I know people pick up books for whatever reason they want to, but please don’t pick up The Poppy War expecting to be ‘entertained’. It’s a gruelling book that discusses, in depth, the violence of colonialism, imperialism and the events of the Second Sino-Japanese war.

This book will take a LOT out of you if you read it. It is one of the most uncensored narratives I’ve ever read that follows war and its impact on everyone from the common citizen to the members of royalty, and their wants and desires and reasons for engaging in war.

TWs for The Poppy War: war themes, drug use, substance addiction, self-harm, racism, misogyny, genocide, bullying, abandonment, abuse, animal death, animal cruelty, brutal torture, brutal killing, brutal rape (off screen), mutilation, graphic depictions of how children &

adults died, experimentations on people against their will, colourism, xenophobia and uncomfortable language re: Indigenous people.

TW for The Dragon Republic: depiction of rape (on page), colourism, xenophobia, graphic description of dead bodies (once almost made me throw up),

animal cruelty, torture, uncomfortable discussion of the treatment of POC by white people, discussion of Phrenology. (I know I’m missing some but these are what I remember.)