Blog

celebrity memoir, Non-Fiction

Book Review: The Woman In Me by Britney Spears

twonightstands

“I wanted to hide, but I also wanted to be seen. Both things could be true.”

It’s crazy the things we experienced in real time that we kind of just shrugged or looked away from e.g when R. Kelly married Aaliyah when she was just 15. Britney’s ordeal is another thing that I can’t believe we lived through and just chucked it up to her being out of control until a few years ago when the ugly truth about her conservatorship came out and it was like “wow!”. When it was announced that she will be releasing her memoir, I knew I was going to be on it ASAP.

“The saddest part to me was that what I always wanted was a dad who would love me as I was—somebody who would say, “I just love you. You could do anything right now. I’d still love you with unconditional love.”

The biggest takeaway from this book is how much Britney’s family hated/hates her. Sounds like a strong choice of word but that is the best way to describe it. Britney starts the book by saying that “tragedy runs in her family”. Her grandfather passed down his traumas to her father which manifested in him being an alchoholic and not being kind to his family. She grew up in turmoil and music was her escape.

“I was quiet and small, but when I sang I came alive”

The book also conveys how much Britney enjoyed performing and how much it fed her soul. So when we get to the part when the conservatorship started and stripped her of this joy, it’s more palpable. We get to understand more of her mind state and how much grief and pain she was going through. And instead of creating a safety circle, her father and mother because if you say nothing, you are complicit, decide to exploit her and put her in a mental prison.

I did both the audio and read the book and it’s amazing how even though Michelle Williams voiced the audio, you can hear it in Britney’s voice. You have to look at the book as not a literary masterpiece, but as one long rebuttal from Britney to share her side of the story. She does a good job of letting us know all the events that led to the world thinking she was “crazy”. She makes mention many times of being like Benjamin Button and aging backwards mentally like a little girl, which makes more sense of why her Instagram is the way it is (plus regaining the freedom she lost).

It’s crazy that this lasted for 13 years. Britney doesn’t shy away from the details of all the unfortunate incidents in her life and my God, the paparazzi was relentless. Were there parts of the books that remained surface? yep. She doesn’t get into detail on getting with Kevin Federline while he had an 8 month pregnant girlfriend, just saying she didn’t know. But it happens again when she dated a paparazzo. I was interested to know more about her dating life while under the thumb of her father and in one case where her most recent husband, Sam Asghari was, when she went to the many unnecessary rehabs her dad whisked her to.

“If you stood up for me when I couldn’t stand up for myself: from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

But she did all this for her babies because they kept dangling it as a threat. Also, once again we see how our legal system fails people. She wasn’t even against the conservatorship but just anyone but her father. It’s crazy how the “Free Britney” movement is what saved her and she specifically thanks her fans on this one. The book does not take into account her current divorce and she is full of praises for him in this book.

Overall, this was a quick easy read/listen that provides a different perspective. The book made me very, very sad because how can you be so wicked to your own flesh and blood. She’s just never had anyone in her corner and I wonder how she can proceed when she has clearly been looking for stability and love in her life and every single person keeps failing her. How do you trust anyone?

In one part, she mentions how everyone keeps saying that the conservatorship saved her life and she says physically, maybe but mentally, it crushed her soul. I hope she finds a way to move forward. If you’d like more Britney, the Britney vs. Spears documentary on Netflix puts faces to the names in the book.

Taynement

african author, african stories, literary fiction

Book Review: Maame by Jessica George

twonightstands

“Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman“

Maame is the nickname given to Maddie by her mother. A name she resents because it comes with a lot of responsibility in her everyday life. See, Maddie lives in London with her dad who is ill from Parkinson’s. Her mother has decided to spend most of her time in Ghana and her brother spends his time being part of his friend’s entourage.

Her mother decides to come back to London and encourages her to start living. Maddie finds a place to rent, starts dating and tries to keep her work struggles at bay. When something major happens within the family, it rocks Maddie’s world and she has to rediscover herself and determine the life that she wants.

“We grow up fast. Not by force, but because we are needed.’ ‘I think sometimes we’re needed for the wrong reasons.”

I didn’t relate to Maddie but I could see many people in Maddie because she was a people pleaser. She is a familiar character in many African cultures and because of that I felt so triggered by it. I wanted to shake Maddie and I wanted to shake Maddie’s mom. Maddie so clearly was depressed and noone was looking out for her but she was expected to still figure things out and make things happen. George wrote Maddie as a character so well that you just wanted to protect her. Her early twenties confusion and naivete would be relatable to many.

“Everyone talks about the importance of standing out but never the benefits of fitting in.”

The best thing about this book is the writing. It’s never easy to weave in so many topics without making it complicated but George is able to make all the things that happen blend in seamlessy in Maddie’s life – grief, mental health, career dissatisfaction, race, culture, family and so much more – having this front row seat, gives us a better understanding of Maddie’s headspace. I really enjoyed Maddie’s life when she decides to take a chance and start living. The juxtaposition of the friction between her roommates and the security her friends provided was interesting.

“A person’s troubles are not measured by the size of those troubles, but by how much they weigh on the individual carrying them.”

This was a great representation of what it’s like to be influenced by culture and family and trying to find your voice when all you have heard your whole life has been one thing. It was the little things like her mom telling her to keep secrets and never confide in anyone or pushing her to get married even though she had never dated. Any book that can make me so angry where I had to take a step away from the book to cool down has done its job in writing a great narrative that makes me feel that deeply. I fully recommend this one.

Taynement

dystopian, Fantasy, Fiction, romance

Book Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

twonightstands

“Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities.”

Violet Sorrengail has studied all her life to enter the Scribe quadrant. Her father had always taught her that the scribes hold all the power – the power to erase history, reframe history, and rewrite history. When he dies, Violet’s mother – the commanding general in Navarre- orders her to join the hundreds of students who are striving to become one of the elite dragon riders. Violet is weak and has no fighting experience and now has to join the hundreds of kids who have trained for this all their lives. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, people are willing to kill to be successful especially when they perceive weakness. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter especially Xaden Riorson whose father her mother executed for treason.

“Fascinating. You look all frail and breakable, but you’re really a violent little thing, aren’t you?”

I started this book when it first came out, read the first 50 pages and dropped it. I picked it up again sometime in August because Tayne told me her coworker asked her about it. So, I decided to finish it so I could properly talk about how terrible it was, but I ended up really liking it. My problem with the first 50 pages of this book is my problem with most female characters in fantasy – the description of their bodies. Yarros spent every second reminding us how weak and slender but oh so beautiful Violet is. The number of times Yarros describes Violet’s porcelain skin is actually quite insane. Then the exaggeration of the villains in this book is utterly laughable. Right from the parapet to enter the riders’ quadrant someone who literally just met Violet and has no history with her, or her family was already chasing her down to kill her because she looks weak.

“A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.”

When I continued with this book, what won me over was how weak Violet actually was and the numerous ways she had to work to overcome her weakness. I like that at the end of the book she didn’t still transform into some physically strong rider who could beat anybody in a fight. I enjoyed the cunning ways she had to survive the violence of the cadets in the riders’ sect. I started rooting for her once I realized she wasn’t going to be a Mary Sue. If you spend 50 pages telling me your protagonist is weak, you better not suddenly have her beating everybody in a physical fight. Another misconception I had going into this one that I want to correct for everybody is that this is NOT a YA fantasy book. The cadets are young but are all in their twenties. The youngest class in the cadet is 20. Also, there is sex aplenty and it is not implied, it is explicitly stated that everyone is sleeping with everyone and there’s no shame surrounding it, unless of course you’re sleeping with a superior. This is an open door book.

“One generation to change the text. One generation chooses to teach that text. The next grows, and the lie becomes history.”

I’m glad there is actually a bigger story here than the love story between Violet and Xander. There is much more at stake, and I honestly guessed what the big conspiracy was within the first 100 pages of the book when certain things that seemed like passing conversation was mentioned. I’ve read way too many fantasy books to ever gasp at the ending of this one. I enjoyed Xander as a character. I thought all his decisions were right and correct even if the protagonist did not see it that way. I understand the path that led Violet and Xander to each other even thought their families had violent histories with each other. At the end of the day though, their relationship is the least interesting thing about this book. When certain secrets were finally coming to light, I just wanted Violet to get over the feeling of being betrayed so Xander could get on with telling us what the whole picture actually was. Yarros also makes you care about the supporting characters so deeply that you care about what happens to them and when anything happens to them you are so invested that you’re bawling at 5am in the morning. Okay, that was just me.

“Coming in last is better than coming in dead.”

All in all, I recommend this book. It’s 600 pages but a very quick read once you get out of those first 50 pages. I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads and I’m looking forward to the next book.

Have you read this one? What did you think?

Leggy

Chick-Lit, Fiction, literary fiction, romance, women's fiction

Book Review: Talking at Night by Claire Daverley

twonightstands

“I’d say you just love the idea of her, then, she says. You’re pinning everything on something you’ve never even had. Something that’s not real.”

Will and Rosie meet one day as teenagers at a bonfire. Will is very intrigued with Rosie and a tense “will they, won’t they?” relationship develops between them. As they get closer and get to know each other over secret walks, runs, phone calls and text messages, they seem destined to end up together, at least for a while. One day though, at Will’s birthday party, which Rosie and her twin brother sneaked out to attend, tragedy strikes, and their future together suddenly seems impossible.

“She thinks she loves Simon, and she knows he loves her, but sometimes she wants him to look at her like he could eat her; wants him to touch her in a way that means she feels wanted, instead of just cared for. But he sips wine and talks and smiles with all his teeth and passes carrots across the table.”

If you’re a fan of Sally Rooney, this is the perfect book for you. Honestly, this sometimes felt like Normal People fanfiction to me and I say fanfiction because it is not as good as Normal People. I’m sure Daverley knows she’s going to get this comparison a lot. Also, when did it become the cool girl thing to write dialogue without any punctuation? This is also something Rooney is very fond of doing.

Anyway, this book is sad girl literature. It is a Taylor Swift song in book form. Shy, smart girl who is under her parents’ thumb being pursued by the resident school bad boy who is also secretly smart, and secretly soft (but of course, only soft for our heroine) and talks about how cool it is not to want to go to university.

I really wanted to like this book because I’m a sucker for a love story that is built entirely on sexual tension but there was nothing here. I didn’t like any of the characters. I didn’t root for them to be together, I just kept waiting for it all to be over. Also, the author just decided to throw every trauma at them to make them more interesting but all the traumas in the world won’t make one dimensional characters feel any more real. Trigger warnings abound in this book – child abandonment, death, OCD, food issues, weight issues, coming out as gay, cancer, alcoholism and the list goes on.

This is a debut novel so I do believe that Claire Daverley has the potential to be a fantastic author but I hope she knows she doesn’t have to convince us that she can write and she needs to figure out how to tell a good story without drowning us in flowery language. Everyone knows I’m a sucker for a good quote from a book but I also need to connect to the characters in order to be able to connect to the beautiful language. This was my problem with Rooney’s last book too, give me characters that I can recognize. I don’t have to relate to characters in the books I read but you have to convince me that these characters exist somewhere in the world for me to connect with the story.

All in all, because this was a debut novel and I grade all debut novels on a curve, I ended up giving this 3 stars on Goodreads. I sincerely cannot wait to see what Daverley writes next.

Leggy

Fiction, literary fiction, Mystery, thriller

Book Review: The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz

twonightstands

Kelly packed up her life and moved from Chicago to Philadelphia because her fiance lost his job and found one in Philadelphia. Now there is a pandemic and he has just told Kelly they need to pump the brakes on wedding planning. Kelly doesn’t know a lot of people but has recently rekindled a friendship with her high school friend, Sabrina who is a popular author with a seemingly great life. Her and her husband, Nathan invite her to come stay with them. They have a spare room in their massive house and they could use the company.

Kelly hops on an Amtrak for a fresh start and along the way, she finds herself falling for the couple. They become a throuple until Kelly finds out their last girlfriend is missing and she is not getting good enough answers from her partners. So begins the thriller, as Kelly tries to figure out what is happening while living this new life that she is hiding from her friends and family.

I have never read a book by Bartz but I hear she and her sister are popular in this genre. It’s hard to find a good thriller these days and I didn’t think this was exceptional, it was just mid. I found Kelly to be a little juvenile. I am not sure if that is the right word. She seemed very easily manipulated and probably because she never seemed to have a stance on what she wanted. I mean Nathan and Sabrina had so many red flags and she dug her head in the sand so deep it was unbelievable.

Also, for a book that seemed so adult, I am not sure why the love scenes seemed to be sanitized. I don’t know if this is how it always is in Bartz’s books but why have a character who writes erotic books and have the scenes in the book be vague? The last quarter of the book that could be seen as the culmination of the thriller felt like a rush and in some parts, it came off disjointed. At some point, I just decided to go with it even though I had questions. I might have laughed out loud when the “whodunnit?” was revealed.

I will say that the writing style wasn’t bad at all, and it helped hold my interest in the story. More of the problem lay in the plot and how there were a lot of “raise eyebrow” moments. I think my standards are high when it comes to thrillers, and I haven’t read a good one since Gone Girl (I’m taking recs if you have one!). Not sure I would recommend this one but if you have read it, let me know what you think!

Taynement

Book Related Topics, Fiction, literary fiction, thriller, women's fiction

Book Review: The Whispers by Ashley Audrain

twonightstands

The Loverlys’ young son is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window and his mother Whitney waits by his bedside without a word to anyone. Back in their neighborhood, their neighbors and friends are shocked and reeling from their different roles in this. As the author takes us back to the weeks before the accident and the intricate ways the different families are connected, a domestic drama plays out right in front of us.

I loved Audrain’s debut novel – The Push. I gave it 5 stars. It was so well written and I was so intrigued. Her second book does not live up to her debut novel. I know the publishers are selling this as a domestic thriller but I refused to call it that in my blurb above, this is a domestic drama at best. There is no thriller. From the 20% mark you already know exactly what is happening and what secrets the author is stretching out to reveal at the 90% mark and it is not worth your reading 300 pages to get to.

Audrain is a fantastic writer. I’ll give her that. Every sentence is well crafted but my problem with this book is that this is not a story worth telling. This book is told from different points of views of the women living in the neighborhood. There are too many points of views and one in particular is so unnecessary and the editor should have cut it – Mara. Mara is an elderly portuguese woman who is the last of her kind in a neighborhood that has been utterly gentrified by the rich. She sits on her porch and observes her neighbors. I think she added nothing to the story. Her backstory did nothing to move the plot forward. You could skip all her chapters except one and you’d still not have missed a thing.

This book explores the quiet sacrifices of motherhood. We see Blair, a mother who has given up everything to be a stay at home mother to her one child. In contrast to Whitney who puts her career over the needs of her children. Then finally, Rebecca, a woman who has had 5 miscarriages and is desperate to become a mother. While Audrain has a lot of astute observations about motherhood, it ultimately amounts to nothing. There is no lesson to be learnt here. Nobody wins.

Audrain writes these long paragraphs about miscarriages that I had to skim through. The way she explicitly writes about the foetus leaving your body and describes each one of the 5 miscarriages in gruesome details made me feel like this is extremely unnecessary. But I also understand that maybe I’m not the target audience and people who have actually had miscarriages might relate to the very detailed passages about feeling the clumps drop down in the toilet as the contractions grip you?

As we get to know Rebecca, Whitney, Blair and Mara, the author explores the decisions every woman makes and the judgement and guilt that follows. She shows the lives we choose, the ones we’re thrust into and the different ways we punish ourselves for those decisions.

Ultimately, while I went around proclaiming the amazingness of The Push, I’m afraid I won’t be doing that for this one. Audrain is a fantastic writer but I wish she had sat with this one a little while longer. I gave this 2 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

african author, african stories, Fiction, literary fiction, Nigerian Author

Book Review: The Three Of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams

twonightstands

“He sees what I see, but from the other side. A woman in between two selves, undecided as to which she can remain loyal”

The premise of the book is pretty simple. There is a wife who has a husband and a best friend. The best friend’s name is Temi (that’s the only name we get). Temi and wife’s husband hate each other and wife is in the middle seemingly not trying to take sides. The book is basically the telling of one night where the three of them hang out in Wife’s house, drink too much and let their bubbling resentments spill over.

“Doubt and truth are so close that it’s sometimes impossible to tell them apart”

I can’t tell you that I knew what direction the author was trying to take besides trying something different. The book had no quotation marks, paragraphs and like I said no character names – save for Temi. If I wanted to reach, I could say that the intention was to say that Temi is the only one with a strong identity but I am not going that far.

I have written before about whether it is possible to like a book with unlikeable characters. I say this because of the way I could not stand these three people. Temi because why are you so intrusive in someone else’s marriage even if they are your best friend? Showing up at all hours to their house and never leaving and judging her friend’s choices like choosing to get married. Wife because why the hell is your friend that involved in your life and mocking your husband and you join in laughing at him? and Husband for putting up with the shit and having low key misogyny.

The book reads like a novella and a thriller except I wouldn’t say I found it thrilling. It was like a thread just unraveling without any building excitement and instead building annoyance. Temi and Wife became friends because Temi “saved” Wife from the rules put on her by her Nigerian parents. But the irony is, Temi seemed to pick up where Wife’s parents stopped and wants to dictate Wife’s life and Wife lets her.

I couldn’t tell if Temi loved Wife romantically or if she loved Husband romantically. And I couldn’t tell if Wife even loved Husband (well technically we got the idea she wasn’t in love with him). My conclusion is that Agbaje-Williams wanted this book open to interpretation and each character represented something in society. The depiction of Nigerian culture was accurate though.

Overall, I think the book suffered from being a novel that came off as a short story. But the thing is, I can’t definitively say it didn’t work because I am sure there is an audience for it. I can admit being biased because the characters were so unlikable to me. I really hated the ending, and I couldn’t even believe that was the end. Since it’s a short book it’s one I’d say it wouldn’t hurt to read for yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Taynement

Fiction, literary fiction, race, romance, Uncategorized

Book Review: Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess

twonightstands

Jess and Josh were sparring partners in a legal history class in college, and she only remembers him being ultra conservative and telling her how Affirmative Action is racist. Landing a job at Goldman Sachs after college, Jess is very displeased to realize that Josh is on her team but as the only person she knows in an ultra-competitive work environment she leans on him for support. As their tentatively formed friendship moves into something more romantic, in a world that is suddenly hyper political in the wake of Trump’s 2016 campaign, Jess struggles with the identity she has created for herself and what she’s willing to compartmentalize for a certain type of love.

I think the publishers of this book did Rabess such a disservice by categorizing this as romance. Yes, the vehicle for the author’s thoughts is very well served by using romance but this book is not primarily about romance. When the blurb for this book came out, it was 1 star bombed on Goodreads because of someone on TikTok reading the description without having even read the book. And then you go on Goodreads and see so many one-star reviews that proudly proclaim that they didn’t read the book, but they just know that it is racist! I felt really bad for the author and that’s why I put this on my list even though I too, was turned off by the blurb. But I consider it a cardinal sin to review a book that you didn’t read or didn’t finish. If I even read 95% of a book and then DNF it, I never rate it on a public space.

I think people expect works of fiction to further their viewpoints instead of it furthering the viewpoints of whatever character the author has created. I think evaluating any book should be – does this behavior sound accurate to the character the author is trying to sell us? Would this character do this? Is this in line with the foundation the author has set for us? In the case of Jess, Rabess is incredibly spot on. I know the exact type of black girl Jess is. The cool black girl who tries really hard to never rock any boat and seeks white validation. I don’t even understand the argument that this book is racist when both the main character and the author are black. Something dealing with race making you uncomfortable does not mean it is automatically racist. You’re supposed to feel uncomfortable. That is the exact feeling that Rabess is trying to create.

Jess grew up in Nebraska in a predominately white town that boasted only her and her dad as the only people of color. She went to school with only one other black person. She grew up with girls who would tell her that boys only wanted “blondes, brunettes, red hairs, in that order”. Her dad tried really hard to shield her from the effects of her childhood but honestly, you cannot self-esteem your way out of how the world treats you.

This background leads to Jess going to college and trying really hard to be as far away from blackness as possible. She doesn’t join the Black Student Union, she never makes any black friends, she dates white men exclusively. Even white men who are only fetishizing her and who she knows don’t actually want her as a human being. Jess says things like “I just don’t get Beyoncé” while her white friends give her a pat on the back about how she’s such a different black person because she doesn’t like Beyoncé and how it’s because she’s just too smart. This is the character Rabess has created, and you have to judge the premise of this book on who Jess actually is, not who you are or what you think is “right”.

So yes, Jess is the exact person who would fall for a Trumper. And frankly, Rabess does such a fantastic job of pacing out their relationship that you’re absolutely torn. You wonder if you too would fall for Josh if you knew him. Josh has so many redeeming qualities, he stands up for Jess so much that even you would wonder if you’d be able to resist him. The last lines of this book I absolutely love because this book was written years after the Trump era in which we’ve seen the effects of electing Trump as President. As women’s rights and affirmative action are now gone and Josh is trying to convince Jess that “Everything’s fine”, we all know that everything is not fine.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this one without reading the blurb and read it with an open mind. This is Rabess’ debut novel and she deserved better than how the mob treated her first offer to the literary world. I look forward to whatever she writes next. I gave this book, 4 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

Chick-Lit, Fiction, literary fiction, romance, women's fiction

Book Review: Happy Place by Emily Henry

twonightstands

‘Love means constantly saying you’re sorry, and then doing better.’

Harriet and Wyn have been together and engaged forever. They are the couple their friend group looks up to as the perfect couple. Unfortunately, they’ve broken up without telling anyone – their families, their friends, nobody. Every year, their group of friends travel to Maine for one week in the summer to reconnect with the people who understand them the most. Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth that they are still a couple just to make their last week ever at the Maine cottage perfect, since it’s been put up for sale. This is a rom com so obviously, shenanigans ensue.

I’m a big Emily Henry fan. I’ve read a lot of her books and have progressively loved them. I have to say that this one was a miss for me. I usually love the characters in Emily Henry books especially Book Lovers but the people in this book did nothing for me. I kept waiting to feel the deep love between these friends that has kept them together for so long, but I never did. Everybody was hiding something ridiculous from the group, things that did not matter at all. Who hides a breakup from their best friends for 6 months? Their friendship group just never clicked for me at all. If the entire premise of this book is that this group of supposed best friends never talk to each other about anything ever then what are we doing here? They are not best friends.

I especially enjoyed the romance between the two main characters. How they got together and then seeing the cracks in their relationship was something that was very well written and very thoughtful. I enjoyed the tension of two people who clearly still love each other. pretend to still be together. The snarky banter between them was delightful and something I’ve really liked in all of Emily Henry books. This book also delves into so many different topics like parental alienation, grief, depression, medication, death and the way friendships change as we get older.

My problem with this couple is in how the book ended. The ending is like a Hallmark Christmas movie where a top New York City lawyer moves to the tiny village to be with a man and sell corks. I loved Book Lovers because Henry didn’t sacrifice her character’s career just because she fell in love. The ending of this book was very rushed and very unrealistic. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but the ending is so silly that it made me annoyed especially since even though Harriet found her job hard, she enjoyed doing it. Yes, it wasn’t her passion but who needs passion when you’re 100s of thousands of dollars in debt already and you’re good at it! I will never understand this American obsession with finding your passion, that’s why you get to have hobbies because sometimes a job is a job!

I really like Emily Henry and will read her next offering but if you are new to her, please don’t start here. Read literally anything else of hers. We have two of her books reviewed here and here. My personal favorite is Book Lovers. I gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

Fiction, literary fiction

Book Review: Yellowface by R.F Kuang

twonightstands

“The cultural constructions are clear: so many Chinese ghosts are hungry, angry, voiceless women. In taking Athena’s legacy, I’ve added one to their ranks.”

June and Athena are frenemies. They are both writers that have known each other since college. Since then, Athena has become a successful writer while June is still waiting for her big break. June thinks her whiteness is a hindrance since minorities are in high demand.

Athena signs a lucrative Netflix deal and they both go out to celebrate. The night ends in a way noone expected as June literally watches Athena choke to death. Right before her death, Athena has just shared her finished manuscript with June. June snatches that up, rewrites it and finally gets the breakthrough she has been looking for, but at what cost?

“For the first time since I submitted the manuscript, I feel a deep wash of shame. This isn’t my history, my heritage. This isn’t my community. I am an outsider, basking in their love under false pretenses. It should be Athena sitting here, smiling with these people, signing books and listening to the stories of her elders.”

I’ve been waiting for this book to be available at my library for a long time as it’s been in high demand and it was definitely worth the wait, as I finished this in two days. Once June steals the book I kept wondering where the book would be headed and it was such a ride. The book was just effing brilliant. It’s a book that is about so many things but Kuang manages to streamline them and even make unlikeable characters compelling.Kuang writes a book about the publishing industry. The racism and the tokenism involved but I think what she did best was how she wrote the book from June’s perspective and absolutely nails the voice of a white woman. The way she wrote June’s justifications was great.

‘The living are burdened with bodies. They make shadows, footprints.’

Don’t get me wrong, June absolutely stole the manuscript but Kuang makes us think deeper into a lot of nuances beyond “white woman steals Asian woman’s story about Chinese workers” and I like a book that makes me think. You get to ask yourself, who gets the rights to tell certain stories? Social media plays a great part in this story. The addiction, the scandals, the cancellation and even as a tool for publicity. In a world where it is a huge part of life, it made the story more relatable.

I think the ending/reveal was a little wonky and wasn’t sure why she went that route but honestly, the book was so great it didn’t matter. Finding out that Kuang is just 27 blew my mind. I also found out this is the first time she is stepping out of her usual genre. I definitely recommend this book and would love to hear thoughts on this.

Taynement