leigh ann

Another week another book report.

My goal this year for my website is post at least once a week – I know I said in hello 2026 that my goal was to just survive and find happiness but reality means that I still set personal goals from myself regardless of what I make up my mind to do because floating directionless makes me panic.

And also I’ve basically skedaddled off instagram because of the AI policies and data scrapping and being a bad person when linking off-site and I used to really be into bookstagram way back when. So the bookstagram part of me is coming to this website! Obviously it’ll be less social but the comments are open and actually a few people I know in real life reached out to me to talk about my review of the poppy war and that was fun, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you wanna talk details or think my opinion is garbage!

Let’s start off with this – I’m still a Rin fan, always a Rin fan, never will not be a Rin fan, and if you aren’t a Rin fan I feel sorry for you.

I can see how she got herself into every single situation she encounters in this book and I sympathize with that. It’s hard to bounce back from trauma and finding yourself as a person is hard in regular life – much less a war where you are playing center stage. I can see the appeal in offsetting that responsibility somewhere else. Anywhere else. I mourn for Rin’s peace and a life she could have had where none of this happened.

Rin has a lot of shit on her shoulders and honestly a lesser person would have folded and I need yall to respect her for that – even through every bad decision she’s made because of it. Let me see you do better!

Also the way this book addressed the relationships between the characters felt raw. Everything built in directions that felt right.

Kuang really wanted us to trust Nezha in this one but let me tell you something!! I hate Nezha from the jump and I’ll hate him tell the end. I’m a born certified hater. He could completely come around in the next book and have secret motives as hinted or be looking out for Rin or whatever but I. DO. NOT. CARE. Hater till I die. No explanations needed.

The dark content stayed dark. It’s war. It’s grim. There’s drugs. And murder. Bad people. People trying anything to survive. Folks so badly traumatized it’s a miracle they’re able to go on. You see the effect of everything that has happened all around. And Kuang seems to cover any plotholes. Of course the finale of the first book would stretch further that it’s supposed happy ending.

My one qualm about the series so far is that whole – there are no evil people motif that seems to be building. Rin’s encounter with the Empress was kind of anticlimactic in a way where it’s like – fine! even if I get where she came from and how she got her I still want to see her brought to an end! It’s probably supposed to be a reflection on Rin and how people might come to see her – a warning of her potential future but sometimes I don’t wanna think I just wanna see that bad guy get beat up!

In the end, I immediately jumped into the third book and that’s a good a sign as ever.