Book 2 of R. F. Kuang's Poppy Wars trilogy, following The Poppy War. Listened at 1.25x speed because I had about 10 days to listen to the 24 hour audiobook.

Still grimdark = fighting and war and betrayal and other terrible, terrible things. Still entertaining too, but without the novelty of the first book (especially the worldbuilding), things are starting to get a bit repetitive.

I'll still listen to the third and last book when my turn comes on Libby!

4/10