Book Review: "The Poppy War" by R.F. Kuang
4.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* I am not sure how The Poppy War didn’t win the Goodreads Choice Awards in 2018 in the category of fantasy or debut author. The first entry in the Sino-Japanese War inspired fantasy blew me away. “Well, fuck the heavenly order of things. If getting married to a gross old man was her preordained role on this earth, then Rin was determined to rewrite it.” Our protagonist, Rin, won me over quickly with her determination and persistence. (Notice how I say protagonist and not hero .) A dark-skinned peasant girl from the southern provinces of Nikan is slated to be married off by her criminal adopted parents and will do anything to change her fate. Her only hope of getting out of her home village is taking the prestigious national exam and testing into the tuition-free military academy of Sinegard . Rin studies to the point of self-harm. But she passes the exam and tests into Sinegard , where she is thrown into a brutal academy to learn how to become the