The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

by R.F. Kuang

[layawaydragon]

I don't quite know what to say here. I don't agree with all the 5 star raves but I don't get the low/no stars either. It's a difficult draining subject drawn in shades of gray and it's very upfront about that. As a book in our society, there's a lot of pressure put on the author and the book for this to be all encompassing and representative on the subject. It's unfair and I can't just ignore/forget that. It sucks that the people with the darkest complexion are the raging beserkers but colorism is real and handled head on...

Yes, it is very dark. There's SO MANY content warnings. Some descriptions and atrocities are going to stuck in my head for awhile.

I listened to the audiobook. Since a policy change at work, I had to listen on my offtime which took longer and put a damper on my mood. The audiobook is good for knowing how to pronounce everything (unsurprisingly, I found out several things I'd been saying wrong my whole life) and getting more in tuned with Rin. SO much emotion comes through. I think the narrator did a fantastic job.

It is VERY long audiobook at 18+ hours. It's one of the longest I've listened to and sometimes the rhythm didn't jibe with me. I had to take breaks from it as it was so dark and so dense. But I've only been using audiobooks for 6 months so YMMV.

While I wasn't a fan of the painstaking learning in the first half, it did help make me understand and believe in the shaman aspect. I'm like Kitasu(sp? damn audibook!) in that regard.

I will admit, before earreading The Poppy War I had forgotten all about shamans. Like forgot they were a thing completely.

I also thought this was a standalone, so I was perplexed at how long some aspects were and how it was going to wrap up. Of course, then I got to the end and realized, def NOT the last book. I will admit part of me wished it was one and done, but now that I've had time and space from finishing, it has to be continued on. It's the first in a trilogy.

Years and years ago, I've read and loved books like Game of Thrones and Joe Abercrombie's work. Then I learned and grew, became a better person and that kind of shit got real tiring and didn't hold up under a more critical mind. I really should go back and delete my reviews and ratings for those damn things. Anyways, The Poppy War is for fans of those kind of series without the white male massively problematic shit.

Next time, I don't know if I'll do the audio or ebook or paper version. But I will be looking out for the next one for sure!

Kuang did publish an online map for those of us that use audiobooks, which DOESN'T come with a map. Link: https://rfkuang.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/screen-shot-2018-05-07-at-12-49-07-am.png?w=1086