The Poppy War is not an easy book to read. There are a lot of layers to the story which can only be seen if you inquisitively read the book. You have to search for it and try to understand what it is saying.
The Poppy War is based on East Asian history and culture. RF Kuang, through this book, explores a lot of dark moments in East Asian culture.
The book is set in China but the plot is inspired by the Sino-Japanese war and the Chinese Civil war.
Rin's character is difficult to understand. Either you like her or you don't. That's about it. She is not a character you see in most fantasy books. She is reckless, she is immature, she is naive. Saying that she made a few bad decisions is an understatement. She understood what she did wrong after she did it. But all in all, she is one of the most strong-willed characters I have ever read. What she went through to get what she wanted was horrifying. I can't even imagine it. She learnt from her mistakes. She removed anything and everything that came in her path to get stronger. I would choose her to make an example when someone needs a motivational boost. Part one of the book pretty much shows just how determined she is and then the ending shows how much she has grown, with the promise of more amazing growth in the future.
Altan is another difficult character but he is a lot harder to understand than Rin. His power comes from the depths of his anger and hatred that can be too much for a normal human being. Many aspects of his past have shaped and moulded him to be who he is. I would have to say that he carried half the book on his back and turned it into the masterpiece that it is.
This was the hardest book that I've ever read. It took me almost a month to finish this one book. There were chapters in the book that I lost my sleep over. I had to take breaks to cope and let what I had just read sink in. This book is not an easy book to read.
The true brutality of war is vividly described here. If one falls then another will take its place. There is no time to think or even breath while fighting in a battle. Kuang uses Speer as an example of the use of territories as chess pieces, something you use to gain a step ahead. She also shows how inhumane governments and rulers can become amid a war.
It is not the academy or the teachers or the texts and strategies a person learns that teaches them to kill. It's the war that teaches them to kill. Those are just ways of protection, maybe some guidance but the actual truth of killing someone from the opposition is something only war provides and right at that moment it's not war it's survival of the fittest.
