Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

1163 reviews

mangooba's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

LOOK UP A TRIGGER WARNING LIST PRIOR TO READING. if you think youre fine and dont need one, do it anyways. this book goes heavily into graphic descriptions of genocide, SA, war, death, child death, and abuse. take care of yourself.

that being said, i found that this book was very well written and the character development was both realistic and well done. the mc has drastically changed, while shes obviously the same person in several ways, she is also not the same person in many other ways. that might not make sense without reading the book. if you dont have the reading comprehension to understand that decisions made are supposed to be poor decisions, and that characters will not be all good or all bad and its an incredibly complex situation just dont read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Slavery, Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Drug use, Kidnapping, Racism, Rape, and War

Minor: Death of parent

the racism tag is fantasy racism inspired by real world values and views held by racist individuals, and racist regimes/systems.

piprigsby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

between a 4.0 and 4.5 so 4.25 but it was a very interesting read and as for character development, i think it was more of character DEvelopment as in rin got more destructive throughout the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Rape, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Slavery

gigglesigh's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Absolutely devasting in the best way possible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Rape, Drug use, Genocide, Murder, Sexual assault, Torture, Drug abuse, War, and Violence

jays_secret_garden's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“How could she compare the lives lost? One genocide against another—how did they balance on the scale of justice? And who was she, to imagine that she could make that comparison? ‘What have I done?’”
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•6/5⭐️ 

Nothing could have prepared me for the third part of this book. I foolishly thought that the second part was absolutely crazy, but the third? Devastating. This book completely changed my perspective on life. It was so beautifully written that I feel like people don’t write books like this anymore. The FMC, Rin, is one of the best characters I have read in my entire life. From the first line she had in the book, I knew. Her absolute rage and hate actually means the world to me because how dare they make women and children hurt this much?

The topic of war, genocide, r*pe, etc., is HEAVY. I didn’t really read the trigger warnings because I like to go into books blind, but please read them :). Nothing could have prepared my heart for the heartbreak it would experience while reading the Golyn Noriis part, and even more so after reading the author’s note and finding out everything was inspired by real-life experiences of Chinese people. It broke my heart to read Venka’s story—I was sobbing!!!

I cannot wait to continue with the series because every two pages, something insane and unpredictable happens, and I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT BOOK!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, War, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Self harm, Physical abuse, Child death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gun violence, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Blood

mj_dor7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

overall a good read!! definitely a lot different than yellow face. It’s my first time reading a book from an author with such a wide range

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Racism, Colonisation, Rape, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Genocide, War, and Sexual assault

ashlyncherie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was not my first time reading this book. I listened to the audiobook 18 months ago and couldn’t really get into it and never finish the series. I decided to give it a second chance  actually reading it and I’m glad I did. This book is so well written, but I expect nothing less of Kuang. Some of the chapters truly nauseated me, and it sickens me to know that atrocities like what is written in this book occurred in real life. This book makes you think and reflect life, history, war, and more. It was truly an excellent and yet difficult to stomach read. I will be continuing on with the series this time! But I do need an emotional break first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Violence, Child death, Sexual assault, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Rape, Torture, War, Addiction, Murder, and Colonisation

theia_jensen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

rynstellation's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

don’t know how to feel after making the connection that most of the tragic events that took place were based off of real events rewritten in a fantastical world to entertain an audience, but r.f. kuang’s writing style is very captivating. the characters were all over the place for me though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, War, Genocide, Violence, and Classism

mollyjoy__'s review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Body horror, Child death, Addiction, Death, Suicide, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War

Chapter 21 of this book is especially hard to read and details recollections of extremely graphic violence towards women and sexual assault.

thejwq's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Child abuse, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Gore, Murder, War, Slavery, and Torture