The Poppy War

This felt like two different books. One half is Naruto meets dark academia and one half is hyper violent historical fiction. Both probably would've been worth reading on their own but together they're less than the sum of their parts. I've seen people talk about this like it's a feature and intentionally jarring but it completely took me out of the story. I'd note that knowing too much of the real history that this story is largely based on was a big part of what took me out of it. It made immersion difficult with so many obvious parallels to our world, it also made it very heavy and sad which is how war crimes and atrocities should make you feel, but not what I'm typically looking for in a fantasy novel. I thought the protagonist was interesting but everyone else felt flat, as if they were just fulfilling a narrative purpose rather than having any goals or purpose of their own. I liked it? It felt like this book wanted to say something and then forgot what that was. Could've just been over my head.