R.F. Kuang: The Creative Journey of The Poppy War's Author

What Rebecca Kuang writes about.

Rebecca Kuang is the author of The Poppy War, Babel, Yellowface, and Katabasis, an award-winning writer whose books have topped the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists.

Her novels blend historical research, fantasy, and satire, often exploring themes of power, identity, and cultural memory.

How Rebecca Kuang's writing style has evolved — read on in this DeTalks article.

The Poppy War Trilogy

Rebecca Kuang built the trilogy's world on her own interpretation of history and her family's experience. She grew up in the US in a family of Chinese immigrants who rarely spoke about their past. She mentioned this in her essay 'How to Talk to Ghosts.'

One of the historical touchstones for the novel was the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, which the author recreated in the book.

“I wrote with fury and anger, because I found it just astonishing and genuinely tragic that something like this was barely discussed in the West, and that it hadn't been properly acknowledged or apologized for by Japan,” Kuang said.

The plot follows an orphan from a poor province. Rin unexpectedly passes the empire-wide exam and enrolls at the Sinegard military academy — a result that surprises both the examiners and her guardians, who had planned to marry her off and use her in illegal opium trading. For Rin, it becomes a shot at freedom.

Determined to hold her ground at the academy and stand up to stronger rivals, Rin discovers a gift for shamanism and a connection to the fire god, the Phoenix. But the power that helps her through her studies may not be enough in wartime, and using it comes at a steep cost.

On Goodreads, The Poppy War trilogy holds a 4.38 rating.

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence

On a technical level, Babel became more complex than any installment of The Poppy War trilogy. The book follows students navigating a world clearly not built for them, even as they desperately want to belong to it.

After finishing The Poppy War series, Rebecca Kuang decided to change her approach to writing. She didn't want to dive straight into her next book, fearing it would just echo her previous work.

The author stopped writing for a while and focused on reading literature with a different tone and style. She turned to Victorian literature, including authors like Dickens, Austen, and the Brontë sisters. She was drawn to their narrative pacing, complex language, and observant, ironic style.

“In The Poppy War trilogy, I aimed for elegant, minimalist prose. In Babel, I'm exploring a maximalist style, where every paragraph is packed with wordplay, footnotes, and gossipy asides. It makes the text denser, but all the feedback so far suggests readers genuinely enjoyed it, which is a relief!” Rebecca wrote.

Babel is a historical fantasy novel set in the 19th century, during the height of British imperialism. The book's protagonist is Robin, an Oxford University student trying to figure out his role in the empire's expansion.

A key element of the plot is the relationships among four characters — Robin, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty. According to Kuang, the dark academia genre depends on complicated, ambiguous friendships that form during a period when a person hasn't yet settled on their own identity.

On Goodreads, the book holds a 4.14 rating and was nominated for Readers' Favorite Fantasy in 2022, where Babel placed second.

Yellowface

Yellowface is a satirical novel in which the author stepped away from epic fantasy to tackle the publishing industry.

At the center of the plot are two former Yale classmates: successful author Athena Liu and lesser-known writer June Hayward. After Athena's sudden death, June takes and edits her unfinished manuscript about Chinese laborers in World War I.

The book quickly brings success to the protagonist, but she can't shake the shadow of its real author. The situation grows more complicated when accusations of stealing the manuscript surface on social media.

“Yellowface was another gear shift, because I couldn't stand writing like Dickens anymore. The voice furthest from Dickens is instead this loose, chaotic internet voice, where people throw around metaphors and comparisons to build arguments, a constant blend of messaging and memes,” she noted, the author.

"It was genuinely fun for me to sit with that voice, to recreate it, describe it, and think about someone who absorbs the world their whole life through that lack of precision," Rebecca Kuang added.

The author explained that it was easy for her to write from June's perspective, since the character was shaped by things she'd observed in the publishing world herself. According to Kuang, June has no single real-life prototype — she's a composite character combining traits and moods Kuang encountered while working in the industry.

Katabasis

Rebecca Kuang noted that she wanted to place her characters in a setting where systemic oppression is denied. In such a culture, people are raised to believe that any failure is their own personal fault, to be fixed on their own. In the author's view, that mindset is destructive, because it strips people of the ability to find solidarity.

“I started writing Katabasis during a pretty difficult period in my life. I felt betrayed by my own mind, and I watched the person I loved most in the world be betrayed by their own body,” Kuang wrote.

At the center of the plot is Alice Law, who wants to become a leading researcher in analytic magic. To that end, she sacrifices her health, her personal life, and her sanity to work under Professor Jacob Grimes, the most renowned magician in the world.

Things change after the professor's death, for which Alice may be responsible. Grimes ends up in hell, but his recommendation is what could determine the rest of her academic career. Alice sets out to bring him back.

Her rival, Peter Murdoch, reaches the same conclusion. Drawing on the stories of Orpheus and Dante, the two set out on a journey through hell.

Taipei Story

Rebecca Kuang's next book is expected September 8, 2026. Taipei Story is an ironic, humorous coming-of-age novel in which the protagonist grapples with grief, language, and culture shock.

The story takes place in Taipei, where first-year student Lily Chen arrives for an intensive summer language program, hoping to better understand the culture of her heritage. But the summer's events turn into a search for her own identity and an understanding of what home means.