Take a photo of a barcode or cover
However, the middle section loses a lot of steam for me and ended up spending far too long hovering over tired literary tropes before kicking back into gear for the ending, which was saved by an excellent epilogue. What took me out of the book was how it sometimes directly placed itself within the 1800s in every sense and other times featured dialogue that felt like contemporary Twitter discourse about colonialism.
Tonally the book was confusing, the motivations for the characters were oftentimes unclear. While I think it had a lot of potential, for the most part that wasn’t realised.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Classism
Moderate: Bullying, Gun violence, Death of parent
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug use, Alcohol
Graphic: Racism, Sexism
Moderate: Blood
Graphic: Racism, Colonisation
Moderate: Gun violence, Sexism, Violence
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Murder, Colonisation
Moderate: Torture, Toxic friendship, War
Minor: Sexual harassment
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder
It got a lot darker in the last 200 pages which I didn’t fully expect so definitely be aware of that but this is just a masterpiece of a book.
R F Kuang is ridiculously skilled at writing about things that she has done incredible amounts of research and study on and this is a great example of that
Just an amazing and incredibly impactful read that I will be thinking about for the foreseeable future
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Kidnapping, Abandonment, War, Classism
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit, Police brutality, Alcohol
“Anger was a chokehold. Anger did not empower you. It sat on your chest; it squeezed your ribs until you felt trapped, suffocated, out of options. Anger simmered, then exploded. Anger was constriction, and the consequent rage a desperate attempt to breathe.”
I AM INCONSOLABLE BECAUSE OF THE ENDING. This is my favorite book of the year thus far.
Songs:
- Alleyways - The Neighbourhood
- Family Line - Conan Gray
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Slavery, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Abandonment
Minor: Alcohol
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic