It has been SO LONG since I've read a book where I loved to hate the main character, but R.F. Kuang is here to satiate that feeling. It's pretty clear that this is a cynical meta take on the publishing industry in which Kuang expresses a lot of her personal opinions, but it also gives you a lot t think about. There are some interesting insights provided and I think the themes of who gets to tell what stories and racism in the industry and pre-selected bestsellers can all lead to some deep conversations.

I'm never a big fan of when authors use popular / real world events, people, or media in their book. I think that specifically naming different social media platforms, popular authors, or presidents inherently date what could otherwise be a more timeless work. I understand with this book that that might not be possible to fully avoid, but it is a literary ick of mine. I think in this case, as a few others have mentioned, it turns this book from being fully about publishing discourse to a lot of commenting of the Twitterverse.

All in all, a real good book, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Kuang's works!