The Poppy War Series Review

 To be honest, I don't even know where to start. R.F. Kuang is no doubt one of my favorite authors, I love the way she writes her characters and builds her worlds. To be fair, I've only read Babel and The Poppy War series so far but they were enough to make me keep reading and that's enough for me. The Poppy War has the most brutal, heartbreaking, and immersive stories I've read in a while. Rin is a beautiful unreliable narrator and her thoughts and relationships are so intense and genuine. The book is a military fantasy, so there is a lot of war strategy and military aspects to all three of the books, but it's usually understandable and interesting enough to keep me reading even though I don't usually find that aspect of books all that readable lol. This book also contains a lot of references to real world tragedies and is mainly based off of history, which all in all makes these books all that much impactful and awful. I say awful because that's what it is, the brutality and the torture and suffering that character went through in the book are based off of real life things, which is incredibly sickening. I find myself more immersed in books like this, books that make me feel something, books that make me feel how the authors wanted their readers to, books so heart wrenching I'm thinking about it three years later. That being said, it's also understandable that other people don't enjoy that, and it should be noted that this series might not be for everyone. Many triggering situations and warnings that should be said before read, such as, TW: Drug abuse, Addiction, Torture, SA, General Violence, Suicide, and a lot more. While it's easy to fall for the fantasy and the characters and the fiction, at some point it all leads to reality.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The Poppy War:  "Take your clothes off." Rin blinked. "What?" (pg 1)

The book starts off with Fang Runin(Rin), an orphan taking in by the Fangs, a small family in a Southern Village, Tikany. It's quickly introduced that the Fangs are physically, mentally, and psychologically abusive towards her, especially Auntie Fang. When Rin figures out that the Fangs are planning on selling her to marry an old (rich) man, she is entirely repulsed and desperately tries to find a way out of it, and out of the town. One way she can leave is to pass the "Keju," a nationwide, difficult test to earn entrance into military schools/governmental schools. Rin studies very hard, and aces it. This humiliates the government, making the test the hardest they could in order to keep the "poor" and "stupid" out of places like Sinegard, a very prestigious military school. But Rin beats those odds, and makes her way out of her abusive household and into a new life. However, when she gets there she isn't welcomed warmly. Being Southerner, her darker skin, different accent, abrasive attitude, and the fact that she is basically a nobody, makes her a target of bulling from students(Nezha, Venka) and some teachers(Jun). Regardless, Rin does whatever it takes to succeed in this new school, knowing she has no where else to go.(which includes using a medical solution to dissolve her uterus because she didn't want period cramps, and honestly, that's fair) Here she meets Kitay, a good, nice friend from a successful family. Although there are many courses, a specific course sparks concerning judgement, Lore. Lore is taught by Master Jiang, a teacher more likely to be climbing trees while high than show up for his own classes. Rin starts succeeding more and more in strategy and continues on with her studies, with obstacles, until Jiang starts taking more interest in her, and vice versa. When in comes time for Rin to pick a subject to specifically study, she ends up choosing Lore. Through Lore, she learns to clear her mind with meditation, understand the history of the world, and call on a god? Jiang tries to teach her how to talk to the gods, divine beings known to act through people who call upon them. These Shamans can be incredibly powerful, but at a price. But Rin doesn't care, She wants power. She continues to hone her ability to call this god and understand it, but the world isn't waiting for her. The tensions between countries increasing and a war breaks out calling the military school to graduate their students early. Throughout this, Rin fights with everything she has, her bare fists, a sword, and a god she isn't in control of. Fighting side by side with someone she thought her bully, her enemy, Nezha. Because childish disputes didn't matter anymore, they were at war and they were on the same side. Nezha and Rin gets cornered and Jiang and his shamanism saves them, causing him to disappear, leaving Rin and Nezha in critical shape. When she wakes, Rin finds herself no knowing who she is, not because of memories but because of a realization made by other around her, she is not human. She is one of the last remaining Speerly, another species that went through a genocide of their species with only one remaining, Altan Trengsin, two remaining now with the discovery of Rin. Rin is placed in a different unit of the army, The Cike. To her surprise, the Cike is filled with shamans. These shamans aren't given much recognition due to the fact that a shaman's destiny is to be mad or die, nothing else. Throughout the rest of the book, The Cike do their part in aiding with the war, extreme atrocities are committed and Rin attempts to gain control of her pyrokinetic abilities, but can never be as good as Altan. Altan starts panicking, the armies, the war, it's not going to stop. (from the readers perspective it is understandable that Altan is starting to go mad, not able to grasp reality and lashing out often. but Rin continues to look at him with adoration and trust.) When Altan tries to raise an full blown army of powerful shamans, some who have already gone mad, things go south when Altan and Rin get captured by the enemy. Spending time in a lab, not a new experience for Altan, being tortured and experimented on Altan and Rin do whatever they can to escape. Altan tells Rin to get to Speer, to get out, before basically blowing himself up with his power, killing and destroying the lab that tormented him his whole life. Losing Altan and now stranded on an island, Rin is devested, and wants revenge. Rin's god, The Phoenix, is more than happy to oblige, and blows up the opposing country till nothing remains.

The Dragon Republic: "'Come on,' Mingzha begged. 'Please, I want to see.'"(pg 1)

Rin, still grieving from Altan's death and reeling from her own actions upon a country full of people, she herself is divided upon what she did. But what she knows is revenge. The one who sold Altan and her out to the scientists was the empress herself, Su Daji. Rin wants her dead. Being the head of the Cike now, being labeled leader after Altan's death. The Cike go around hosting missions in order to get closer and closer to Daji, in order to get revenge for their fallen leader, and because they all have no where else to go. That is until the Cike is called to the House of Yin, Nezha's family. Vaisra, Nezha's father, wishes to recruit the Cike, but namely Rin, the last Speerly in the world, capable of destructive things. After the events of the first book, Rin suffers through an opium addiction for the majority of this book, trying to keep her mind from getting engulfed by the god in her head. Rin agrees to work for Vaisra, leaning on him for praise and leadership. Many of the people around her realizes this unhealthy relationship between the leader and the speerly, being clear that he is using her vulnerable state and making her practically worship him. Here the Hesperians are introduced, a brutal, technologically advanced country with a completely different ideology than the Nation. Hesperians now included more so, wanted to experiment on Rin, pushing their ideology more and more. Rin, Nezha, and Kitay continue to work together and fight together, and each other. During a fight, Rin realizes that Nezha might be a shaman. However he informs her she is wrong, and is later revealed that she is, kind of. Nezha was captured when he was a child by a physical form of a god, The Dragon. The Dragon works in a different way than the other gods do, in which instead of Nezha calling for it, the Dragon can do what he pleases if Nezha opens his mind to him, leaving Nezha in intense pain for his life. Rin, finding this unbelievable that Nezha has a power that he isn't using to help them in this war, yells at him and they have an intense falling out. After more enemies and more battles, Daji is able to put a seal on Rin, keeping her from access the god in her head. The characters get stranded on an island after a battle, they meet another group of people, Hinterlands. One of the lead Cike members, Chaghan and Qara is revealed to be family of the leaders of this country. With lots of distrust and confusion, the leader says she is able to help Rin get rid of the seal. Here, Rin also makes a difficult decision with Kitay, a loyal, caring friend from the very beginning. This tribe is capable of making links, Chaghan and Qara have one in which is one is injured, the other will feel it, if one dies, the other will as well(unless they share a word in order to keep the uninjured alive). Rin and Kitay do this link in order to ensure Rin's mind isn't vulnerable to the god and Kitay's mind can help guide her through the process of using her power. This turns ugly when the leader of the tribe is killed by a Hesperian "child," and in the process, Qara. Qara makes her brother promise her to live, and Chaghan survives, and leaves to his home country, to right many wrongs. Chaghan and Rin have a very complicated relationship due to the fact that they both love Altan, in different, toxic, twisted ways. They both loved him and were destroyed by his death. Rin and Kitay, now stronger and reliant on each other, make their way back to Nezha and Vaisra. When they get back, they jump right back into the war. By the end of the book, Vaisra's Republic seems to be in good shape to evolve. However, Rin and the Cike have different plans and want none of it anymore. Nezha, Venka, Kitay, and Rin all join together for a drink and a sort of school reunion. Until Nezha runs a blade through Rin's back.

The Burning God:  "'We shouldn't be doing this,' Daji said."(pg 1)

After Nezha's betrayal, Rin is almost sold to the Hesperians by Vaisra, exploding any remaining loyalty Rin had to the man. The remain Cike, Venka, and Kitay are able to break her out in time and the third and final book starts with Rin's amputation. In their break out, Rin's hand is crushed to uselessness. Rin is left with a stump as her left arm, not affecting her power but affecting her fighting ability and sword skills. Rin starts requiting her own army, of smaller southern towns and their armies. Building an army to defeat Vaisra and Nezha's army along with the Hesperians. Rin goes through many enemies that initially look like friends, and friends initially looking like enemies. One of those "friends" being Su Daji, the former empress and former target for Rin's rage. Su Daji has her own backstory, that includes Jiang, Rin's former teacher, and a powerful, dangerous, sleeping emperor, Riga. Daji and Rin go to break Jiang out of his self imprisonment on a mountain made to keep shamans at bay. The Trifecta(minus Riga), Rin, and Kitay, plan to get Riga out of his sleeping state and for his help against the Hesperians and Nezha. With the southern army, Rin battles and Kitay strategizes until they get to where they need to be. Jiang, Daji, and Rin go up to Riga's "resting" place, but it goes downhill when Riga turns out to be as dangerous and horrible as previously described. Hesperians after them, Riga commanding destruction and fear, Jiang protects Rin in the last minute before the Trifecta and the Hesperians ships and brought down with a form of eruption. Rin survives and makes her way back to her army, lacking any Trifecta members now, with almost no plan. Rin goes back to Altan, his plan to create an army of shamans. Requiting from her army for people willing to become shamans, she gains and trains a group of almost children to find and battle the gods in their heads, until they are able to be a force against the opposers. Rin, wanting to bring Nezha down tries to attack The Dragon, the source of his power. Thing turn south again when the Dragon turns out to be more powerful then she thought, and Hesperians at every corner. When Rin wakes up from that battle, they had won the war. Rin was now a leader of a country. Vaisra dead, Nezha on the run, Kitay by her side, Venka working with her, it looks to be a start of a new life for Rin. When Nezha sends her a letter, she starts to become paranoid, the country is running out of food and famine creeps in, and the pressure of being without a war starts to get to Rin. Rin's mind begins crumbling, accusing Venka of betrayal before Venka sacrifices herself to save Rin's life. Kitay, her link tries and tries to get her to understand the reality of their situation, but Rin's mind is too far gone and starts thinking he is conspiring against her as well. In the end, Rin and Kitay meet up with Nezha to talk about peace, however Rin calls for more war, more destruction, more chaos, and Kitay won't have it. She weakens him by using their connection and their shared impact from the god. Both he manages to fight her off, physically and mentally enough until Rin realizes what she's doing. She calls for Nezha to kill her, gain the respect of the Hesperians and save the country, to fix everything. She drives a blade through herself and Kitay dies alongside her, leaving Nezha entirely alone, being the worst punishment she could muster for him.