I devoured this book. Every time I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about reading it. Talk about unreliable (and unlikeable) narrator! The main character sucks and it's awesome. I think it was so smart for RF Kuang to write this story from the perspective of a white woman--a white woman masquerading as a good, progressive person who in fact sucks. A really cool interrogation of whiteness and racism from someone who both doesn't believe they're doing anything wrong and isn't obvious about their prejudices. That's why it was so interesting being inside June's head--the way she justifies everything is fascinating and a great chance for reflection of internal biases. June seems worst than most people, but then again, we're not in most people's heads. This book was also just such a good read. An amazingly interesting premise! You spend the whole book needing to know what happens next because the choice she makes early on is so damned you need to watch it unfold. This book took a stance and didn't all at once; I think it opened up a dialogue about a lot of these topics and you could guess what RF Kuang believes about these topics, but it hardly takes a solid stance. And I think that's extra interesting coming from a character so unlikeable. It also doesn't supply any solutions to the topics it tackles, which feels like an invitation to white people and the publishing industry to figure this shit out because it's not on marginalized people to do so. Idk I thought the whole book created a lot of questions and was honestly quite philosophical despite the heavy presence of social media and echo chambers discussed throughout the book. Every time you thought you got an answer there was another complication, and I think that's super cool and an interesting exploration of a topic that's really expansive. Overall, awesome read because it's entertaining and awesome read because it tackles a lot of interesting questions and issues in publishing and creativity.