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Hard pass.

Couldn't make it through the first chapter. Not a fan of the type of fantasy that usually gets marketed as YA and it reads like it.

Do like children's books, oddly.

The story is familiar, but its execution feels more complex, nuanced, and mature. Its depiction of war is accurately horrifying. There‘s one scene where I had to close the book to take a break. I‘m definitely going to read the next one.

This was a pick! I loved the lore and the world-building, and I really liked the main character, even though sometimes I would have loved to slap her... okay so the one thing I didn‘t like was the disjointed timeline... it was a linear timeline, but It felt as if everything happened within a month of time, when really it was years... 🤷🏻‍♀️🤔

It was an amazing reading month for me. By far my favorite read of the month was the tagged book The Poppy War. Can‘t wait to get my hands on the sequel! Vengeful and Sorcery of Thorns were not trailing far behind...both really fun books! Wolf in the Whale was interesting as it melded Inuit and Norse mythologies.

Day 4 #7Days7Covers #covercrush
Another one from my always growing TBR stack😁👌🙈(and ofcourse the second book is out before i got to this one😂📚)

#7covers7days

I may have skipped a day but will catch up 😉

#BBRC #teenangst #seriesstarter @LibrarianRyan #NotAppropriateForMiddleGrade

Read this quite some time back. Enjoyed it immensely and surprised that it's the author's debut!

finally done 🌸 I enjoyed Kuang's take on a military fantasy with a setting and worldbuilding inspired by Chinese mythos and historical events. however, the book has pacing problems (certain parts really drag) and the three major divisions of the story transition awkwardly. Rin seems to be a divisive protagonist, but her flaws are deliberate and make sense for her age, backstory and circumstances.

#fantasy #militaryfantasy #kindle

Why do the blurbs on the back of books reveal so much of the story! I try not to read them, but sometimes it happens before I can stop it.

still trying to find the ideal layout for pins on my backpack 🤔 been reading The Poppy War on my kindle for almost a month since I keep getting distracted by my physical book stack 😅 it's a fascinating book but kind of a slow burn. super excited to start Foundryside ✌️

And with completion of this book (a 5 ⭐️ read for me), I also finished my Goodreads 2019 challenge of 70 books!

Well this is going to be one of my favorite reads this year! I adore the characters she‘s created (Rin, the main character, and the fabulously erratic Jiang, her mentor in particular) and the setting fascinates me as I‘ve always been intrigued by Chinese history and culture. The author is pursuing a graduate degree in modern Chinese studies and has managed to write and get published two novels! I‘m in serious awe.

A small #bookhaul from the online bookstore. I've wanted to read these books for a long time! 📚😁

#tbr #thepoppywar #firefly #insideblackmirror

1. Tagged. I got it from the library and I know I‘ll enjoy it, I‘m just not ready to dive into a new world.
2. Just all the Harry Potter books. I don‘t really reread anymore except those.
3. My GR TBR has 244 books on it. I try to remove some but more just get added on!
4. The Feather Thief (read in March) 4⭐️
5. @Catsandbooks @Scochrane26 @Dragonfairykats
#wondrouswednesday

The Poppy War combines the magical school idea (more of a martial arts school) featuring an outsider student, with historical events in China (Song Dynasty, Japanese invasion of China,) and a little bit of shamanism. It's the first in a series and I'm not sure I will keep reading as this is so far outside my usual fare, but this author has written an astounding debut at a very young age (I think she is an actual genius.)

And the rest of Husband's birthday stack

Soooo..... this is the copy of The Poppy War I received from ThriftBooks today. I immediately got on chat with them and told them I received a book marked “very good condition” with no notation about not having a jacket on it. No issues or problems, issued me a refund and said I could keep it. No others in stock however, so back to square one. For as long as I have been ordering from them this is the first time I have ever had this issue

I finished this a couple of days ago and am still not 100% sure how I feel about it. It starts off as a typical tale of an amazingly talented but misfortunate youth getting into a elite boarding school and then turns into a much, much darker war story. Great world building and I appreciated the historical parallels but I found myself skimming more than once. I expected to love it more than I did but still want to start the sequel this weekend.

I‘ve been struggling to get into a book the last couple of days. I‘ve tried reading the first chapter of about 4 books and none of them have been grabbing me.

I picked this one up today and I‘m hoping it‘ll stick! This book is this month‘s Sword & Laser Pick.

#swordandlaserpodcast

Sort of like two books in one, which was a little jarring. Part one takes place at an elite military academy. Then the country goes to war and the students become warriors. It‘s good. Part two is...different. Fast paced, dark and gruesome. This is based on actual Chinese history from the 1930‘s (the Nanjing Massacre). This is not light fantasy nor YA. But I loved the military aspect and I loved the characters. Several parts are a punch to the gut!

Rin is 16 when the book starts. It has YA elements, but it‘s not YA. All 3 parts are interesting and different, tho 2 & 3 are very grimdark. Loads of triggers, heavy drug use.

Pros: world building, pacing, secondary characters are all interesting and well developed, hard to put down.

Cons: Rin is caustic, jealous, disobedient, selfish, vengeful, and ends up more dark than light. She‘s also naive, impulsive, and prone to screaming at everyone.

Listened as an audiobook. If you are looking for a YA fluffy fantasy romance ...well...this is not for you! If you do want a heroine who is strong, adventure, war, dark fantasy then definitely check this one out! Love when a female character is strong and doesn‘t rely on others to get herself out of trouble! Highly recommend for all the fantasy readers out there!

A solid pick. If you like Mark Lawrence I think you'll enjoy this book. It was really nice to read a fantasy novel which is not based in Europe. I really enjoyed the dialogue and there were some good characters. The death and destruction just went a bit too far for me. Another genocide, is that the third or the fourth It just didn't elevate that last step in the ladder to love.

Finally finished this! I had a really hard time getting into it, but once I made it past page 200, I didn‘t want to waste the time I had already spent reading. I‘m glad I finished, but I‘m not sure I‘ll read the next one. I‘m really bummed I can‘t include this in my classroom (both content and language). Overall, glad I read it, somewhat interested to see what happens next, but the writing wasn‘t my favorite.

My view this morning at the MFA in Boston! Arrived early to the class I‘m taking and read on the steps. I‘ve been so busy (and exhausted) doing this class this week, I‘m glad today is the last day!! It‘s been wonderful, but I want to sleep past 6am again 😂

This seems to be a more unpopular opinion, but I‘m not loving this book a little over 100 pages in. Carrying the pig up the mountain and making it drink the water...is from Holes 🤔 That‘s an oddly specific thing to repeat, though of course I haven‘t finished that section yet. I‘m also not in love with the writing; I feel as though some of the profanity is superfluous and doesn‘t serve much purpose. We‘ll see..I‘ll keep reading for now.

Finally got around to reading this fantasy book. I really did enjoy the gods and mythology of this book. I enjoyed the action and summoning of the gods within this book. This book was a great story of war and revenge. I enjoyed the development of the main character Rin. Definitely a good book and will read the next one later on

Okay, I finished Throne of Glass (almost exactly one year to the day that I first read it 😂) and I am finally starting this one. This time last year I went on a crazy reading binge that lasted like 3 weeks. Hoping I can pull it off again!! 📚📚📚 I have a stack of books I‘ll post soon, I need help deciding what‘s next!

This book is amazing- and I only finished Part 1

Makes you wonder.

So now that it is officially half way through the year... what have been your favourite reads?!

Tell me!!!!? These are mine! (But I could happily go on)

Whoops, I forgot that I‘d finished this one a few days ago - a terrifying read about both human and deity, knowing that one particularly gruesome portion is from history and the Japanese treatment of the wools of Nanking. It‘s like a grimdark book except based on history. Can‘t say I won‘t read the sequel but yikes. What started as a “poor orphan come to the magic school to make good” turned into something so different - a book of devastating war.

SUPER looking forward to this one! #SFF #fantasy #Kobo

This book is just so gorgeous!!

I freaking loved this when I read it earlier this year... and right now it‘s a bargain on Kindle!!!

Book 2 (of 3) due out in a couple of months!!!

Dearest @Daisey ♥️♥️ Thank you for the #kindlitsy gift! I needed this today 😊 I appreciate it so very much!!

I‘m about a third of the way through this and absolutely love it so far!

Excellent deal today on The Poppy War for Kindle readers. The book is about a young peasant girl who gets into a elite magic warrior school. The premise sounds lamer than it really is. I guess you‘d consider it a YA book but I really enjoyed it and I‘m not much of a YA fan. The sequel The Dragon Republic comes out in August. #ebookdeal #kindle #fantasy

Picked up these two at Anderson's Bookshop today! #bookhaul

I love that Litsy won't judge the fact that I already have like 60,000 books on my TBR and yet I buy more.

Finally my hard to track down hardback copy arrived in the post!!! Loved this book when I read it earlier in the year - feels like a series (duology?) that I‘ll be rereading...

Intense. Not sure how to feel about the ending or the main character right now. It took me down a depressing rabbit hole of reading about the Nanking Massacre which I heard The Poppy War was based on. I had difficulty reading those parts, and then to read that an atrocity happened similar in reality is disturbing. I love that a fantasy expanded my history and deepened my compassion. Perhaps that was the author's goal.

Children ceased to be children when you put a sword in their hands. When you taught them to fight a war, then you armed them and put them on the front lines, they were not children anymore. They were soldiers.

(Looking at photos of child soldiers on the internet makes me so sad. Above: Myanmar.)

Now she had nothing to do—her future was out of her hands, and knowing that made her feel far worse.

(Photo: my grandniece, age 10, is currently visiting us. She was in an artistic mood.)

A sprawling military fantasy inspired by the atrocities of the Sino-Japanese wars. Shamanism, dangerous gods, martial arts, corrupt power & social imbalances along the lines of wealth, privilege & race. The central character is an emotionally complex young woman, a war orphan. Her vengeful hatred of the enemy makes for a bleak ending, but balance may be restored in book 2, due this summer. 19-hour #audiobook expertly narrated by Emily Woo Zeller.

War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who remains.

(Image is from the author‘s blog, a map that shows to what extent her fantasy novel draws on the landscapes of China and Japan. RFKuang.com )

But how does the existence or nonexistence of the gods affect me? Why does it matter how the universe came to be?"
"Because you're part of it. Because you exist. And unless you want to only ever be a tiny modicum of existence that doesn't understand its relation to the grander web of things, you will explore.”

A page turner. Loved the plot as much as the characters. I liked how this novel blurred the areas of good and evil, right and wrong; how we, when consumed by powers, try to play God, yet at the same time err as humans. Ponder on this: What would you do if you literally have a God by your side, have powers as great as his/hers and able to bend the entire world to your will? What. Would. You. Do? Looking forward to the sequel!

Wow, well this was a fun and intriguing read. Full of an interesting blend of fantasy and psuedo- history. It kinda rambled a little towards the middle, but found its footing in a tragic and awesome way. Very enjoyable, and I look forward to the following volumes.