I think I waited too long after finishing The Poppy War to read book two of the trilogy, The Dragon Republic, because the story has lost momentum for me and Rin is becoming an exasperating protagonist.
If you plan on reading The Poppy War, obviously do not continue reading this review of The Dragon Republic as there are spoilers.
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After reading Richard Powers’ dense novel, The Overstory, Playground is definitely a much easier read, but there are many different thematic threads woven through Playground that I found myself feeling disoriented about what the novel is supposed to be about, and then the end hit me with a sledgehammer and left me feeling devastated.
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Mona Awad’s Bunny was first published in 2019 and in the years since has become a BookTok darling, but it is a divisive novel. You are either going to love this book or think it is one of the most unhinged things you have ever read. I’m in the latter camp. I don’t hate it, but I am wondering what the fuck did I just read?
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As I said, I am continuing to read Kristin Hannah’s novels (at least the ones that sound interesting to me). I like Winter Garden better than The Four Winds, but like The Four Winds, Winter Garden can’t hold a candle to The Nightingale.
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The Seventh Veil of Salome is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s last book published before The Bewitching and somehow I only just learned about its existence. I really like Moreno-Garcia’s novels, so of course I had to read it. It is historical fiction like her other novels, but it is missing the supernatural elements that I enjoy about her storytelling.
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Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore has been chosen as Indigo’s #1 Best Book of 2025, and it is an interesting choice, not because I think it is a bad novel (it’s actually pretty good), but because there are certain elements of the story that feel contrived and uninspired.
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I have been waiting over a year to read Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods because the hardcover version was expensive, and I was not able to find it on sale. The paperback version finally came out at the end of October, and let me tell you, it was worth the wait to read this book.
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I decided to read Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement because I thought Leave the World Behind was an interesting enough story, so perhaps this story would be too. But no, Entitlement is just as dumb as its protagonist.
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The Four Winds is the second novel that I have read that is written by Kristin Hannah. It is a good novel, but I did not feel the same emotional connection to it as I did with The Nightingale (ie. I did not bawl my eyes out at the end).
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Sisters in the Wind is Angeline Boulley’s third novel and has the same setting and some of the same characters as her first two novels, Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed. Although not as good as the other two novels, I initially found Sisters in the Wind to be an interesting story. But now that I have had some time to reflect on it, I have realized that I do not like this novel very much.
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