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A review by thewallflower00
Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang
3.0
Imagine a book about Russian spies in present-day America written by someone who knows nothing about world politics or international politi-social relationships. Imagine if someone tried to give Black Widow the Fifty Shades of Gray treatment.
This book is ridiculous. It imagines all Russians are idiots and incapable of maintaining their spy network. Like the KGB suddenly turned into McDonald’s. The main conceit of the plot is that this orphan is trained to become a Russian spy and inserted as the vice-CEO of a Facebook/Google company. They give her a rich house, rich family, rich husband, everything anyone could ever want. And then they expect her to betray all that by slipping secrets to them. And you wonder why she doesn’t want to?
Besides that, the book is so negative. I mean, I hate rich people too, but even I’m not this bitter about it. Everything out of this author’s narration is so acerbic, so disdainful, so resentful that it’s no fun to read. There are zero people to root for. This Russian spy woman has a gorgeous house, gorgeous status in life, position of power, doctor husband, beautiful baby, goes to huge billionaire parties–basically the American dream–and there’s nothing she can’t find to disparage about. Everything is a power struggle. If it’s not the people at the bottom trying to eat you up, it’s the people at the top who’d sooner crap on you than take a look at you. And men! Men, men, men. Men are so evil. Men are such devious jackasses. Men are always trying to keep women down. Men have no respect for women. Men! What a bunch of bastards.
So the combination of an author with no knowledge of the subject matter she’s writing about, plus a style that brings no joy to the table (you can’t call it satire, that’s a cheap excuse). And I haven’t mentioned the poor pacing, the poor plotting. Nothing happens in this book, and if it does happen, it’s off-screen. Would you rather read a book about two people staring at a chessboard, or about the actual movement of the chess piece? Throw this one away.
This book is ridiculous. It imagines all Russians are idiots and incapable of maintaining their spy network. Like the KGB suddenly turned into McDonald’s. The main conceit of the plot is that this orphan is trained to become a Russian spy and inserted as the vice-CEO of a Facebook/Google company. They give her a rich house, rich family, rich husband, everything anyone could ever want. And then they expect her to betray all that by slipping secrets to them. And you wonder why she doesn’t want to?
Besides that, the book is so negative. I mean, I hate rich people too, but even I’m not this bitter about it. Everything out of this author’s narration is so acerbic, so disdainful, so resentful that it’s no fun to read. There are zero people to root for. This Russian spy woman has a gorgeous house, gorgeous status in life, position of power, doctor husband, beautiful baby, goes to huge billionaire parties–basically the American dream–and there’s nothing she can’t find to disparage about. Everything is a power struggle. If it’s not the people at the bottom trying to eat you up, it’s the people at the top who’d sooner crap on you than take a look at you. And men! Men, men, men. Men are so evil. Men are such devious jackasses. Men are always trying to keep women down. Men have no respect for women. Men! What a bunch of bastards.
So the combination of an author with no knowledge of the subject matter she’s writing about, plus a style that brings no joy to the table (you can’t call it satire, that’s a cheap excuse). And I haven’t mentioned the poor pacing, the poor plotting. Nothing happens in this book, and if it does happen, it’s off-screen. Would you rather read a book about two people staring at a chessboard, or about the actual movement of the chess piece? Throw this one away.