Brilliantly written, almost car-crash like reading.
The story is very much set in the publishing world, which isn't something I know very well or is directly relatable, but I was still brilliantly drawn in by Kuang's characters.
It took me a while to fully realise that the protagonist, Juniper Song, is white (even if it says it right there in the blurb!), which, when it was written down in text made a lot of story even more cringe.
It's an interesting view into an individual being cancelled, then un-cancelled, then…somehow digging a deeper hole. I really couldn't find myself feeling any sympathy with the Juniper character and found myself often saying (albeit in my head): just walk away, start a-new, the damage is done.
Along side the cancel story, Kuang lets me, as a white reader, look in on a world where I don't really have any experience: Asian American culture in literature (and work), and how race is always in play for better or worse.
A great, intelligent read. Even if it keep making me think of the Batman slap meme...
2 Highlight(s)
"People come to a text with so many prejudices formed by what they think they know about the author," she's said before. "I sometimes wonder how my work would be received if I pretended to be a man, or a white woman.
I've been on the other side. I've seen it happen. I've been in the room when we pick our one spicy book of the season, when we decide who's educated and articulate and attractive but marginalized enough to make good on our marketing budget. It's sick, you know.