The Poppy War is a book that continued to surprise and delight me. First off, you don't need to have an understanding of Chinese history to enjoy this, but if you do, you will likely be jumping for joy every time you notice one of the people or incidents that this book draws from. A heavy dash of Eastern martial arts mixed with magic and exciting action scenes with an impressive outsider heroine in Rin that you can't help but root for mean that it can be enjoyed by its own, but the shadows of history loom large over this.
Perhaps at first, like me, you will read the beginning chapters and think to yourself, 'Aha! This is a gifted child at a School from Hell, there, I see the noble rival, and over there the smart bookish ally, and of course there is the eccentric teacher.' Perhaps you will think that this is that type of story, with that type of stakes, perhaps at the end they will graduate from this safe space, but for now-no. No, this is not that type of book, and the stakes raise from the fate of children to the fate of nations, characters fail and characters die and we learn very quickly that nobody is really safe, because the shadows of history are there and hungry.
This is a world heavily based on pre-WWII China, albeit with the things slightly adjusted, and the stand-in for Japan looms large over the story. Even as we explore the world and find the parallels to our own China, from the echos of the Opium Wars, Sun Yat Sen and the last Dowager Empress, to the Terra Cotta Army and others, both far too many to recite here, and many that I've no doubt missed. But the most important and most impactful of course is the Rape of Nanking. A pivotal moment that holds special meaning to me, as my paternal grandfather was involved in the recovery there after the war.
The book pulls no punches, and isn't afraid to show the horrors of war. The equivalent of gas attacks and military massacres are described in visceral detail, and the emotional impact on the characters, especially Rin is felt like a weight as she is pushed to the breaking point. I mentioned that characters fail and die, but they also grow, far beyond my expectations, especially in her classmates that at first I almost dismissed as schoolyard archetypes. And if the scenes described in the book are horrifying even on paper, I know that history, reality, was far worse. In another fantasy setting someone might say, 'no, this is too far, too dark, too evil even for villains' and yet, we know that these deeds were done, that there are records of Japanese soldiers laughing as they committed atrocities almost beyond comprehension. In the end, it helps us to sympathize with the cold choices that define our heroine, this is not the story where light will find some bloodless way to prevail over evil, there will be blood and sacrifice and hardship, and in the end a tough decision that in another story would alienate one from the protagonist, but here it doesn't, because the roots in reality and in history mean that people made similar choices.
It isn't perfect, the first half of the book is a bit slow, establishing characters and the school from hell. Well, we've seen this dance before many times and the the tonal shift once we leave the school can be a bit jarring. In addition, we're seeing things from a certain perspective, while it does a good job embodying a viewpoint, sometimes the nuance is lost. A final point, which is not a criticism, is that this is a book that may be difficult for some people to read, not because of its complexities or anything like that, but simply because it delves into topics that for a lot of people could be very traumatic. Abuse, trauma and atrocities are a recurring theme and one should be prepared to deal with that.
Overall though, I'm very happy to have read this book. There a vast richness of history around China and especially that period which western readers rarely encounter. There are plenty of books out there that will gleefully retell the King Arthur myth or the fall of the Roman Empire with a fantasy veneer, but there are precious few that will delve into the Opium Wars or the Rape of Nanking. The action scenes are top notch and I found the magic system quite fascinating to learn about, with mysteries still to uncover. I would recommend this as an excellent and refreshing change of pace, as long as you are okay with the content, because it doesn't pull punches.
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