Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power-an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. That she got into Sinegard-the most elite military school in Nikan-was even more surprising.īecause being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. When Rin aced the Keju-the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies-it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. Please note that although I’ve tried my best to avoid spoilers, this review isn’t entirely spoiler-free! I’ve only ever published a review of The Poppy War back on my free WordPress blog, but now that the trilogy is over (and I’ve officially read all my hardback copies – because yes, of course got a hardback copy of The Burning God as well!) I think it’s finally time for me to review the entire thing. Thus leading to the “taking the day off to finish it” incident I mentioned earlier.

Waiting until November? Nuh-uh! But luckily, the ARC gods heard my prayer and granted me my wish. Come hell or high water I needed to read asap the conclusion to this stunning trilogy. So when news of The Burning God started appearing in 2020, I knew I had to have an ARC again. (Yes, I bought the finished copy as soon as it was published and it took me a year to finally reread it.

I studiously kept up with news on release of the sequel, The Dragon Republic, which I also got to read as an e-ARC (bless up on Kuang and her team, honestly!) in 2019 and then again in 2020 when I finally read my hardback copy. 😬) How could I not? The Poppy War was one of the first ever ARCs I received as a brand new blogger in 2018, and I will always be grateful to Kuang and her team for that! My glowing review of the first book in this trilogy got me lots of views and had my stats booming, reinforcing my previously tentative decision to keep and maintain a book blog. When I first received my e-ARC of The Burning God, I decided that I was going to have to take a day off to finish it.

The poppy war trilogy