First of all, I liked the writing style. It's easy enough but challenging at the same time and I flew through some of the chapters. This makes me keen on reading more of Kuang's work.
On the other hand, this was a very messy read for me. I read it on holiday, while unexpected things were happening and I'm quite sure that my neurotic mind can't cut these events loose from the book I was reading at the time.
I don't hate June. I do dislike Candice. Which is not to say that I agree with what June did. The fact that you can summon some compassion for her situation is credit to Kuang's writing. Or maybe I'm just a terrible person as well, who knows?
There's a part right after the writing of June's novella which I felt dragged on a bit. I don't know if this part was really crucial for the storyline. Will definitely reread this one at a later time, to see if my initial impression is the correct one.