The Poppy War

I really tried with this one, but it lacked anything for me to hook onto as a reader. I found the protagonist deeply unlikable and while I understand that's the Point™ (I support women's wrongs, etc. etc. etc.), it wasn't in a compelling or interesting way for me. I found no joy or catharsis in watching Rin get the shit kicked out of her, and there were no other characters for her to build a rapport because the premise demands she be an isolated underdog. Pretty much the only parts I felt invested in were her interactions with Jiang and the philosophical discussions they had, but those were too far and few between to feel worth it. The setting and worldbuilding felt haphazardly stitched together and that made the dialogue feel like such a slog, vacillating between jarringly modern speech that felt straight out of a high school YA novel and brick-subtle exposition dumps.

I worry about what's going to happen when Shit Gets Real given that this is supposed to take a lot of inspiration from real-world historical atrocities. I simply don't trust in Kuang's ability to handle these subjects with the sensitivity they deserve, at least in this stage of her career. I do plan on checking out her more recent work, but this was a miss for me and I feel ready to put this one to bed as Not My Cuppa Tea.