I’m a huge RF kuang fan. I’m Asian American and I feel like the books she puts out have such a distinct lense that really represents Asian as well as Asian diasporic history, perspectives, and experiences. However, lately I’m seeing a huge uptick in criticism about her that I hadn’t seen before? People seem to gripe that she’s too heavy handed on themes of racism or seems to intellectualize things too much. Im just confused by where there was once a lot of praise for her books, people have suddenly turned a corner to only feel like her writing is not good. What’s going on here?
by mustardslush
27 Comments
I haven’t seen the complaints. I didn’t care for Poppy War but thought Yellowface was good and Babel was great. I think her writing has steadily improved over time. Her work strikes me as a little pretentious at times, but no different from many other authors!
I think her books are just getting more popular which begets more criticism in turn
This has been a thing since her books started coming out. You’re probably just noticing it a bit more now. I’ve been hearing these same critiques since the time where the only books she had out were The Poppy Wars and she was still considered relatively niche
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I read Babel and I’ll explain why I didn’t like it. The thing is, I _really_ wanted to. The idea behind it is so cool. I love the concept of linking words across languages and building a magic system around it, and RF Kuang’s clear passion for language shone through (I’m also multilingual, so that stood out to me). But my problem with Babel is that everything else about it falls flat. It’s paced poorly, the plot makes very little sense at times, and her characters are all one-dimensional with no development or emotional impact.
I think Yellowface made a lot of people felt challenged/uncomfortable, and they responded by getting defensive. And then aggressive, as one does on the Internet.
Satire is always interesting genre to watch people react to, especially when they might be the target. You’re always going to have people who feel like you were too pointed and people who feel you were too subtle.
I’d be interested in hearing about your experience of reading her, the dimensions of your enjoyment, the value you found, if you want to share. If you had a good experience, amplify that!
I really enjoy her books. But I also recognize that she is very heavy handed and hits the reader over the head with the conclusion she wants you to reach instead of letting the reader reach the conclusion on their own. She doesn’t trust the reader enough.
I think that has always been a criticism of her.
I thought Yellowface was terrible – but that was about the book, not the author
I only read Yellowface so I can’t speak on it, but I really enjoyed the YouTube video withcindy made about it that I would recommend to see a somewhat critical yet supporting viewpoint.
I enjoy her writing but these criticisms have been around a long time, particularly since Babel exploded in popularity. I would wager any uptick lately in you seeing this discourse is just a result of your algorithm.
It also highly depends on where you’re looking — she gets a divided reception here and in r/fantasy but I’ve found she’s less controversial on BookTube/Bookstragram (likely BookTok too, I’m not on there so I can’t say for sure).
This is just the inevitable result when a new author becomes popular. Especially if they are critically acclaimed. After a while the people who don’t like their style will start getting louder. You can see this with other media like movies, TV shows and video games.
I think the critical voices were always there, but they were lost among all the initial hype that was around her when she started publishing. The hype died down now, so the discourse and criticism seems louder.
I have read Babel, and while I mostly enjoyed the book, it’s pretty damn heavy-handed and beat you over the head lol. I think it’s just that Babel is her most famous work by far. For a lot of readers (including me), Babel is the first book we read written by her.
I do wonder if the Hugo awards controversy around Babel also drew more attention to it.
Also, I don’t think I have seen that much of an “uptick” in criticism of her? When I see comments like this I wonder if it reflects who you follow more than a general trends as the internet can be very echo chamber-ish sometimes.
if you like an author, the absolute worst thing you can do is look around the internet to see if anyone else likes them. Enjoy who you enjoy
I have always heard these criticisms but I imagine increased interest/popularity and the fact that the criticism holds, at least a little bit, for all of her works enhances that.
I also think a lot of the themes explored in her works have become more commonplace ideas and have been in the center of discussion if you are the type to naturally gravitate towards her books. Which makes it a bit exhausting to read something that feels like it’s lecturing on something you’ve, have likely either been lectured on or have been the lecturer on and maybe have seen with more nuance elsewhere.
Whereas when her works first came out it was more revelationary to the average reader, now it can feel like “We did this to death on twitter, I already agree.” The line between preaching to the choir (yay!) and preaching the choir (naaaay i’m TIRED) can be very thin.
I don’t think she’s a very good writing but I didn’t mind Babel. Though, Babel reads like a teen fiction. I decided I’ll likely not return to any of Kuang’s books after putting down The Poppy Wars series on book 2 or 3. I feel like her writing is naive and lacks nuance. Ultimately, I suspect it wasn’t good for her to be published at such a young age.
I think Kuang is talented, I think she ought to switch to narrative non-fiction.
Not really for me, but I think it makes some people uncomfortable, which is kind of the whole point of some of it
I agree with you. It seems like all I saw was praise. At some point in the past year I started see a ton of negativity and criticism around her work. Not saying it isn’t valid to critique, just kind of weird.
Reading through these replies, it seems people don’t like her writing or find it poor.
Saying it’s heavy-handed without nuance reads like a scapegoat.
There are amazing books that are heavy-handed (Chain-Gang All-Stars, Kindred, The Handmaid’s Tale, even Crime and Punishment)
She’s a moralising, insufferable writer. 50 pages of Babel were enough for me to know where she was going. It’s incredible that people praise books like these nowadays—gives you a clear idea of people’s poor judgement and lack of critical thinking.
I’ve read Babel and Yellowface.
I do think kuang is a little heavy handed (however, I’m gonna say I don’t actually mind that! Sometimes you gotta bludgeon people with your point).
However, while it is a weakness of babel (which I did still enjoy), that lack of subtlety is an absolute strength in Yellowface, which is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. I would love to see her do more satire and dark comedy.
Anything that becomes widely popular, including a book or author, will find a lot of detractors.
It’s because they became popular and all the low brow readers got their hands on her books. She is an amazing author and the people who are doing the whining have ACOTAR pfps and talk about the “plot” of Fourth Wing like they are intellectuals.
Just commenting to drive engagement to this post.
I read Yellowface earlier this year and enjoyed it, sure it was a simple read but I liked the way she wrote cuz it made the book not feel super heavy while still making her point, I don’t understand the criticism either, but i guess its just one of the consequences of becoming popular
The Poppy War has always been criticized for bad characters that border on unlikeable while not intended to be unlikeable. I think part of the reality is that some of this criticism was initially silenced, or additional praise was heaped upon her, because of her ethnicity. There is a vein in literature, particularly when it comes to awards, to want to raise up voices that are historically marginalized. This is at its core a very good impulse, but at time can veer into squashing legitimate criticisms of books and authors in favor of political narratives. The big picture themes of her books is also very aligned with the political views of many in publishing so the rough spots get overlooked. Now that she is several books into the mainstream, this initial reaction to only heap praise on her works is falling away.
I feel like at one point RF Kuang was a bit of a niche author, more popular in fantasy circles than with general audiences. Now that Yellowface introduced her to said general audience and new readers are discovering Babel and The Poppy War trilogy, more and more voices are making their thoughts and feelings known, hence the uptick in criticism.
A few valid points that have come up:
1. The way RF Kuang wrote anti-colonial and anti-colonization sentiments in Babel reads too modern as opposed to the factually documented facts and feelings of the time period.
2. RF Kuangs writing often comes off as pretentious, as if she expects the reader not just to be uneducated on a given subject she writes about, but essentially “dumb”, as if her writing suggests she’s smarter than the reader. It doesn’t leave room for the reader to really think and interpret what she’s saying since it comes off as forcefed.
My personal thought is she needs to stop shoving elements of fantasy into her books now. I’m still reading Babel and it’s pretty good, but the magic system she created would be better suited for a standalone novel. What I’ve read so far would be infinitely better without it.