(Or: When Trauma, Magic, and a Very Angry Girl Collide)

Let’s get this out of the way: The Poppy War is not your chill little fantasy read. This is not the book you casually dip into while sipping chamomile tea in a sunbeam. This is war. This is trauma. This is what happens when a rage-fueled orphan girl is handed both shamanic powers and a front-row seat to genocide. And somehow, it works.

R.F. Kuang’s debut is a feral mix of military fantasy and historical horror, with enough real-world parallels to make you uncomfortable—in the best way. Loosely inspired by 20th-century China (specifically the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking), The Poppy War introduces us to Fang Runin (Rin), a dark-skinned peasant girl who hustles her way into an elite military academy through sheer willpower and academic obsession. Think Mulan meets Fullmetal Alchemist, but everyone’s traumatized and nobody’s singing.

What slaps in this book:

Let’s talk about the dialogue. Kuang doesn’t waste time with twee banter or fantasy-speak fluff. The characters talk like real people—with all the sharp edges, power plays, and emotional whiplash that come with high-stakes relationships. Rin and her classmates don’t just develop—they clash, evolve, fracture. Their interactions are charged and messy, in a way that makes you lean in, not skim.

And then there’s the world-building: brutal, brilliant, and historically grounded. Kuang doesn’t just create a fictional universe—she weaponizes history. The gods are real, the war is real, and the consequences? Devastatingly real. You can practically feel the mud, blood, and divine fire under your fingernails.

Where it stumbles a bit:

Okay, so here’s where I gently shake the book by the collar and say, “Breathe.” The pacing in the last third hits fast-forward and never looks back. Massive events unfold in rapid succession, but we don’t always get the emotional fallout that would give those moments the weight they deserve. There’s a character sacrifice that should’ve wrecked me—but the relationship wasn’t fleshed out enough to fully land the punch. It’s not that the emotions aren’t there—it’s that the book sometimes speeds past them.

Final thoughts (aka should you read it?):

Absolutely. But don’t expect to come out of it unscathed. The Poppy War is an unflinching, ambitious debut that dares to ask what happens when a girl who’s always been underestimated finally gets power—and then realizes power doesn’t come with a moral compass. It’s sharp, devastating, and deeply readable. Just… maybe don’t read it right before bed.

Kuang kicks off this trilogy like she’s got something to prove—and spoiler: she absolutely does.