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(ID in alt text)

for @cleo-2345 :)

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sneak peek on the no peak sibs 👀

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Does everyone remember that Lan was proud of Anden? That he would have been proud of whatever path Anden chose to take?

Because I sure do 😭

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i don't chase men but if it's kaul lan i might sprint

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on my honour, my life, and my jade

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『The No Peak Clan』

animated version here

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kaul siblings at the Academy where shae wants to fight hilo, hilo wants to fight lan, and lan just wants to stop his siblings shenanigans for a morsel of peace

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Finally finished all four illustrations for RF Kuang's The Poppy War series! ✨🔥⚔🐉👑🌊

※ please do not repost without permission

Available as prints!

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Normal People (2020)

Being alone with her is like opening a door away from normal life and then closing it behind him.

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“She closes her eyes. He probably won’t come back, she thinks. Or he will, differently. What they have now they can never have back again. But for her the pain of loneliness will be nothing to the pain that she used to feel, of being unworthy. He brought her goodness like a gift and now it belongs to her. Meanwhile his life opens out before him in all directions at once. They’ve done a lot of good for each other. Really, she thinks, really. People can really change one another. You should go, she says. I’ll always be here. You know that.” NORMAL PEOPLE (2020)

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i am once again thinking about this passage from normal people 

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Normal People

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Still thinking about this tweet

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Princess Monoke X the Poppy War AU… no thoughts, head empty

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The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

goodreads

my rating: 4.5 / 5

I honestly don't know where to start because this book is brilliant and the fact that the author started writing this story at 19 and published at 22 is insane. My God, this is a strong debut grimdark fantasy novel and I am beyond impressed and speechless. I have so many thoughts but I don’t know how to articulate them. So, this is basically a very long and chaotic essay on why I love this book. 

Firstly, I love this book because it is essentially a reinterpretation of China war history but make it fantasy. It is based on the Opium Wars and the Second Sino-Japanese War (mainly on the Rape of Nanking). Therefore, this book is very political heavy as it centers on the discussions about the purpose, the violence and the aftermath of war. With that being said, this book is very, very dark and the description of the atrocities that happened during these wars is very graphic. So, I highly encourage you to know the trigger/content warning of this book before reading it. I thought I was mentally prepared for this and then, BAM! Everything was too much and I had to collect myself afterwards because it is just so horrifying :( It's sickening to think that the brutal scenes depicted in this book was taken directly from history books and the author does not sugarcoat anything at all. However, she writes in a way that does not romanticized war violence but to show that these things did happened in real life.  

Secondly, I love this book because of the main character Fang Runin, nicknamed Rin. Rin is a complex and well-developed main character that I hate to love. She’s a very headstrong and determined and would do anything to achieve the things she puts her mind to. I admire her tenacity to pass the Keju, which is a standardized test just so she can escape forced marriage and enter an elite military academy. Although she came from a poor family, she would move mountains just so everyone in the academy think that she is worthy to be there and I love that about her! Besides that, Rin is also a very empathetic character. She cares deeply for her friends and the people of her country and would make sacrifices to protect them from the enemies when the war started. However, both commendable characteristics makes her a very impulsive character. She would make a lot of reckless decisions regardless of the severe situation without thinking thoroughly about the consequences of her actions. Her intention is noble but the things she would do can sometimes be borderline harmful for her and others. I think the author deliberately make her that way so we can see her struggle to accept and deal with the repercussions. I want to say that this book felt like a power hungry villain origin story and I am here for it! :D 

Thirdly, I love the themes and the social commentary that are explored in this book. For someone who reads fantasy just for the fun adventures, I don���t really analyse critically about the themes that much. But after reading this book, I just can’t stop thinking about it. The author incorporates the themes so well makes you think deeply about it. The themes portrayed include the brutality and the traumatic consequences of war which often affect the innocent civilians the most as they don’t have any war skills and are dependent on the military forces that are sometimes willing to put them at risk in the name of war strategy. Besides that, this book also explores the theme of classism and how status and power dictates acceptability in a society and those who are not in the same social standing would be alienated and oppressed just because. This theme also correlates with colourism where if you’re poor, you would have darker skin as you have to work under the sun every day to survive. Meanwhile, those with higher status have pale white skin because they have the privilege to not work for their life. Moreover, the lust for vengeance is also one of the main themes in this book where it discusses whether retribution is worthy and how far would you go for vengeance? Is inflicting immense pain to the enemy is justifiable and what makes you different from them? Does it make you a saviour or a monster? The book talks a lot about this conflict and I am very interested about the morality of it. There’s a lot more themes that I can put forth but then this essay would be so so long it would be boring lol 

Finally, I love the uniqueness of the fantasy element in this series which is based on shamanism where shaman use drugs to commune with the gods for help and guidance. Although, the fantasy element is not original as the author said its a combination of different beliefs and cultures from China, Mongolia and Tibet, it is still fresh and uncommon in fantasy fiction. I also like how there’s consequences in weaponizing the help of gods as the power they channels can consume the humans mentally as well as physically which essentially can make shamans go crazy. The ‘me’ problem that I have regarding this is that I struggled to understand fully the theology of shamanism as it was too complicated for me and my two brain cells to comprehend though it doesn’t deter me from enjoying the rest of the story. 

I don’t really have much complaints about this book except that I wish we learn more about the other characters such as Jiang, Kitay and Nezha because they seems some interesting enough characters that I like to explore. 

All in all, I think this is one of the most well-written debut novel I’ve read so far.  Although the story talks about very serious and dark themes, I think the author has done a very good job in writing the violence in the most delicate way as to not exploit the trauma just for horror points. The more I analyse it, the more I love it and this review does not bring any justice of how amazing this book is. The Poppy War is definitely in my top 10 best books I’ve read this year and I can’t wait to read the sequel! I really want to shove this book down everyone’s throat but I can’t because it’s dark and brutal but to anyone who’s interested in reading a grimdark fantasy with protagonist corruption arc, this is for you! :D

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the absolute most chaotic yet competent ship in existence would be kaz brekker/locke lamora. no, i don’t accept criticism. 

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i absolutely love this review