Book Review: The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

I have heard nothing but great things about R. F. Kuang. Ever since Babel was published in late 2022, I thought of finally diving into some of her work. I didn’t feel like reading something long s Babel hence why I decided to read her The Poppy War trilogy first. And needless to say, I was absolutely mind-blown at how amazing the first novel in the trilogy was.

So, here’s my review:

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Power dictates acceptability

The Poppy War

So, The Poppy War is the first novel in The Poppy War trilogy. This is a historical fantasy novel following Rin. She is a war orphan from the second poppy war and is living with her guardians in the Rooster Province, one of the poorer regions of the Nikara Empire.

Determined not to be sold into marriage, Rin achieves the impossible by passing the Keju, an Empire-wide exam to find the most talented youth who are then to be admitted into the Sinegard, an elite military school which can change Rin’s fate.

But getting into Sinegard was only just the beginning. Being a dark-skin toned poor girl from the south meant that Rin had to work twice as hard as the rich children of the Empire. While training and studying at the academy Rin discovers that their ancient gods are still alive and their power runs through her veins. Shocked and curious about her mythical abilities (that only one other student at the academy shares) she chooses to study lore with an insane teacher at the academy.

However, while the Nikara Empire is currently at peace, the Federation of Mugen is only a stone’s throw away from them and in a matter of months Rin’s life changes completely – again. Plunged into a war, Rin is assigned to the Cike, the Empress’ private militia led by Altan, Sinegard’s golden boy. While fighting a losing war, she and Altan seek out the mystical power of the phoenix god which can win them the war but destroy her humanity.

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Now, let me tell you why I love this novel so much: the characters and the plot.

The plot is brilliant; I say this because I think there is a good progression of events so as readers we’re not stuck on one point throughout the whole novel and each setting/situation we are introduced to has a slightly new (but connected) problem for Rin to solve. We start out in the village with Rin. We are introduced to her desperation and desire to get out of the village and improve her status so she is not forced to do something she doesn’t want to do. Then we have Rin navigating the Sinegard and struggling to deal with her classmates and shortly after we have Rin navigating war grounds where her humanity is questioned. Along with this, there is also a good amount of political intrigue. So, the plot has many aspects that keep the story moving forward and interesting.

The characters are mesmerising as well. Rin is a brilliant, stubborn and determined main character and she is easily one of my all-time favourite female characters. It’s not often I come across a stubborn female main character and I think that’s such a shame because there are so many complexities that could be explored- and The Poppy War does explore these complexities in Rin’s character. She is greedy, power-hungry, curious and somewhat ignorant as well and it was so interesting reading about a character like that. Female characters are not often attributed characteristics like that (which is a shame for literature) so I think there is an aspect of novelty here that also appeals to me.

And don’t get me started about Altan. The novel starts out characterising Altan as this powerful but mysterious golden boy that is destined to be the perfect solider in the Empress’ army. He’s a very easy character to be enthralled by. While I loved Kitay and Nezha, Altan gives of the impression that he’s untouchable as well. However, when Rin is assigned to his military unite, she learns (and the readers) that Altan is not as untouchable as everyone believes, he’s broken, obsessive and also stubborn. If you haven’t read The Poppy War yet then I want to point out that YOU WILL CRY when you get to chapter 24.

One more point I want to make is that while this novel does not feature any trigger warnings, I do want to emphasise that there are gruesome and detailed descriptions of torture, rape, war crimes, and violence, especially closer to the end of the novel. So, while this is a brilliant novel, please read with care.

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And that is it for my review! I’m not sure if I’ll review the rest of Kuang’s novels on this blog (never say never) but you can bet that I’ll still be reading and purchasing all her future works. The Poppy War is easily one of my all-time favourite novels and R. F. Kuang is also, now, one of my all time favourite authors. For now, I’m just excited to finish the rest of this trilogy as well as start Babel.

So, I hope you enjoyed my review. Let me know your opinions on the novel if you’ve read it as well, I’d love to hear from you. And of course, thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day.