Hello Inkmongers!

At long last, here is my review of The Poppy War.

This was a wild ride from start to finish. I have purposely avoided other reviews of The Poppy War and RF Kuang’s own thoughts on it so that I can evaluate it on my own terms, with minimal influence from others— let’s see how this goes!

Please chime in using the comments section, and join us over on Discord for many more book discussions :)

Spoiler Free

Years ago, around 2021 when I first heard about this book, I almost exclusively saw it  brought upon in conversations about YA fantasy— alongside Six of Crows, Shadow and Bone, and the Cruel Prince. In my mind, I categorized it along with those. I avoid spoilers for books I haven’t read, so I had no information to inform that conjecture besides the context.

Later on, I started seeing The Poppy War appear in videos about grimdark fantasy— being compared to The First Law Trilogy, ASOIAF, and more— at this point, I thought I’d fallen into the age-old blunder of assuming a fantasy book is YA because it was written by a woman. I swiftly amended my categorization of The Poppy War, and placed it firmly alongside adult fantasy and grimdark books. Again, since I was avoiding spoilers, I had no information to inform this conjecture besides the context.

So I went into this book with two main questions:

• How would I categorize this book?

• Why is the readership so polarized in their love/hate of it?

To answer the first question: I can confidently say that The Poppy War combines both YA fantasy conventions and grimdark fantasy conventions— resulting in a completely new kind of abomination (respectfully)— a YA fantasy book that is genuinely grimdark.

What do I mean when I say YA? 

There are competing definitions, but I’m going with a fairly broad definition, with some specificity. My Definition of YA is as follows:

YA fiction is fiction often written to explore themes that are developmentally appropriate for young adults, is often intended for an audience in that age group, and often features protagonists who are themselves young adults. 

Notice my use of “often”— I don’t think it has to be marketed towards your adults in order to be YA. I also don’t think that it has to explore developmentally appropriate topics to be YA. I also don’t think it has to have YA protagonists to be YA— It think it has to have some combinations of these, preferably multiple, but not always. I'm sure you can think of examples of YA books that do/don’t fit all of these criteria. The reasons why I think the Poppy War is YA are VERY complex— I’ll get into that later.

While YA is an age group, not a genre, I think that there are absolutely established conventions for this category, as if it were its own genre. It has tropes that come up time and time again— as all genres do. Its readers have expectations for its content and tone that can be fulfilled or subverted— as all genres do. With all that in mind, Im going to treat YA fantasy as its own subgenre. 

What do I mean when I say grimdark? 

When I say grimdark fantasy, I mean fantasy that has as fundamentally negative view of the world. A kind of “no good deed goes unpunished” attitude. There are no safety nets, no plot armor— nothing and no one is safe. Conventions of this subgenre include things like descriptive violence, betrayals, themes of vengeance, morally grey characters (including protagonists)— among many other things. No subject matter is off the table, and every line can/will be crossed.

I think it’s pretty indisputable that the Poppy War is grimdark.

Things I liked

• the fusion of subgenres

• the setting and historical references (easter eggs everywhere)

• The main character dynamics

• character motivations

• incorporation and subversion of fantasy tropes

• references to Chinese mythology and the monomyth

Things I disliked:

• side-character dynamics-- felt stilted at times, especially in act 2

• pacing of act 2

I’m rating The Poppy War 4.5 stars.

To justify a star rating, I need to get clear on why I couldn’t have rated it at 4.75 stars, and why I also couldn’t have rated it at 4.25 stars.

It rises above 4.25 stars because of the ways it contributes to the fantasy canon as a whole. It’s not only a well-written book that was satisfying to read. It made me question my assumptions of the genre as a whole, and consider dimensions to it that never crossed my mind before.

The thing that held this back from being 4.75 stars was act 2. I found that the middle sags in comparison to the incredibly tight, well-realized beginning and end. This is a famously difficult part of a book to keep an audience engaged during, and I definitely experienced that here. The events of act 2 felt less real to me than the rest of the book in some crucial way. 

***SPOILERS***

It's YA, but it’s Grimdark

As I mentioned, I have no idea who this book was marketed to, and I don’t know what Kuang calls it herself— so I can’t speak to that aspect. Here’s why I think this book is YA, based on the definition I laid out before:

A) It has a cast of YA protagonists, and includes many YA fantasy genre conventions.

The first half of this book reads as a pretty standard, very well-written YA story. A girl from a small town gets an opportunity that changes her life entirely. She is cast into a new world full of new people, and new norms to learn. She is different from everyone around her, and they antagonize her for being different and/or special. There’s an old, wise mentor who takes our protagonist under his wing. I also picked up on hints of a love triangle, though love became an increasingly fraught word to use for it. We also see Rin choose between the safe, responsible course of action her mentor proposes, and the dangerous, exciting one that her commander proposes.

B) It tackles themes that are developmentally appropriate for young adults.

This is the trickier one. By making this novel grimdark RF Kuang challenges us to question what we, as adults, consider to be appropriate for young adults. Do young adults around the world not experience classism, colorism, and sexism at school? Are young adults not capable of deciding at 15 they never want children? Are young adults around the world not pushed into military service and exposed to the atrocities of war? Do young adults never see their friends die, or get abused by people in positions of power? These are all things that young adults deal with, regardless of what one’s picture of the ideal young adult experience looks like. Making this world grimdark doesn’t disqualify it from being YA— but why would I think that to begin with? 

If Kuang is right about what young adults can handle in their fiction (which I think she is), why did I need The Poppy War to convince me of that? Reflecting on this question, it turns out that I do expect YA to be more restrained in its depictions of violence, war, suffering, etc. I assume this expectation comes from what I know of other YA fantasy books. Six of Crows and The Hunger Games have violence, but not like this. This brings up my appreciation of grimdark as a subgenre. As a peace-loving person who hopes to never get punched in the face (or worse), I appreciate that grimdark fantasy refuses to glorify violence. There’s nothing nice about a battle. There’s nothing glorious about taking a life. Torture scenes should look and feel like torture scenes. It’s unfortunate and painful for everyone involved (hopefully), and ought to be depicted as such. And there’s certainly no reason to obscure that for young adults.

It’s Grimdark But It’s YA:

We see Rin make all of the wrong decisions, and are made to understand exactly why— this is excruciating at times, and also such a classic young adult experience. The fantasy genre elements supercharge the stakes and power behind every decision, and those decisions are being made by an incredibly passionate teenager; this is something MANY of us have been, and can relate to. More than anything, Rin craves agency in a world that is pitted against her.

Grimdark snaps The Poppy War's classic YA love triangle over it's knee. I think the dynamic Kuang sets up between Rin, Nezha and Altan purposely evokes the love triangle dynamic in order to subvert it. There's no Peeta and Gale to be found in Nezha and Altan-- primarily because Nezha dies in a poisonous gas attack, and Altan becomes physically and emotionally abusive. This may be the clearest example of the fusion of the two subgenres in The Poppy War. Kuang seems to say, "of course we'll explore this trope, but it's not going to be pretty." I'm not convinced that either of them are fully dead (I haven't seen the bodies), so who knows-- this could come back in book 2).

Rin and the other characters are frequently wrong. Disastrously so. They are smart, capable and powerful— and very inexperienced. When Golyn Niis is sacked, they are greatly deceived. When Rin and Altan seek an army in Chuluu Korikh, they are wrong about the nature of its inhabitants. Kuang frequently gives us a YA setup (powerful, emotional, capable decisions) followed by grimdark payoffs (Feylen is unsavable, genocide doesn’t repay genocide, doing a legendarily good job doesn’t mean you’ve won in the end).

When Rin and Altan go to Chuluu Korikh, it reminded me of Aragorn seeking the paths of the dead in The Lord of the Rings. A leader figure seeking a mythically powerful army entombed in a mountain— not living, yet not allowed to die. When Aragorn does this, he returns with the battle-deciding factor on his heels. The army fulfills its oath, and is released from their eternal torment. When Altan attempts the same thing, in hopes of routing the federation, he is met with dire consequences— a rogue shaman is unleashed on the world (with who-knows-what-consequences), no army is summoned, and he and Rin are both captured. Where Tolkien rewards, Kuang punishes— a hallmark of grimdark, and in this case it can’t be untangled from its YA thematics.

What makes this book so polarizing?

Based on my experience with the Poppy War, I think this book is polarizing primarily because of reader expectations. This claim will take more research to back up, and I am still writing from my isolated state, so these are purely my thoughts.

What do YA Fantasy fans expect from their books? Surely not a graphic fantasy-rehashing of the Rape of Nanking. Speaking for myself, I’ve never picked up a YA Fantasy book expecting to read this kind of scene. What do grimdark fans expect from their books? Surely not a teenage girl studying hard and navigating the social dynamics of her school. These statements are reductive, but you get my point.

I think this book would’ve been very upsetting or disappointing to anyone expecting it to be more like the books they already love— it contorts both subgenres into something that subverts the most beloved aspects of both. The result is something that I find to be incredibly beautiful for its complexity, and valuable for its contribution to the fantasy canon.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end! I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section, and please join us on Discord for many more book discussions :)

Our contributors have been busy reading some great titles this week!

Niba is reading Alchemised by SenLinYu.

Marlena is reading Newbourne Park by Jennifer Thorne.

Jordy is reading The Witch by Freida McFadden.

Rah is reading White Magic by Elissa Washuta.

Mhairie is reading Hard Copy by Fien Veldman.

Casey is reading Howls from the Dark Ages by P.L. McMillan and Solomon Forse.

What book(s) have you been reading lately? Share below in the comments so we can discuss!