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I absolutely loved learning about the magic and language in the first part of the book.
Minor quibble: There were a LOT of footnotes and a couple of them didn’t render on my eReader. One of them was actually interesting, but I had to look at it on my phone to know that.
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racism, Sexism
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic
This book is a straight masterpiece. It is so refreshing to read a victorian age dark academia novel through the eyes of people of color. I cannot fully grasp how she was able to touch on so many topics. From classism to racism to economics she covered it all masterfully. I was learning new scopes of language as I was trying to read this.
Her characterization of Letty and the and white guilt was so spot on. My mind is still reeling. Her characterization of being a person of color who is provided opportunity and the guilt/shame you can sometimes feel was also spot on. I did not know that my soul needed to read a view point of this age that is not told by the white majority. This was like therapy and a history lesson all in one.
A required read.
Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Islamophobia, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use
Minor: Slavery
Could have been 5 stars but there were periods where I felt it dragged a little, and at times the writing felt very “hand holding” and repetitive when talking about the various characters and their experiences with colonization.
Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Colonisation
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Islamophobia
Minor: Slavery
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Pandemic/Epidemic
Graphic: Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, War
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment
- I was so hesitant to do this one because The Poppy War still haunts me. but I did this one as a buddy read so we weathered it together! I saw something that said to read this as a historical fiction with fantasy elements and I completely agree. It’s a historical fantasy set at Oxford.
- Kuang is an incredible author. She describes scenes so beautifully and painfully. This book was a masterpiece, especially if you’re bilingual or multilingual.
Graphic: Drug use, Racism, Suicide, War
Graphic: Death, Racism, Colonisation
Moderate: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Violence, War
Minor: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Islamophobia, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death
First of all, the dark academia aspect was done very well. It felt atmospheric, grand, with a hint of mystery. It felt gloomy in a really fun way. The settings outside of the tower itself were less immersive, but the majority of the story takes place inside the tower anyway so it wasn't too distracting. The dark academia vibe was a genius way to explore a story about decolonization and racism. The magic system was inventive and interesting, and I liked how it stood as a metaphor for the industrial revolution.
The characters were just okay. We get to see Robin, the main character, the most, and I felt really attached to him by the end. The other characters had interesting stories that I felt didn't get explored enough. I understand this book leans in to its literary side, and the characters and arguably the entire plot are just allegories for bigger issues, but I think this made the character work suffer and it made the explosive ending pack less of a punch. Don't get me wrong, I loved the ending, and I still cried, but some of the other moments that were meant to be heavy-hitting fell flat because I didn't feel the connection to the characters. The found family aspect didn't feel fleshed out enough because of this as well.
I think the character work is a side effect of Kuang's tendency to overexplain things rather than actually have things happen. Some of the messaging was so on the nose that it felt pedantic and almost condescending at times. I wanted to read this book to challenge my thinking, and I hoped it would leave me with lots of thoughts to reflect on afterward, but everything gets explained to you so plainly that it completely ruins the amazing research and work Kuang put into telling the story of racism and colonization in academia. I mean, there were literally times when something racist or sexist would happen, then the narrator would have a whole paragraph to say something like "Robin wonders if this white person realized how racist they were being". It got irritating... I felt like I was on Sesame Street. I will say the writing itself was done very well, the prose was accessible despite the scientific, historical, and literary references used, and I appreciated a lot of R.F. Kuang's comments and her sarcastic footnotes.
The last issue is the pacing, which I think is also a side effect of this "telling not showing" issue. This book only gets good around the 60-70% mark. It had an extremely slow start with very little intrigue. We spent a long time in lectures and I felt not enough time was dedicated to furthering either the charcters OR the plot. It was a lot of sitting around and waiting. I don't mind books that have a hill into a snowball second half, but I almost put this book down multiple times because nothing was happening, then one minor action would happen and I would finally think we were going somewhere, just for it to slow down again.
All these issues made for a really weird reading experience where I absolutely dreaded picking the book back up, then when I started reading it was just fine and I wanted to know more, then it would get boring and the cycle repeated. I expected more from the rave reviews but left feeling like its potential got wasted. I still do think it's a good read overall, but it could have been better.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism