The main characters of this work of fiction by Rosca are Eliza Hansen, Adrian Banyaga, Anna Villaverde, and Colonel Amor.

Villaverde got in touch with radicals planning to activate explosives during the festival in order to assassinate The Commander, a name used as an indirect reference to Ferdinand Marcos.

[5][6] The Philippine festival referred to in Rosca's State of War have similarities with the yearly "Mardi Gras" held on Panay Island.

[3] State of war shows women continuing their struggle in years of colonization against generations of, "rape, violence, and oppresion.

The personal memories of the main characters was a recollection of a "state of war" in the Philippines during Marcos's regime that failed to become a true revolution.

Publishers Weekly wrote: "One wishes Rosca had used less allegory and more realistic detail; often the unique situation in the Philippines is lost in her somewhat mannered style.