I like it, it’s my favourite book by the author.
Spoilers for the book
June was an awful person but I was able to like reading about her in a way that I couldn’t like reading about say, Rin from The Poppy War.
The plot was engaging from start to finish and I couldn’t put the book down.
The characters were very nuanced and not one dimensional cartoon villains.
The themes of cultural appropriation and race were explored well, in a way that was better than how Babel explored colonialism.
I find it interesting how criticisms of Athena’s work reflect criticism of The Poppy War and Babel.
The lack of nuanced characters has been applied to both works, the didactic nature and lack of discrimination between minority groups has been levelled against Babel and exploiting trauma and the names being too close to irl has been applied to TPW. Maybe Kuang has understood the flaws of her work?
There only 2 criticisms I have of the book.
One is that I find it hard to believe that June’s family didn’t learn about the scandal eventually. Even if they are not interested in the book world I think it would have been realistic if someone had notified them or one of June’s critics like Adele or Diana reached out to them to try to find a way to criticise her.
Another is that I think Athena’s class privilege (and even June’s to an extent) didn’t get talked about enough. They went freaking Yale, which is an example of privilege in a way most writers don’t have.
In a final note, I wonder if Athena’s mother ended up suing June.
That’s said, consider how Katabasis ended up with mixed reviews, I doubt I’ll be reading it.
by InfernalClockwork3