That's the point of the book, tho... June is a selfish, jealous, uninteresting, uninterested and unoriginal woman, with no regard for intellectual propriety and who is pretty racist (every Asian snide remarks, always calling Asian woman petite and not strong, borderline mocking accent etc). You arent supposed to like her nor root for her, but it's not an usual position for a reader. We aren't supposed to like her but we also see her fragility. Morally grey main character is Kuangs signature, like in poppy war. That the most interesting about this book. June isn't a narrator to be trusted, she is blindly jealous of Athena, persuaded that she is in fact a horrible person at the beginning but then we meet her and she seems really nice. She has lied to herself so much she can't see it, except at one point in the book where she is baffled she in fact dos have lots of good memories of her and she might have been wrong all along about athena. Bit also, given we are supposed to be reading June's book and not just her thoughts, then this story becomes so... impossible to trust. This is the book she published, where she has control of the narrative. How much is true, how much is true but biased by her pov and how much is a complete creation to make her look better, things she created but couldnt be written if it wzs just her thoughts? To me this book is absolutely brilliant.
And I wouldn't doubt how the book industry is described, this was RF Kuang 5th book, she has no reason to disfigured the industry.
And I wouldn't doubt how the book industry is described, this was RF Kuang 5th book, she has no reason to disfigured the industry.