Wild Woila's status

reading crustacean reviewed The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (duplicate) (The Poppy War, #1)

R. F. Kuang (duplicate): The Poppy War (Hardcover, 2018, Harper Voyager)

One of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

“I have no …

yeah, no

2 stars

I kind of liked this (as in I would have given it 3 or 4 stars), then I read the bad reviews on goodreads and... (rest of review in reply because I'm going to need a spoiler warning)

reading crustacean replied to reading crustacean's status

Content warning spoiler

I should have noticed that maybe it's a bad idea to put an actual genocide (as in, one that has actually happened in history) inside a fantasy novel, for no actual reason. I mean, this book did not try to do any work with the historic material. It's just a setting for the plot. There are more problematic things which I didn't notice at all, I will just link the reviews.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/2502373487 www.goodreads.com/review/show/3734030651

Wild Woila replied to reading crustacean's status

Content warning spoiler

@unsuspicious I feel like I was mugged. Tricked into thinking I was reading a harmless fantasy trope, then boom, having the Rape of Nanking shoved in my face. Apart from wider awareness of the horrors of that war, I'm not really sure what literary purpose it served.