Unfortunately, this didn't work for me to love it. At the most, it was just Ok. The author's voice and personal opinions were too strong and heavy- handed for me to enjoy the storyline and any message the author wanted to convey. Besides that, the character wasn't just unreliable and despicable ( I have loved other books with characters that I despised) but Juniper was insufferable to say the least. I wouldn't even call her rasist, like most reviews assume she is. She is her same insufferable self with people in general, with whites too. She is envious, toxic, selfish, egotistical individual who lacks the ability to make sinsere human connections and friendships as the only thing she cares about is success and public recognition by any means and at any cost. She lacks empathy and human sentiment. Kuang does bring to the surface some important themes such as the toxicity and unhealthy ways of our modern society in the world of publishing and in the social media among others. Nevertheless, the writer's style wasn't for me. I found the writing tiresome and unsucessful in creating and developing the character of Juniper.

It is true that some books and some writing styles fit well for some readers and not so well for others. After my first attempt to read The Poppy War (and DNF it), I just think that R.F. Kuang's style might not be for me. On the other hand, I find the ideas of her books creative and clever, so I will still read Babel, which I have on my bookshelves and from the few pages I read when I first got that book seems to be more to my style of reading--hopefully.