I like the premise, the plot, the narrator and the discussion about cultural appropriation. The writing flows nicely. The pop culture references and the tweets were fun at the start too, but eventually it got too repetitive for my taste. I get that the main character was spiraling, but it felt tedious towards the end.
At times, the villain-ness of the main character felt too heavy-handed, verging on rage-bait (or was it just too close to home?). And the ending didn't do the book justice.
I've never enjoyed a horrible main character before!
4 stars
I had to keep reminding myself that NO, I did NOT want June to win and come out on top, that she is a despicable selfish person that deserves every horrible thing that she gets.
R.F. Kuang does a really great job at pointing out the toxic things that (some) publishing companies will do to try to make it look like they're all for diversity and for leaving you to really have to stew and think about how far was too far with what Claire does. It was a very uncomfortable read, but in a good way.
Overall, I found this to be a good read, but it did feel like it was just a little too long and the ending threw me for a bit of a loop, and not in a good way. Definitely not mad that I read it, though! Still fully worth the 4 stars to …
I had to keep reminding myself that NO, I did NOT want June to win and come out on top, that she is a despicable selfish person that deserves every horrible thing that she gets.
R.F. Kuang does a really great job at pointing out the toxic things that (some) publishing companies will do to try to make it look like they're all for diversity and for leaving you to really have to stew and think about how far was too far with what Claire does. It was a very uncomfortable read, but in a good way.
Overall, I found this to be a good read, but it did feel like it was just a little too long and the ending threw me for a bit of a loop, and not in a good way. Definitely not mad that I read it, though! Still fully worth the 4 stars to me!
This is a change of pace from the author's other work and it feels somewhat self-referential, but through which character? The story had me hooked, even though the protagonist, if you can call her that, is not exactly sympathetic, and I feel like I've met that person, but after a while, I feel like I could be that person, and everyone in publishing sucks, anyway. Which is the general message I'm getting (in a more clever and entertaining format than all my complaints about the one computer book I published).
No idea how to review this. It was like being unable to look away from a car crash.
I loved Kuang's fantasy work, so I was pleased when this was a gripping read.
Not sure on the content / messaging as a satire. This book covers many topics and I feel uneducated on so much of it.
Interesting insight into being an author and into publishing especially in today's world of social media and "cancel culture"
This got more shocking with every page and in the end I couldn't put it down. There is so many other turns this could have taken as well.
The reader can really step inside the protagonists head and see how she is justifying her actions to herself. We also see that basically evey character is flawed and acts for their own benefit.
This was also an interesting insight into the publishing industry and how authors and books are picked and Bestsellers are made.
June Hayward’s literary career is not exactly successful, certainly compared to her old college friend Athena Liu who invites June to celebrate the Netflix adaptation of one of her bestsellers. But when Athena accidentally dies, June is left with the only draft of Athena’s new book, about Chinese labourers in the First World War.
You follow along with her series of questionable to outright bad choices as she argues to herself that Athena would want her to finish the book. That it does credit to Athena’s memory to edit in a more sympathetic viewpoint for the white characters in the tale. Then it’s just a case of a fresh start under a new pen name using her middle name Song which just happens to sound Asian.
The book, through June’s POV and monologue, follows plagiarism, cultural appropriation, tokenism and racism in the publishing industry, Twitter lynch mobs, and an every …
June Hayward’s literary career is not exactly successful, certainly compared to her old college friend Athena Liu who invites June to celebrate the Netflix adaptation of one of her bestsellers. But when Athena accidentally dies, June is left with the only draft of Athena’s new book, about Chinese labourers in the First World War.
You follow along with her series of questionable to outright bad choices as she argues to herself that Athena would want her to finish the book. That it does credit to Athena’s memory to edit in a more sympathetic viewpoint for the white characters in the tale. Then it’s just a case of a fresh start under a new pen name using her middle name Song which just happens to sound Asian.
The book, through June’s POV and monologue, follows plagiarism, cultural appropriation, tokenism and racism in the publishing industry, Twitter lynch mobs, and an every growing pile of lies at threaten to topple her at any moment. It took me a long while to get to this but I’m glad I did.
This book is about a writer who borrows notes on a book idea from her dead friend, writes a bestseller based on that, and then spirals into madness when social media figures out that the work is 'plagiarised'.
I'm not sure she did anything wrong.
It's another book about the evils of social media, more than anything. It's well written, and I sped through it.
The reader plays the judge and jury as the author weaves thoughts and themes of diversity quotas, reverse racism, and white woman tears #bookstodon
4 stars
Artistic writing. Even though you hate the protagonist from the first chapter, the author leaves it up to you to decide how much and how far you disagree with her actions. Engaging read in surprising ways
Writing an actual review for this one because I found my thinking changing on it as time has passed since completion.
There's a lot going on in this book. It tackles themes of cultural appropriation, tokenism, and privilege in world of book publishing, while at the same time critiquing notions that people can only write a story from their lived perspective. If you think those lines are complex to navigate and somewhat fluid, you'd be right, and Kuang herself seems to have trouble drawing it over the course of the book.
It's a very tense read and moves quickly. Written from June's first-person perspective– certainly an unreliable narrator –it is often an uncomfortable read, which is as it should be when racism is a topic. But June's detractors don't come off particularly great either. The book seems less researched than her other works, but makes up for it in the …
Writing an actual review for this one because I found my thinking changing on it as time has passed since completion.
There's a lot going on in this book. It tackles themes of cultural appropriation, tokenism, and privilege in world of book publishing, while at the same time critiquing notions that people can only write a story from their lived perspective. If you think those lines are complex to navigate and somewhat fluid, you'd be right, and Kuang herself seems to have trouble drawing it over the course of the book.
It's a very tense read and moves quickly. Written from June's first-person perspective– certainly an unreliable narrator –it is often an uncomfortable read, which is as it should be when racism is a topic. But June's detractors don't come off particularly great either. The book seems less researched than her other works, but makes up for it in the intensity of the controversy June must weather as her lies start to unravel.
It's a good book, attempting to tackle real issues, but not Kuang's best. When I finished it, I would have put it at a five stars, but as I've mulling it around in my brain, I think it's probably more like four stars. There's something that feels off, like an unexpected flat note in what is otherwise a tense piece of music. Maybe it's the nature of the topic, but it feels like Kuang wasn't sure which of her points she wanted to drive home, and so attempted to make all of them unevenly. Ultimately, few of the characters seem to learn anything from their experiences.
And as mentioned above, these topics are difficult, so maybe Kuang's goal is simply to illustrate the mess as opposed to providing any answers. But given some of the early build-up, that comes off as disappointing.
Started this and was so annoyed by the main character that I did not finish. I really enjoyed Babel, I may try this again at some point. Leaving it in the tbr pile for now.
This tale from a deeply unreliable, envy-driven narrator is more of a sharp satire of liberal racism than its publishing industry setting. It's at its least compelling when discussing Twitter drama, but there's ample snark just underneath each turn of phrase, and more than enough ratcheting tension to have kept me turning the pages.
I did not think it was possible for one tale to have so many twists and turns that it became a spiral, one that was out of control. Sadly, that is what this story does. The writing is wonderful, the literature aspects are strong. But, I am completely dizzy. The "me too", "culture wars" aspects of this tale are simply too much for me.
My main problem with the book was that I don't think I've ever read a first-person book in which I've found the main character so unlikable, which made it a little hard to read. But it was a compelling story that was hard to put down.
