TW: Abuse, Gore, Extreme Graphic Violence, SA, Torture, War
This review will contain NO major spoilers.
'The Poppy War'
trilogy has been on my radar for a while and has showed up on my feed
on various social media several times. It consists of 'The Poppy
War', 'The Dragon Republic' and 'The Burning God', all equally
successful. I hesitantly got the first part and ended up reading all
three books in less than a month, as I could not bear to put them
down. I expected a typical YA trilogy, but while R. F. Kuang does use
a lot of YA genre conventions, she is incredibly efficient with them
and uses them to tell a wonderful, heartbreaking story across the
three books.
'The Poppy War'
trilogy is described as coming of age, war novel that draws
inspiration from China in mid 20th century,
especially the Second Sino-Japanese War. It follows the story of Rin,
a young war orphan from an impoverished Rooster Province of Nikan,
with seemingly little to no prospects other than marrying. However,
through her hard work and dedication, she is able to go to the
military Academy in the capital where she very quickly realizes that
she is in fact more than what most people in her life take her to be.
She is also thrown into a horrible war that seems to be neverending.
At face value, this concept may seem like a typical 'chosen' trope
and in some sense it is, but what R.F. Kuang managed to do it with
this premise is nothing short of amazing.
Rin, our main
character, is very much a fish out of water and her dark skin and
lack of care for how she looks is emphasized frequently. However,
Rin's strengths are not in her physical apperance, but rather in
resilience, intelligence and courage bordering lunacy. Her path is
realistic, with plenty of ups and downs, while facing discrimination
and attempts
of those around her to use her for their own gain.She is far from
perfect and at times, she slips into being quite unlikable
and
difficult to be around, but given the situation she is in throughout
the trilogy, it is not surprising.
The other characters are
also quite well developed. Without revealing too much, there are
several young men around Rin and while the topic of sex and sexuality
in general is often brought up in the novels, there is no distracting
out of nowhere romantic relationship or love triangles. There are
deep emotions that come from taking so much time to develop platonic
and antagonistic relationships, and giving the characters clear
motivation for their actions. Rin is surrounded
by both friends and foes and as she grows as a human and a leader,
she learns about them. Each of them is playing their own game for
power and influence. At times, double crossings and plot twists were
a bit confusing, but I never felt like they were unearned. By the end
of the novels, just like Rin, I trusted no one, not even her.
It
was also fascinating to read about different arguments for different
types of governance and philosophical
musings that the pupils of the Academy learn about. There was
obviously a huge amount of research that went into this trilogy and
it is presented in a wonderfully
unassuming way that I really enjoyed. Some of it was foreshadowing
for later events, showing the skill of the author, but it never felt
like it was shoehorned into the story for the author to show off how
smart or skilled they are.
While
Kuang's writing style is gorgeous, at times I had a bit of an issue
with pacing. I feel like this will always be a bit of an issue with
trilogies, but at times, I felt like the whole story was dragging.
Some parts of the story were a bit...dare I say unnecessary. I
understand that the form should support the content and some of these
parts were reflecting the actions of the characters in that moment,
and therefore it does make sense. I accept that this is more of a
personal preference and honestly the only negative criticism I had of
the entire trilogy.
The ending was satisfactory for me as it
wrapped up Rin's story quite well, but left room for more stories in
this universe to be told. Overall, 'The Poppy War' trilogy is my
favorite piece of literature I have read this year, perhaps even
longer. It is an incredible depiction of a young girl thrown into the
pits of war and it does not shy away for one second from being
honest, brutal and heartbreaking. The characters are so life-like
that they made me happy, sad, angry and frustrated, sometimes all at
once. R.F. Kuang is a wonderful storyteller and I could not believe
this was her debut novel. She has already announced her next project
to be out August 2022 and I could not be more excited.
Did
you read this trilogy? What were your thoughts? Are you excited for
the next R.F. Kuang's story? Let me know!
source: lithub.com
source: lithub.com
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