The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, Book 2)

“Fire and water looked so lovely together. It was a pity they destroyed each other by nature.”

4 ⭐

It took me two years to finally read the second book in this series and I am not going to lie, this series so far has been exhausting and mildly traumatising. When I wrote my review for the first book I think I was in a state of shock because I barely even mentioned how it affected me, Part 3 of The Poppy War took a very dark turn and felt like a completely different book to the first two parts and, spoiler for book one,
SPOILER
the fact it ended on a genocide borne from revenge and hatred of an entire country of people didn't sit well with me.
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For a long time I wondered if I would ever even pick this series up again, to be honest, and I am glad that I did but also I think this series, while very well written for the most part, just isn't developing in a way that I completely vibe with.

It's actually not so much the topics, I think a story about war and oppression is always going to have very tough subjects discussed, betrayal, poverty, treatment of refugees, prejudice, murder, rape etc those, unfortunately, all come part and parcel with war and the way they're added into these books is realistic but I am not sure they're handled as well as they could be. For one, Rin's character is incredibly flawed - and I like a good morally grey character - but, especially through The Dragon Republic, she just does not have any character growth. At the beginning she is battling with grief and guilt for what she did and ends up addicted to opium because those feelings plus the rage she feels fuels the Phoenix and causes her to lose control of her fire. I think this would have been a great place for the story to segue into a deep dive into those feelings and a chance for Rin to grow and learn to be better, have some emotional stability and only access the rage purposefully when she needs her powers. But instead she become infatuated with a man who is very similar to Altan, the man who wrecked her and basically abused her previously, and is strong armed into sobriety and control, which somehow happens cold turkey over a miraculously short week...
SPOILER
Rin then goes on to lose access to her power through Daji's Seal and basically throws tantrums and then gives up and becomes a shell of herself, and is only happy again once she finds a way to access her rage again. She yells and screams about basically committing near genocide again on the remaining Federation soldiers, the Hesperians and even, at the end, the Dragon Republic itself
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Through all of this, Kitay remains my favourite character. His friendship with Rin is amazing, his balance of knowledge and morality juxtaposed against Rin's chaos and hatred is so refreshing, and as we learn in this book he's fuelled by anger himself but the way he channels that is just so much healthier than her. At the end of the book,
SPOILER
when everything goes down with Nezha and Vaisra's betrayal, Rin talks about wanting to find other kids just like her, wanting to harness their rage to fight a civil war and Kitay is resigned to going along with this plan even though it's clear he hates it.
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I just hope he gets a happy ending, I don't really care what happens to any of the other characters because honestly, I don't really like any of the other characters, but Kitay deserves peace and his dream of becoming a scholar. The other side characters are kind of non-consequential to be honest, they're still pretty 2D in my mind. We lose a lot of pretty important people in this book and I just didn't feel attached enough to them to be upset, sadly.

I think I am in a bit of a shock again writing this review too to be honest, so I am probably going to take another break before I read the third book but overall, I did enjoy this story. The plot meanders quite a lot and I do think this book suffers a bit from middle book syndrome but altogether I found it action packs, thrilling and fascinating to read. If I wasn't so entertained by the story itself I think I probably would've given this book less stars, but I'm settling on four because it's something I would absolutely recommend to some people but there is just a little something missing. If you are going to pick up this series you NEED to check your triggers because this is not an easy read, but I do think it's good writing to an extent. RF Kuang is clearly an accomplished writer and has important things to say, but I do think it could use a little bit more refining to give those messages punch rather than resorting to endless trauma and shock value.

not the mao zedong fanfic

okay so without getting too detailed, i think this was a shockingly bad follow up to the poppy war (do keep in mind i read tpw over a year ago). I did like the book, in general, i think, but I find myself having the same issue with Kuangs writing. She is so heavy handed with info and messages, and leaves nothing to be interpreted. When she wants to tell you something, SHE WILL.

I also understand why Rin is the way she is, I understand the parallells to Mao Zedong, and I understand an unlikeable mc. I LOVE an unlikeable mc, they're my fav actually. Rin, on the other hand, is not as much an unlikeable mc or anti hero, as much as she is just an asshole who throws tantrums whenever she doesn't get her way. I do believe this again boils down to bad writing, bc I won't doubt for a second that a mc could be entertaining even if they follow the same arc as Rin does. Rin has no ambitions for herself, cannot do shit unless there's a man involved, and it seems her character changes personality whenever Kuang needs to further the plot, with no sense, meaning or reason.

As with babel the side characters are definitely there! idk who they are but they're there!! Rin is a mouthpiece for Kuang and her history lessons, and AGAIN its just the same issues with the writing that i had with babel.

I've compared this a lot to babel, and we all know how that went...but i WILL say this series (and book) is better, because it feels more focused on the plot? Prob because she chose a different historical event to rewrite but you get the point.

also i think Kuang might benefit from rebranding? go into historical fiction instead of covering up lackluster writing and plotholes with bad and poorly executed magic systems

ANYWAYS, idk how to end this so i will simply be fainting