Book overview
Overall rating: 5/5
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Synopsis: Fang Runin (nicknamed Rin) is a war orphan living in the South and has just been informed that she is going to be forced to get married to a man she has not met. Instead, she studies in an attempt to get into ‘Sinegard academy’, a highly prestigious school that trains the future soldiers. She does this because it is her only chance at being able to leave her abusive home and finding a better life for herself in the future.
Trigger warnings (highlight or copy and paste to read, they have been changed to white for people who want to avoid spoilers): war, drug use, substance abuse, addition, self-harm, racism, misogyny, colourism, genocide, bullying, domestic abuse, animal death, sexual assault (graphic descriptions but occurs offscreen), animal abuse, mutilation, experimentation, graphic depictions of deaths, major character death. (triggers end here)
Before I start the review, I would like to emphasise that this book is incredibly dark and I would be very careful before reading it. This is based on the second Sino-Japanese war, and I noticed a lot of parallels between the depictions of war in this book and the Rape of Nanking, one of the most brutal and inhumane events I have ever read about. Being both half Chinese myself and a history major, I could predict a lot of the descriptions before I even went into the story, so please be careful when picking this up, even if you’re not usually easily triggered. This book is dark.
Review
This book was absolutely amazing.
I don’t think it’s a reach for me to say that this book is going to be one of the spearheads that revolutionise the way we write war within fantasy novels.
A little history lesson about fantasy novels. A lot of the current themes stem from old Nordic literature, such as Beowulf, and those stories had a tendency to romanticise war and honour. The Germanic heroic ideals expressed that losing was not something to be ashamed of, and could even be seen as glorious to a certain extent, but giving up would be something that your community would shame you for, as they would begin to see you as being cowardly. You can see this in the Song of Roland (I know it’s French, but it’s a brilliant example), where Roland refuses to call for help but instead accepts a horrific death for him and his closest friend as he refuses to bring shame to his soldiers. You can easily see this in many fantasy novels that depict war, and perhaps it is not as extreme as it once was in its quest for glory, but it brushes over the gore-y details and does not address the impact of war on a human level.
This book does not do that. This book explores the darkest parts of war. It explores the loss and extreme torture people go through, and the way it breaks even the most optimistic of people. It explores how there really are no real winners in war. At the end, both sides lose because war has a way of stripping away people’s humanity in a way that nothing else does. The soldiers are no longer people, they are just weapons to be utilised against the enemy. Each death does not matter anymore as long as the numbers are not impacted. People are no longer people, they are statistics.
I am quite used to reading about gore and war, especially since, as mentioned before, I am currently studying history at a university level. However, I don’t remember the last time I’ve read a book that has heavily impacted me so much. There were scenes that describe the events of war where I just had to put the book down and stop because they made me feel so ill. This book explores these dark themes in a way that never makes it feel like the author is just throwing in dark themes for the sake of it. A lot of the time, authors who are new to exploring dark themes have a tendency to write in a way that doesn’t feel natural to the reader and almost comes off as cringe-worthy. I think the way Kuang explores these themes is not like that at all, but rather she goes dark in a way not many authors dare without it ever feeling heavy handed.
Along with the exploration of these deep themes, the character work in this book is incredible. I think when it comes to the morally grey, a lot of authors have trouble striking a balance between evoking pathos from the reader and creating someone, for lack of a better term, bad. A lot of the time, it leans too much one way. For example, a character might not come off as morally grey at all because they are too good, or on the opposite end, the author does not make them sympathetic enough to the reader and the reader ends up just not liking the character. I think Kuang does an incredible job at this. The reader really understands why all the main characters are the way that they are but still struggle to condone their actions.
There is a character in the book that perfectly encapsulates this. I won’t name names because some people might think of it as spoilers, but I think if you read the book you’ll know who I’m talking about. At first, I HATED them. I thought they were just another cocky, annoying, boring character, but throughout the book, Kuang explored their past in such great detail, and made me sympathise with them without ever needing to tell the story from their perspective. By the end of the book, I was grieving with them whenever something bad happened, and I fully understood why they did what they did.
I would highly recommend this book to any fantasy fan, or even if you’re not a fantasy fan but love exploring the deeper concepts of things. There is magic within this book, which is what makes it fantasy, but magic isn’t the emphasis of the story. I think if you read books primarily for the magic, this book is still an amazing read I would recommend, but maybe don’t go in expecting an intricate magic system akin to the likes of Sanderson or Brent Weeks.
Overall, this book is incredible and achieves its goals in a way that is new and refreshing, whilst also being easily digestible to people of most reading levels. I firmly believe this book will revolutionise the way war is written in fantasy and brings something new to the table I have yet to see. I highly urge everyone to read this book but please be aware of the darker themes and graphic depictions this book has. Despite my praise, if you think this book will trigger you, please do not feel pressured to pick it up.
If you have read the Poppy War and are interested in learning more about Chinese history, this book reminded me of the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking. I first learnt about this through a book titled ‘The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II’ by Iris Chang. It’s not very long but it summarises the massacre in an effective way that still shows how deeply haunting the event was. Again, be careful when picking it up. All the same trigger warnings apply.
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