The Poppy War is a gory and violent military fantasy set in early 20th century China. Fang Runin (Rin), is a war orphan raised in Nikara by her relatives who are opium smugglers. To escape an arranged marriage and life of drudgery, she prepares for the Keju examination which grants admission to Nikara’s leading military and combat academy, Sinegard. Amidst privileged and rich students, Rin fights to fit in and learns about shamans, gods, power and the inevitable war that might kill them all.
1.The world
How much better can a fantastical world get? Picture this – China, military academy, opium, gods who can be called through ingesting drugs, shamans, empires, political hierarchies, war and a heroine who is struggling to clear her way in the world.
2.It is real
The Poppy War opened my eyes to historical events I knew nothing about. The book is based on the 1937 Rape of Nanjing and the second Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945). The book is brutal but knowing these events happened in the real world is simply terrifying. Many Japanese historians deny that the Nanjing massacre happened, even to this day. The republic of Mugen that wages war on Nikara, closely resembles the Japanese empire.
The human experimentation unit in the book is based on Unit 731. It was officially known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army and officially adopted the name ‘Unit 731’ in 1941. Under the command of General Shiro (remember the name), lethal experiments were conducted on captives (mostly Chinese) which included injecting inmates with diseases, mutilation, forcing inmates to stay under extreme weather conditions (frost bite testing) and amputation and attachment of limbs to opposite sides of body to study blood flow among the many different horrors. The researchers of the unit have even published papers mentioning experimental humans as ‘monkeys’ and ‘primates’ in esteemed journals.
3.The writing
The writing was brilliant and polished enough to make you doubt if this is a debut novel. I loved the character building, moderate pacing and the equal importance to scenes and dialogues. The approach to see war and violence through the eyes of a fantastical world was very interesting. It is a heart breaking and remarkable method to process the trauma that happened in the real world. (Read R. F. Kuang’s post on why she chose to write the way she did. Another interesting piece from the author is How to Talk to Ghosts in Uncanny magazine)
4.Chinese mythology + Lots to google
I am not well versed in Chinese mythology, so I might have missed out many references in the novel. There was so much to google after I finished the book, both mythological and historical. For example, ‘Nezha’, one of the characters has the name of a protection deity in Chinese folklore. (Also Nezha has references to Hindu mythology and is seen as possessing traits of the son of Kubera and Krishna). The name Nezha fits the character! Irrelevant to this review, but ever since I googled about Chinese mythology, I have a deep urge to read Journey to the West.
PS: All these are Wikipedia and fandom trivia, so please verify them yourselves for a deeper understanding.
#ThePoppyWar is just brilliant - amazing world building in 20th century China. In this bloody, military fantasy, we see historical events through the shroud of fantasy which makes it heart breaking. ALL THE FIVE STARS. Click To Tweet
Final Verdict
If you are in a mood for a dark and bloody fantasy novel based on historical events with threads of Chinese mythology, grab a copy of The Poppy War as soon as you can. I am not kidding when I say The Poppy War is the BEST fantasy read of 2018.
Trigger warning : The Poppy war is NOT a YA novel. There are instances of violence, self abuse, suicide, rape, drug abuse, mutilation, genocide and human experimentation. I personally dislike brutality in books but I was comfortable (as a reader) reading The Poppy war. However, Chapter 21 has a lot of trigger warnings especially violence towards women and I skipped a page or so.
Title : The Poppy war
Author : R. F. Kuang
Publisher : Harper Voyager
Publication: 2018
Language : English
Pages : 544
Rating : 5/5
Disclaimer : Much thanks to Harper fiction for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.
I’m not a big fantasy reader but I think I need to pick this one up. I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews!
YES! Please do. The fact that many events were real events in history makes this one remarkable.
I have this one and I’m really keen to read it! I do like dark fantasy done well too, and the writing sounds incredible. Eeep. So glad this one is getting so many rave reviews because it totally inspired me to buy it!
Whoa! I can’t wait for you to read it Cait. I think you’d love it as much as I did
Yup! This is one I’m definitely looking forward to. I’m so curious about it.
It is a great read. I hope you will love it when you pick it up.
I’ve heard nothing but great things about this boo, I just ordered it and ready to jump into it!
I hope you will love it. I had my doubts if this was over hyped. But no! It deserves all the praise.
Thank you! I’m really looking forward to it!
I cannot wait to read this one. I have such high expectations, but I have a feeling this one will meet them all.
I hope you get a chance to pick it up soon, Alicia. I was so pleased that the hype for the book was totally worth it.
Everyone seems to be raving about The Poppy War and loving it – I am so happy that you loved it so much just as well and it sounds so interesting, too, especially on the historic side of it all, it seems like you learn so much. I don’t think I’ll give this one a try though, because I couldn’t handle all of the trigger warnings, but happy to see this book making its way in the community 😀
Yes, better give it a miss then, Marie. It is a violent book, so if that makes you uncomfortable I doubt you will gain much from it. Hope you have a great reading month in September.
Wow! That actually sounds really interesting! A Chinese culture twist? Sounds interesting! I’ll have to look into this!
Hope you would enjoy the read
I have been wanting to branch out of my normal genres! And I think this book is needed. Someone else recommended me this book and now this review has made me want to order right away. Thanks for the review.
Great! I hope you’d love it. It is quite violent so do have a look through the trigger warnings x