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bookswithrebekah's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
theoj1996's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
vjettyreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I really liked this book, I would say maybe at times it was too fast paced and skimmed over conversations that I wish had had more depth. But I think that also made for a very fast and entertaining read. It is timely in that it questions the motives for writing beyond one’s own experiences, narratives, and backgrounds. And it is critical of the impacts of social medias presence on reality. This is RF Kuang’s first realistic fiction book and it was well done. Her writing from the perspective of the white woman “evil-complex” protagonist is interesting.
hrhudson's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
raisin2402's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
ardystvs's review against another edition
3.0
The rating may be changed since I can't decide if Kuang is a genius or if this book should have remained in her drafts.
fayebean's review against another edition
3.0
Like a trainwreck in slowmotion. June Hayward is a white woman who steals her friend Athena Liu's manuscript about Chinese laborers during WWI. She publishes Athena's novel under the new name Juniper Song.
Kuang is talented, observant, and irreverent. This is a heavy-handed critique of the publishing industry and the book community's social media landscape. June presents as a sociopath, mean, and a degenerate and she is enabled by a racist publishing industry that packages books and the authors who write them into tokenized commodities. The book gets uneven towards the climax but it is engrossing. No shades of gray here and it makes its point very clearly. I look forward to reading more of Kuang's work.
Kuang is talented, observant, and irreverent. This is a heavy-handed critique of the publishing industry and the book community's social media landscape. June presents as a sociopath, mean, and a degenerate and she is enabled by a racist publishing industry that packages books and the authors who write them into tokenized commodities. The book gets uneven towards the climax but it is engrossing. No shades of gray here and it makes its point very clearly. I look forward to reading more of Kuang's work.
emma_04's review against another edition
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
oliviadole's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0