If you’ve gotten this far (to the Burning God), I’m assuming you’ve read the first 2 books. So let me just say, it’s also grim.

I don’t think I have the capacity to write a cohesive review of this conclusion to the Poppy War because my personal feelings and choices are conflicted with some of the choices that Kuang made through the arc of the story and each character.

But that aside, I think this is an amazing work coming from the younger Kuang, especially as a debut series. To me, her words in this series are not as eloquent as her later books, and her ideas are not as developed, but the creation of Nikara and this world is fantastic.

To be honest I got exhausted around 70-80% of the book because I feel like some of the character’s decisions, thoughts, and emotions were repeated and I feel like there should be a better development after all the things that had happened. And because of that, this is my least favorite book in the series.

But this book still have lovely moments that happened throughout, and I appreciate all of that.

At the end of the day, this is a complex story. And this book especially tried to delve into really difficult psyche and emotions of the complex characters - not an easy feat but an important topic to discuss.

As a citizen of a country who had been colonized, I especially appreciate Rin for all her fight she gave to claim and show the worthiness of her race and country as a human beings. And for that, I thank Rebecca Kuang for having written this important story.