Lee Hunts

I just finished reading Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang. I am familiar with Kuang through her Poppy War trilogy, which I have reviews of for each entry. I will link them below. The short of it was that I thought the Poppy War series was alright overall. The second entry was my favorite, with the first being fairly good, and the final one finding itself in a neutral position (a lot of negatives, a lot of positives, and an overall balance as they cancelled each other out). While I enjoyed the grimdark world that was created for the reader, there was also some messy dialogue, New Adult elements in the first entry, and heavy-handed moralizing that I found eyeball rolling. Kuang and I do not share the same political persuasion, if only because I am not hard left wing and I am generally anti-woke. And when I learned that she had another book out (aside from Babel), I wanted to at least try it out, especially when I read the premise for the story. A white girl steals a manuscript from her Asian bes...

I just finished The Dragon Republic, the second book in The Poppy War Trilogy. In the aftermath of the events of the first book, Rin was left traumatized and addicted to opium. She lost Nehza, a close friend of hers, she committed an act of genocide against an entire country, and her friendship with her only remaining friend is consequently on the ropes. Rin is now forced to rely of the help of people who have no regard for her humanity, as she works to take down Su Daji, the Empress who betrayed her country and set the Federation loose on her people. The book is a fast paced and gripping tale that continually makes you question where the story is headed, and who the real danger is. In true grimdark fashion, the waters are incredibly muddy, and friend and foe are equally susceptible to cruelty and vicious pragmatism. Overall, I enjoyed the book, and consider this to be a very strong follow up to The Poppy War. Overall (No Spoilers) The best part about the book is the overall plot progr...