this book is everything and more than people have said. absolutely phenomenal, manages to reach each goal it sets out to accomplish and then surpasses them. i honestly don't know what more i could say about this than has already been said. 

the parts about translation were illuminating in just how eloquently they were expressed - i've read academic pieces on translation and this book explained most of what they were saying in a few paragraphs of dialogue. everything else was so well-written, also. 

Kuang really knows what she's talking about, and what she wants to fight for. I will be thinking about this book for a very, very long time.