start to finish and I thought it would end at a point, where there is nothing left to ask, but it def sets up a series.

I think this story deserves a series. The world building that happened int his book is extreme. It's such a rich world, I could imagine it perfectly and I think the setting is extremely unique. The characters felt a bit flat at time, but I still felt like every one of them had a distinguished personality and their motivations were clear.

My only issue with this book, and this issue is a very personal one, is that it was too long and felt stretched at times. It was hard for me to read more than one chapter at once cause everything was very heavy and dark (especially in the later chapters) and also cause it took so long for the story to get started. When I realised I was almost 200 pages into the story and still nothing had really happened, I did get a bit frustrated. But as I said, this is me personally. A word like this needs time to be set up and that can't happen in 50 to 100 pages.

Overall I think this is a truly mind-blowing debut novel and I'm really interested to see where this series and especially the author goes in the future since there was loads of promise in this story. I also really loved the historical references and I think a lot of research must have gone into this story so that is impressive.

Listen to the hype. The hype does not lie.

Rin is an impoverished orphan from the outer-edges of her realm. There is nothing particularly exemplary about her as an individual and nothing particularly note-worthy about her life in general, as sorrowful as her circumstances might be. But all that is about to change.

Eager for an interruption to her mundane existence and desperate for an alteration to her future fate, that would see her wed to the highest bidder, she, through sheer strength of will and determination alone, manages to enrol herself at the kingdom's leading military academy - Sinegrad. But, as Rin is about to find out, this refuge of her dreams is only a further test of her endurance and the true struggles of the real-world are only just beginning.

My interest for this book stemmed from the early rave reviews I had seen for it, that all featured words such as 'magical boarding school', 'dark and disturbing', and 'Chinese-inspired fantasy'. All three are buzzwords for me and I begun this with the early anticipation of finding a new firm favourite - which I did!

Whilst the early portions of this book centred around the previously-mentioned academy setting, the latter parts focused on the war that were always on the peripheries of the former. As the book progressed, Kuang continued to open up the borders of the previously limited view of the world, and the reader and Rin are invited to traverse and explore both the rocky geographical and political terrain. And it is through young Rin's experiences of the war that is raging and ravaging her kingdom that the true power of this book shone through.

This excellently and sensitively explored the horrors and emotions of war whilst still delivering the blood-shed and gore that was anticipated. I felt every death on the battlefield and never once did the author take the life of her fictional creations without also delivering the reader an emotional punch alongside it. Never before have I truly felt myself so moved by the swift death of an enemy or the lingering agony of an innocent. This was a book painful to read on times, which sometimes bordered on the triggering, but all brutality were a necessary part of telling such a powerful fantasy story and delivering such a vivid account of a war-ravaged country.

The landscape was described in evocative detail and the characters that wandered its plains were given as much life whether their presence was fleeting or long-lasting. The military focus and the politics, that were behind every swing of the soldier's swords, provided a continually compelling plot that interwove the action-dominated scenes and made all parts of this of equal interest to the reader. And it was all of this combined that ensured this to be a well-rounded story whose like is very far and few between and one I am already eager to re-explore.

The Poppy War is brutal. The book starts out as a story of a young woman who takes an exam in her impoverished village, and gains access to a prestigious school where wealthy and intelligent people are trained to be warriors for the Emperor.
What started out to be a typical/light story about Rin getting into the Academy and dealing with bullying and typical child encounters, turns into a ruthless genocidal war. The shift in the tone of this book is startling, and I loved every page. Rin is a complex and well-developed character. She makes mistakes, she struggles in a way that makes when she does succeed satisfying.
The fantastical aspect of the book is gradually introduced, which I appreciated. Certain people are able to gain access to the gods by meditating and using poppy seeds. Once you are able to access the gods, you act as a vessel to the god’s powers. Rin gains access to the fire goddess, who is one of the most powerful and destructive gods.
The main focus of the book; however, isn’t about the gods or power, but about the cruel and brutal things that occur in a genocidal war. Rape, child slaughter, and intense instances of violence make this book an intensely dark read.
Overall, this book is a unique and refreshing take on fantasy. I loved this book and cannot wait for the next one.

. Excellent character portrayal and world building. The military action is particularly well done. I have to say it is somewhat brutal and doesn’t shy away from the brutalities of war.
The story centres around the 16 year old Fang Runin mostly known as Rin. An excellent portrayal of a feisty young female who refuses to be married off to some old merchant by her foster parents. Against all odds and taking risks she manages to gain a place at the military academy of Sinegard. Her ignominious background means that she has to literally fight to keep her place as most of her peers think she is beneath them and she has no right to be there. The Poppy Wars appears to be a thing of the past but war soon rears it’s ugly head again.
Opium runs rife in the Nikaran Empire and is a constant reminder of the conflict with their enemy the Federation of Mugen who were responsible for the introduction of opium use. Rin learns that opium seeds and other narcotics can be used to access the gods and channel their power through shamanic practices. Her friends are few and far between and there is praise for the interaction between the different characters. Her tutor Is the somewhat eccentric and often comical and frustrating Jiang who is more than what he appears to be, but seems very unwilling to enlighten her as to her origins or the knowledge she feels she needs.
What begins as a story of a girl born into poverty with no idea of where she came from turns into a story of a thirst for the power of the gods, the brutality of war and revenge. I couldn’t put this down, excellent read, eagerly looking forward to the sequel. Would definitely recommend this.

The Poppy War by R F Kuang (review copy from Harper Voyager) is a stunning and gut-wrenching debut. Kuang mixes up real historical events (such as the Rape of Nanjing) with bigotry and violence to tell a complex story of betrayal and revenge.

The novel opens as Fang Runin (Rin) - a war orphan - is studying for the entrance exam to earn a scholarship place at Sinegard, the foremost military academy in Nikara. Education is Rin's escape from her abusive foster parents and the prospect of an unwanted marriage. It offers her the chance of independence and a career. Successful, she finds herself one of a group of new students at Sinegard. But her education is interrupted when the always strained relations with neighbouring country Mugen erupt into war. Mugen and Nikara have a history of tit-for-tat conflict, with peace always uneasy and never lasting long. Both countries have long memories and lists of the war crimes committed by the other.

The early parts of The Poppy War have the feel of Pat Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind - student from the wrong side of the tracks enrols in school, makes enemies among the students and tutors, but catches the attention of the most eccentric and elusive of the school's tutors, the Lore tutor Jiang. Rin learns that the stories of her childhood about gods and men able to summon them and their magic have truth in them. Under Jiang's supervision she begins to learn how to access her spiritual side and the Pantheon of the gods. This is in sharp contrast to the rest of her training on military medicine, strategy and history.

The latter parts of the book are pure military fantasy, with shades of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. Rin's loyalty to her command structure and her patriotism to the Empress and Nikara is tested to the limits as the novel progresses. This is a novel that asks us to choose between conflicting loyalties at every turn.

The Poppy War is strong on the horrors of war (particularly the sequence based on the Rape of Nanjing, where the invading Japanese army massacred the civilian population of the city) and the camaraderie between unit members. It draws heavily on the contested history between China and Japan, particularly the Second Sino-Japanese War. (Kuang's academic background is in this period of history.) The military incidents in the book are modelled on that war, right down to the use of chemical and biological weapons.

This is a novel with a fantastic level of class-consciousness and awareness of inequality and prejudice. Although the national examinations are supposed to be meritocratic, they inevitably favour the rich and privileged who can afford the classical education tested for. Sinegard is the only college that offers a full scholarship - for all the others the student's family must meet the costs of their education. So, while superficially meritocratic, this education system acts as a tool to reinforce and embed the privilege and stratification in Nikara society. Although Rin's fellow Sinegard student Altan Trengsin, the last of the Speerlies (a nation of fearsome warriors with the reputation of being able to summon fire, who were wiped out in a brutal act of genocide in the last war), is idolised for his fighting skills, he is treated as a curiosity and freak: mocked for his dark skin and the target of all the other students.

Rin is the inevitable product of this society. Abused and exploited as a child and the victim of racist and classist bullying at Sinegard, she is used to mistreatment. That for her is normal. She blackmails her childhood tutor to help her prepare for the exam. She gets through her studying by self-harming. Anger at her mistreatment and the fragility of her life and future are what keep her going and focused on her education. When she does encounter kindness, from Jiang, she doesn't quite know how to respond to it. Ironically she ends up most comfortable in the strict hierarchy of the Militia, where she can rail against orders and authority, but within the familiar context of abusive and controlling power structures.

To that extent it is no wonder that The Poppy War ends where it does. This is a book about what happens when you dehumanise people and push them to their limits of pain and endurance. That this is a story rooted in real history makes this all the more chilling. Anger and the desire for revenge are powerful motives, but they are inherently destructive ones. Almost inevitably, the abuse victim lashes out in revenge, but the price is a terrible one.

Goodreads rating: 5*

<i>The Poppy War</i> is the kind of book that I feel (and hope) will take 2018 by storm. It's a brilliant example of an inversion of tropes that manages to lull you into a false sense of security with its focus on the familiar before throwing you right into the midst of a war. It's a book that starts by feeling like a historical fiction novel (with mentions of legends and gods and fire shamans, but all within the context of being a myth, something to scare the children) and then it turns into something so dark, so gritty and so violent, I had to recover from the whiplash. And I absolutely <i>loved</i> it, because it's fierce and it's real and it covers an area and a time in our own history that I personally have never seen before in fantasy: the Opium Wars of China and the conflict with Japan (up to and including the Rape of Nanking).

The story starts off with Rin, a war orphan who lives with an abusive family peddling the highly illegal drug opium, and her attempt at escaping the futures her guardians envision for her: one where she is married off to further their illegal activities. So through sheer grit and determination (and not without quite literal pain), she studies for the Keju, the highly prestigious exam that would send her to Sinegard Academy and a freedom she daren't dream of. But, as it transpires, life at the Academy isn't quite what Rin expected it to be and soon, she learns the true purpose of the school: to prepare you for war.

So far so Harry Potter clone, right? I admit that I sincerely appreciated where the book went, but to begin with, I wasn't exactly blown away. The worldbuilding is top notch (and Kuang continues this throughout the novel, minor details that expand her world and characters, building a picture of a setting that feels lived in, with centuries of history and mythology behind it. The Sinegard chapters read like a darker Harry Potter, until you encounter the first sign this may not be going quite where you think it is: <spoiler>when Rin decides to sterilise herself rather than go through periods</spoiler>, a moment so grim and so brutal that showed me we weren't (and never had been) in Hogwarts anymore.

Then, about halfway through the book, as the action ramps up, the stakes get even higher and Rin is forced to face some harsh truths about her country's history, its actions in the war and the deeper truth of her own nature (not to mention that when the fantasy bits come in, everything is thrown off kilter in the most spectacular way). The ending is so amazingly over the top, so brutal, so unbelievable that I was left wanting more (and I don't know how I could possibly deal with this if this were actually a standalone novel) and I desperately want to know more about what's going to happen next. To Rin, to her world, to her friends and companions, because if we really are looking at a fantasy reimagining of China, some really horrific things are about to hit us (even <i>more</i> horrific than what we've experienced so far).

But <i>The Poppy War</i> does so much more than just explore the horrors of war; it tackles racism (and classism), it tackles magic, it tackles <i>genocide</i> in ways that are new and refreshing. It's a brilliantly written work of fiction, able to go from the mundane interactions over dinner to visceral scenes of brutality and death. It completely takes the tropes we have come to accept from a fantasy novel and flips them on its head. And it asks questions about humanity, about war and its repercussions, about the lengths to which regimes go in order to protect themselves from change (as well as related questions about how change should be enacted - how brutal should the revolution be, and in Rin's shoes, what would your choices look like?).

I loved this book and if Kuang can keep up the good work, I can easily see myself putting this in my top 10 series. It does so many things so well and all I can hope for is that others also notice this and ensure the hype trains keeps on chugging.

Rin is only sixteen when she passes the Keju, the Empire-wide test to find the best and brightest, and enters the Academy to escape an arranged marriage and finally prove herself worthy. But passing the test and training at the academy, Rin learns, are two completely opposite things. Once she’s there, she instantly targeted for her skin, her poverty and her gender. A war orphan from the Rooster Province shouldn’t last a day in the Academy. While a war grows between the Empire and the Federation of Mugen, Rin’s powers may be the only thing that can save her people. Until she learns that she holds a power that could cost her the price of her own humanity.

I have no doubt that this book will top most end of year lists. Believe the hype. It’s truly worth it.

Check the content warnings at the end because The Poppy War is not a simple read. It’s fast paced, bloody and detailed with its scenes of violence. Fang ‘Rin’ Runin is an ambitious war orphan who blackmails her own way into the Keju examination and is forced to contend with students whose privilege put their experience years before her own. Her drive to do better and take a reign on her life is powerful and fantastic to read.

The cast of characters we interact with are extremely diverse and intricately detailed with complex and unique characterisations. You hate them in one page but slowly sympathise in the next. Their choices are dangerous but realistic. The story is uncomfortable but so real to read.

There’s a lot of scenes that are, I warn, very, very dark. Horrifically violent that felt physically ill to read at multiple points. If you’ve looked into the book world, The Poppy War is everywhere. And rightfully so. But take note before you jump into this book.

The scale and depth of The Poppy War makes this book nothing short of a masterpiece. The strong world-building with its detailed and crafted characters as they try to survive this brutal and devastating world.

I’m excited to see where it will from here and what we’ll expect to see in future novels. Watch out for this series. It’s here to stay.

This book blew me away. I fell in love with the characters, and it kept me captivated through out. It’s brutal and hard to read, but then can be so inspirational at other points in the story. I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. For sure my fave book I’ve read in 2018

So this one grabbed my attention from the start. Initially, it sounds like an Asian Hogwarts, a story of 'girl outsider makes good', a rousing tale of success against challenge.

And to begin, it does feel a little like that. The first half of the story is nothing particularly new. Told mainly in the first-person, it is that of Fang Runin (Rin), a young orphan working as a slave for a gangster family in the rural backward Southern province of Tikany. By working all of her spare time, she manages to pass the prestigious entrance exams to the countries elite military academy in Sinegard.

There she struggles against all the challenges that social class, and her classmates, set her against.

What the book does in the second half of the novel, after the initial set up, is send Rin down a path that leads her to new experiences and ideas – a world of Lore, where, under the guidance of Jiang, a maverick mentor, she finds that taking poppy seeds opens her up to a realm of Gods left pretty much unnoticed for centuries. This leads her to a greater destiny….

At first glance. it feels that the book could be marketed as a YA book. There are reasons for this - the author is in her twenties, the lead character is a teenager, and there’s a lot about being at school and the difficulties of passing exams. I’m not entirely sure myself, for reasons that I will explain later, but with such a synopsis, I can see why teenage readers will find it attractive. It is full of things that many teenagers will not have limited knowledge or experience of – love, drugs, independence, relationships, for example – and by writing about such matters creates a glimpse into a possible future, and how some may choose to live their lives.

And rather like a difficult teenager, the first part of the book feels like it sits at that point between childhood and adulthood. There’s mention of sex (but nothing too explicit), and heartfelt swearing (the f-word and others), and all those issues of being at school and whilst at school – friends, enemies, relationships, bullying, physical changes, difficult teachers, scary adults, drugs – all in an Asian setting.

This may sound attractive – and there’s a lot to like in this first part of the book,admittedly -  but it’s not without its issues. Like a typical teen (if there is such a thing), for me the beginning of the book lurched from one emotion to another. From the start The Poppy War is very much an ‘all or nothing’ kind of book – there are no half-measures. Our heroine is not just good, she is the BEST - the top of the class in her small province, and elsewhere. As the book progresses, this full-on attitude continues. Urban life is not just scary, we have to have Rin’s arrival in Sinegard highlighted by the killing of a child by a carriage in the streets, killed because it is easier to do so than allow the child a potential disability claim in the future, to show the reader how BAD it is. (Worse mutilations and killings happen later in the book, partly for the same reason.) This extremism is continued in the characterisation - we don’t just love our heroes – we LOVE them, we don’t just hate our enemies, we HATE them, and so on.

My fear at the beginning was that this would be a book that simplifies viewpoints to the point of being bipolar, with little subtlety, few shades of grey.

Pleasingly, though the book moves away from this quite quickly. The second half of the book settles things down a little and moves the plot away from the predictable. The plot steps up a gear as Rin finds that she is involved in a war. When the Mugan Federation invades Nikara, Sinegard is under siege and the academy closed. Rin finds herself using her new-found skills to defend the city of Khurdalain as a Cike, one of the super-elite ninja warriors (‘the freak squad’) trained to do the Empress’s bidding. Her friend and fellow student, Altan, is her commander and one of the few survivors from the island of Speer, which was wiped out in the last Poppy War. His command of the Cike leads to Rin discovering about her past and her future, developing abilities she didn’t know she could have, and becoming a shamanistic conduit between the Pantheon of Gods and humans.

The book is also a story with its parallels in history – the evil Empire is (rather obviously) China, with the Mugen Federation Japan, and ‘little island’ Speer perhaps Taiwan. For all of the brutality, it is rather sobering that similar events have occurred in real life - for example, the destruction of Nanking in the 1930’s is allegedly the ‘inspiration’ for some of the events in the war in the later part of this novel.

At the same time, The Poppy War is also a very angry book. Rin faces racism, class war and prejudice and deals with them all, often with a smack in the face. As she trains to become one of the elite, she struggles with her emotions, betrayal, torture and (again, rather teenage-like) the general unfairness of everything to the extent that by the end of the book The Poppy War feels like one long proverbial scream in the wind, a railing against the world.

This is also true of the book’s ending. It is the cumulation of choices made throughout the book – good, bad and sometimes impossible - with consequences for Rin and her friends that are not always positive. There is resolution, but the usual ending which leads to the next book in a proposed trilogy.

In short, The Poppy War is not for everyone. It is, in essence, a bildungsroman story of teenage drug addicts and their importance on a Fantasy world. Whilst there is undeniably a pace and a drive in the plot, it is also brutal and unsubtle, unremitting in its anger and its viciousness. But I can see this one generating the buzz that Twilight once did. For all of its Fantasy setting, with its talk of Gods, most importantly, it’s also an encapsulation of adolescence in a Grimdark fantasy setting. And it is miles away from Harry Potter.

Trigger Warnings

Self-harm
Suicide
Violent rape
Sexual assault
Murder
Massacres
Brutalization
Mutilation
Torture
Substance abuse
Abuse
Emotional abuse
Physical abuse
Relationship abuse
Human experimentation
Chemical warfare
Genocide
I got these from the author's website and if you want to know more you can find that here.

My thoughts

Before I start this review I wanted to emphasise this is an adult book and if anything triggers you, you should look at the trigger warnings above.

This book was a hard book to get through. Not because of the writing but because of the subject matter. It is essentially about a world where war is on the horizon again and preparing for it. It's about the brutality of war and the lengths people go to win it.It's about a girl evading an arranged marriage to go to school.I really enjoyed the writing style but in some parts it was a bit vague,especially in the school years. 2-3 years went by but each major event happened in a few paragraphs. We were told what happened and didn't get to see it in detail.The book is already 544 pages so I understand why it was shortened. I understand this is based on modern Chinese history and it is brutal. Other than focusing on war, the first part of the book is about Rin and how she overcomes the bullying she faces and tries to come out on top. I loved that this book had no romance as most books have them in some shape or form.

I really liked Rin and how determined she is to get what she wants. You watch her grow up and be herself. She faces a lot of racism because her skin is darker than others, she also faces hardships because she's from a poorer distract. She shows them that that can't stop her and hard work pays off.One of my favourite characters have to be Jiang. I think he's really weird and essentric.He's the character who brought a little light to a otherwise dark book. At least in the start of the book.

I don't have much to say about this book,even though I've been thinking for days on how to write this.I might have to come and update this when I can artiulate my words. Just know I highly recommend this book.

5/5 

*Thank you to netgalley and Harpercollins UK for the e-arc.                                                   All views expressed are my own.

5/5 

*Thank you to netgalley and Harpercollins UK for the e-arc.                                               
 All views expressed are my own.

I have no idea how to review a book like this; some books take you on a journey, but only The Poppy War could offer a journey like this one. With a slow building start, dramatic twists, heartbreaking scenes, vicious violence & intelligent writing beyond compare, The Poppy War is sure to be a book that goes down in history.

This book contains violence & distressing war scenes throughout, plus drug abuse, descriptions of rape & details of genocide.

Thanks to the publisher and author for an e-ARC of ‘The Poppy War’ in exchange for an honest review. This ARC being provided in no way influences my review.

And here I thought 2017 was the one-off year for fantastic debuts. Well, I was wrong. The Poppy War has entrenched itself as one of the best debuts of 2018 and is a must-read for fantasy/grimdark fanboys/girls.

This is the story of Rin, a war orphan from Rooster Province, who wants to escape the shackles of her foster family and their drug dealing empire; one that will be made greater seeing her wedded to a man three times her age and having a marriage that will bear much fruit. What Rin wants more than anything is to study for and take the Keju – an exam that sees youths in the Empire with the highest scores training at Sinregard, the most elite military school in Nikan.

But when she passes the Keju with top marks, everyone, including Rin, is baffled by the results.

She is then whisked away to Sinregard where she will train to become a great warrior while the Federation of Mugen sets it’s sights on Nikan, a land it held until the Second Poppy War disarmed it’s grip. The Federation seems to have the likely upper hand, at least until Rin discovers a hidden power within herself; one that will allow a God to flow through her and use her as a tool for destruction.

While I have seen some comparisons to Anthony Ryan’s novel ‘Blood Song’, a novel which I have not read but have had on my TBR pile for some time, the only thing I have read that I can somewhat compare it to is ‘Red Sister’ by Mark Lawrence. You have a strong female protagonist from an impoverished background who goes off to a school to become a fierce warrior, is looked upon as an outsider and bullied by her peers, is put through intense/violent academic tests, and has a power hidden just below the surface that is ready to reveal itself.

That is not to say this novel is a rip-off or completely unoriginal. Kuang has created a grimdark and beautiful world that we should all just be happy to be apart of, even if only for 544 pages. Lucky for us, there are more books on the way!

The novel is stunning and Kuang shows off masterful craft in her execution, but it is also the darkest shade of black in terms of violence, rape, torture, and utter destruction of civilization. It is agonizingly emotional and tears at your heartstrings in the most gruesome of ways. A novel inspired by real events that happened in the 1930s in Nanjing, China called the ‘Nanking Massacre’, which just adds to the overall brutality of the story.

I don’t normally give half stars out, but this one most certainly earns a 4.5/5 for my sheer enjoyment of it’s characters and world. Rin is one of the strongest female leads I have ever had the opportunity to walk hand in hand with, and one that I became emotionally glued to throughout her journey. I cannot wait to see what Kuang has in store for Rin, especially after that hellishly dark ending she put us all through.

Perfect for fans of grimdark and military fantasy everywhere. A YA book this is not, so do not treat it as such.

I’ve been excited for The Poppy War ever since I first heard about it on twitter, a grimdark military fantasy inspired by historical events and Chinese mythology sounds exactly what I’d love to give a shot to.

I don’t think any grimdark I’ve read slapped me like this before, with such force, and I even welcomed it. Thanks to the author’s presence on twitter and her care to warn people of the extremely violent parts of her debut novel, I knew what I was getting into and was prepared for what was to come.

This book is graphic, this book is violent, this book doesn’t shy away from some horrific things that actually happened in history, but this isn’t all done only for the shock value. None of it is gratuitous, none of it is written carelessly. The author took care to look at history straight in the face, and make the reader do it as well. Some parts left me in shock, but I do think it is necessary.

The Poppy War has been compared to Avatar: The Last Airbender because of the fire abilities the main character learns to master and of the apparent presence of ancient gods. Kuang even does not make it a secret that Azula is an inspiration for her main protagonist. For those who are not familiar with her, she is a skilled strategist and obsessed with power, something we do not see often enough regarding female characters, especially younger ones.

Runin (Rin for short) is all of this and more. Driven and ready to do whatever it takes to escape the future that would await her, she decides to do everything she can to join the military instead. Rin has to work really hard, push herself in even unhealthy ways to get what she wants and needs. Some parts really resonated with me as a university student, and I can imagine it comes from experience, seeing as the author is a scholar as well, open about her work on her master thesis on twitter.

Another thing I loved about this book was the found family theme found in the later part of the novel, after Rin’s time at the Academy. This novel has basically everything I like in fantasy novels: from the school setting, to the unlikely friendship, with magic and special mentor, found family and epic battles, but also historical and social commentary.

Morally grey characters, unexpected choices, grief and anger, compassion and disenchantment, vengeance and raw power… This book has it all and Kuang deals masterfully with everything, which is why this is a book I recommend highly, but also that I would be careful to not recommend to everyone because of its very triggering content.

Other cool stuff about it:

talks about periods
back to back fighting a la Rey&Kylo
squad of magical assassins
character development, both for main and secondary characters
laugh out loud moments / horror-stricken moments
gods, monsters, so much magic
so many amazing quotes

Trigger warnings: ableist language (not addressed), racism and colourism, self harm, suicidal ideation, war, torture, genocide, graphic descriptions, rapes, infanticide, drug use and addiction, mass killing, mutilation, animal cruelty, emotional abuse, physical abuse, relationship abuse, human experimentation
The chapter 21 alludes to the Nanjing Massacre and chapter 24 to Unit 731.