This has been on my radar for quite sometime so when it finally came through at the library, I was excited to start it. Admittedly I hadn’t heard anything about it and I kind of wish I had, as I probably wouldn’t have picked it up.
Juniper (June or Junie) Hayward and Athena Liu are the best of frenemies. They started off as friends at Yale but when Athena became a published author before they even graduated and June was still struggling, she pulled away and let her friendship drop.
After Athena dies from a freak accident in front of June, June takes Athena’s masterpiece and finishes it. June then publishes it and has to face repercussions from critics, readers, and even Athena.
While I found the plot to be intriguing and I loved the inside look into the world of publishing, there wasn’t a likable character in this book. I found it hard to sympathize with both June and Athena because both were cunning and selfish people. In all honesty, I’m not even sure what the point of this was. Was it a commentary on white authors writing about ethnic events/ethnic protagonists? Was it a query of what would happen in this scenario? Was it just an idea floating around in Ms. Kuang’s head?
This is one book of which I just don’t get the hype. I truly to appreciate the social commentary, but I feel it was filled with such abhorrent characters that it completely missed the mark.