The Poppy War Review is here~
Let’s start with how I felt about this book in the beginning. Here’s where I admit, well, I had a struggle. I don’t know if it was because I held expectations or because I wasn’t expecting the world to be what it was, and it needed extensive world-building or what. However, I felt once the main character was out of school was where things picked up considerably.
I think because I read often I was able to pick up certain clues to certain mysteries. However, nothing took me more by surprise than the utter chaos that R.F. Kuang writes in her war. It is so descriptive, so gnarly and so closely associated to an image of war we all like to ignore that I found myself hurting and wishing I didn’t read some of the descriptions- as the pictures were too clear in my head.
The war aspects in all its brutality I find to be the best part of this book. You get everything and then some. The war techniques, the thought, the strategy, the fear and desperation, and of course, the utter simplicity of extracting revenge.
It is this reason why the Poppy War was phenomenal. The sheer duplicity of being a student learning war and then playing a soldier and the writing of it all was stunning.
It’s no wonder why R. F. Kuang keeps stalling with school. She absolutely knew she was going to hit you with a whammy. The journey through the pages is totally how the main character felt. She was ready, I was ready- WE needed action. And, then when we both got it- well, *insert pikachu face here*
