The Poppy War

Me reading this book- “okay, people say this book is pretty dark, but it doesn't seem all that bad to me.”

Me getting halfway through- “Are people just like, making up how dark this is? Or are they wimps? The themes are dark, sure, but the writing itself-“

Hits chapter 21

Oh. Oh god...

I was certainly familiar with WHAT the Rape of Nanjing was, but I had never read any details, despite Iris Chang's book sitting on my shelf. The horrifying nature of what really happened as a backdrop to the situation in the book makes it all the more gruesome- this isn't a Saw movie, where it's gross but you know it's fictional. The things described were commited by real people, at real places (Judge Judy) less than 100 years ago. It really affected me. After reading the chapter, I immediately went and researched the actual event, and spent the rest of the night in a huge funk.

But that's not the whole novel, obviously! Overall, I really enjoyed this book a lot. Rin is a complex character to the point where, at the end of the book, I both totally understand her and completely disagree with her, while rooting for her and also wishing for someone to slap her pretty hard. That is an incredibly difficult balance to pull off. The supporting cast are all good, and I'm looking forward to them being fleshed out more in the sequels.

This is only a four star rating to me because it's Kuang's first book and she wrote it as a teenager, and unfortunately it shows in places. Some of the dialogue is clunky, and some plot points seem forced to me. This is nothing immersion breaking, but I did notice it. She also has a tendency to fake out deaths too much. Part of it is meta knowledge because she released short stories about a character that are set after this book and that character is “dead”, so clearly they aren't. There's also another character death where I don't know if that character is actually dead or not, but the conditions of their death make me pretty sure they're not. Maybe the second book will prove me wrong.

Anyway, those are minor concerns. Everyone says the next books are better, which makes sense. Kuang has established a world and her characters, and their conflicts. I can only imagine she will continue to grow as a writer as the trilogy progresses and I look forward to continuing!

Edit: After letting this sit with me for a few days, I've bumped it up to a 5 star. This book impresses me the more I think about it, especially considering the Kuang's age, that it deserves 5 stars even for some minor problems.