This book is beyond incredible. The writing is gorgeous. Rin is a compelling character who experiences growth and corruption simultaneously throughout the book. The supporting cast is fantastic. The worldbuilding is utterly fascinating.

But this is a VERY heavy read. It deals with intense subject matter in a pretty unrelenting way. Please make sure you’re ready to handle some seriously triggering content before you read it.

For me, the four stages of reading The Poppy War were as follows:

1. Wow damn this is a really good fantasy book with a military academy setting.
2. Oh this is a book about religion and spirituality and power where those things are channeled through drugs.
3. Actually this is a book about genocide.
4. OH SHIT OH FUCK OH MY GOD.

I really only have one critique, which is that the part where Rin gets her period for the first time was executed kind of messily. I get that the arrival of her first period at age seventeen and her reaction to it and general ignorance of the subject was meant to express just how ignorant and malnourished she was in Tikany, but because she still doesn’t care for her body at all when she’s at Sinegard, it didn’t quite land for me as a reader.

Weird period thing notwithstanding, if you want to read a beautifully crafted military fantasy that explores war and genocide and imperialism and loss through one character’s part in all of it, this might be the best one there is.