Spoilers for the first 9 Chapters of The Poppy War and Divergent
The Poppy War is very outside my typical type of book, but as someone who studied and is fascinated by history and wanted to diversify the kind of books I was reading. In my seach to do so, this series kept popping up for me to read. I went in with no expectations except that it was violent and shocking. So far, I feel like nothing of that sort has happened yet, but from spoiler-free reviews I have seen people say it starts slow and then picks up quickly and consistently, so I am cruising and anticipating the plot further.
My initial thoughts are that Rin is a very interesting character. The scene that drew my attention and made me begin paying attention to her decision-making was her decision to basically destroy her womb so that she wouldn’t have to miss class or deal with her period and have it get in the way of her studies. Another scene that grabbed my attention was when she was questioned about strategy, and she was willing to sacrifice “collateral damage” in pursuit of victory. Girl is ruthless, and I’m so here for it.
As for my thoughts on the other characters so far, I REALLY like Kitay and Jiang. Kitay is precious, and really our only friend. He is kind and very funny, and I find myself paying more attention when he is in a scene, so it’s safe to say I love his character a lot. Jiang is such a fun character; he’s threatening to cut off students’ hair, picking his nose, and not wasting his time teaching students he wasn’t invested in. That is something you typically don’t see from what I presume to be a play on the “old sage” archetype. The other two characters I also have thoughts on are Nezha and Altan. As for Nezha, he has been shown to get on Rin’s nerves and rivals and fights with her a lot, but he’s also giving me major Peter from Divergent vibes, so I do wonder if he will start to ally with us when shit goes down. Finally, Altan. Altan is THAT GUY, and he stunned Rin when they interacted. I’m really interested in seeing more of him and his past with Jiang, as well as seeing how he and Rin compare in terms of capability.
The only negative I have to say about this book so far is that I’m not a big fan of the long chapters but that’s solely a personal thing and has nothing to do with the actual book or writing. I just feel like I have to put more effort and time into it (even though it makes no difference because a book with the same page count with shorter chapters wouldn’t give me this problem). So that’s all personal, but I am really looking forward to what this book brings going forward.