Currently in my endeavor to read everything this woman writes. I'm obsessed and this hit precisely how I wanted it to.
Synopsis: June Hayward and Athena Liu are best friends and writers. However, Athena ended up having much more success in the craft than her friend June...leading to animosity and jealousy. That animosity leads to action after, when celebrating her new deal with Netflix and Athena Liu chokes on a pancake and dies, June swipes her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own. June tells herself that it is all okay, that the story of Chinese Labor efforts during World War 1, being told is what is important, and that it doesn't matter whose name is on the cover, and whether they are white or not. And that if she changes her name to Juniper Song, her middle name, to sound more "appealing" to her audience, that's fine too right? But despite New York Times Bestseller success, June cannot seem to get away from Athena's prominent shadow and she finds out just what lengths she is willing to go to get the success that she believes she was robbed of.
Plot: You know when you see an accident on the road and you can't help but look no matter how terrible? Or you're watching a horror movie and you peek through your fingers? Yeah, this book is just like that. You watch June (or....Juniper....) go through these choices and see them getting gradually more horrific and you cannot help but want to watch this trainwreck unfold. Anxiety at its peak. I did not at any point really know where this was going to end up and it was truly fantastic. Well, as fantastic as a story like this can be. Yes, Kuang is a bit on the nose at times, and yes, you can see from page 1 the message she is trying to make–two of the more prominent criticisms I have read–but those didn't bother me one bit. I gobbled this up so quickly and knew from the second I saw it on the stands at the bookstore that I was going to love this. There was also interesting commentary not just on yellowface and Chinese culture, but also on social media, the publishing industry, and the polarizing question of who should or shouldn't tell a story.
Characters: I think one of the stronger parts of this narrative is watching June make these decisions and watching her justify them as well as she becomes more and more unhinged. It isn't a "good for her" story but instead a satirical insight into plagiarism, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and honestly, madness. It was also interesting that despite her death in the first chapter, what a prominent role Athena played in the unraveling of her best friend. This was 100% a true deep-dive character study and an uncomfy and scary one at that.
4/5 stars. Whatchu got next for me Kuang?
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