REVIEW
THE POPPY WAR
A raw and imaginative depiction of the brutalities of warfare
Valeria López
What makes a monster? Specifically, how does a person go from being an orphan in a middle-of-nowhere town to becoming a ruthless war general capable of committing inhumane crimes? These are the questions R.F. Kuang poses in her critically acclaimed trilogy, “The Poppy War”. In the novel, we follow our protagonist, Fang Runin, better known as Rin, as she struggles to obtain any semblance of peace, both physically and mentally in what seems to be a never-ending war.
The story begins with Rin in her childhood years in Tikany, a small rural town in the South of the Empire of Nikara. She has just found out her foster parents are planning on wedding her to a merchant five times her age and plans to escape by going to the top military school in the country, Sinegard. However, her admission was no easy feat and her training is even more gruesome.
To make matters worse, political unrest is at an all time high between her home country and the nearby Federation of Mugen, who plan to conquer their land. Unexpectedly, when the war breaks out in the middle of Rin’s training, she has to take on the role of a wartime general, where her battles really arise. She struggles to choose between virtue and justice while dealing with the call of a vengeful god.
Not only did she perform arduous amounts of research but also interviewed her own grandparents to learn more about her roots.
Interestingly, the author wrote the books as a means to record her findings from when she studied Chinese History at Georgetown University. Not only did she perform arduous amounts of research but also interviewed her own grandparents to learn more about her roots. She based the first edition of the series off of the Opium Wars (1839-42), (1856-60) and the Second-Sino Japanese War (1937-45), and even took inspiration from the infamous and politically controversial Mao Zedong to construct Rin’s character. R.F. Kuang does not shy away from showing the abhorrent brutalities of war. Hence, readers should remain conscious of such graphic violent scenes, especially those who find them to be triggering.
With all of this in mind, Kuang’s straightforward yet poignant writing style is what bewitches you into losing yourself within the pages of the book. The entire plot takes a turn in mere moments and you’ll find yourself desperate to turn the pages to unearth more. The world building is incredibly rich and, while you may not always love them, the characters’ development is absolutely fascinating, as morality is never black and white. Evidently, her hard work paid off with such a beautifully crafted novel.