A review by amd1134
The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung

4.0

3.5 stars. I really liked how feminist it was and how relentless and unwilling to take other people's shit Katherine was. The mystery and what happened with her mother and father was really well done and I liked her friendship with Henry. However, the ending was a little frustrating. I felt like we spent the whole novel just learning about setback after setback, and she goes on to have an illustrious career but it's primarily off page. The big problem she's working on for most of the book, the Mohanty problem, is spoiled when Peter fucks it up. I was really happy that her career turned out well but it was frustrating that she had that taken from her right at the climax, rather than something triumphant, because she did go on to have triumphs. It's also sad that that was just sort of the end of her and Henry basically because Karl is an asshole.

It was often extremely frustrating watching the sexism and sometimes racism play out in Katherines career, but the book had several passages discussing these topics that I loved.