The Poppy War

Overall, this series is very good. There is a lot of political intrigue and I do like the magical aspect of this world. I would have appreciated the series more had I done background research and reading into the various events in Chinese history that influenced the series.

With that said, there are a lot of points in the series where the reader is left to fill in the blanks because things are implied but never fully explained and it's as if you as the reader should already know how to fill in those blanks. You don't ever get the context at the moment or even later. I would have also been quite ok without any romantic anything in the series. It felt out of place. It was always toxic and never reciprocated. It felt weird and surface level. I think the series could have benefited from different points of views but alas... it doesn't really matter at this point. I'm just proud I got through these tomes.