I'm not sure where to start with this one. Masterfully crafted. Kuang is an artist. Her attention to detail and beautifully curated footnotes add so much depth (and sometimes fun tidbits) to the story at large. They often serve to let the readers in on secret knowledge either unknown or already known by the characters. Her use of foreshadowing is brilliant and emotional. From the beginning of the friendship introductions, I knew disaster would strike eventually, but was preparing to be devastated by it.

"By the time they'd finished their tea, they were almost in love with each other - not quite yet, because love took time and memories, but as close to love as first impressions could take them ... But that afternoon they could see with certainty the kind of friends they would be and loving that vision was close enough" (p. 88).

She crafts a vivid world where silver-working and the knowledge of language essentially rules the empire. It was hard to feel like I could detach myself from the world she created for us because even though this takes place in the 1800s, a lot of the same things still go on in the present world. Racism runs rampant. The rich control and exploit everyone else. We're all just on a spinning wheel of creating empires and waiting for them to crumble.

"Professor Lovell's promised future of progress and enlightenment seemed only to have wrought poverty and suffering; the new jobs he thought the displaced workers should take up never materialized. Truly, the only ones who seemed to profit from the silver industrial revolution were those who were already rich, and the select few others who were cunning or lucky enough to make themselves so" (p. 211).

"How slender, how fragile, the foundations of an empire. Take away the centre, and what's left? A gasping periphery, baseless, powerless, cut down at the roots" (p. 469).

There is something so beautiful and utterly human about Robin, in particular. While we often read stories about MCs overcoming evil against all odds, we experience the inner turmoil of Robin's thoughts throughout the story. He often makes poor choices (sometimes under the guise of "protecting his friends", but usually to protect himself), and it's not until the very end that he's able to redeem himself.

(Though this is a violent redemption through his ultimate personal sacrifice and death.)

Many conversations center on racism, but Kuang depicts the insidious nature of white saviorism and white feminism in her depiction of Letty.

After Ramy, Victoire, and Robin try to essentially explain racism to Letty and she winds up crying:
"Still, something did not seem right, and Robin could tell from Victoire's and Ramy's faces that they thought so too. It took him a moment to realize what it was that grated on him, and when he did, it would bother him constantly, now and thereafter; it would seem a great paradox, the fact that after everything they had told Letty, all the pain they had shared, she was the one who needed comfort" (p. 357).
I should never have been surprised that she betrayed them in the end.

I found the conversation about necessary violence to end regimes of power extremely compelling. Again, just personally made me reflect on how we need to do more NOW.

"'Violence shows them how much we're willing to give up,' said Griffin. 'Violence is the only language they understand, because their system of extraction is inherently violent. Violence shocks the system. And the system cannot survive the shock'" (p. 397).

The icing on the cake for me was her sincere portrayal of the intimate friendships between Ramy, Victoire, Letty, and Robin. She doesn't sugarcoat anything - there are betrayals, hurts, and wrongs they all do to each other throughout the course of this story. But they also love each other deeply. They don't always know how to show each other, but we do see intimate acts of love and tenderness between them to remind us the importance of friendships and how the best friendships inspire us.

Robin and Ramy the first week they meet - sharing food, trying out new shops, enjoying each other's company. Victoire and Robin cleaning each other's faces once they reach safety after escaping the jail. These are heartfilling and heartbreaking moments.

Kuang is a gifted storyteller. Readers can tell how much she loves translation and her exploration of the human condition is unparalleled in my current experience. I'll end with perhaps the most popular, and a personal favorite, snippet:
"'But what is the opposite of fidelity?' ... 'Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal'" (p. 153).