I am struggling to find words that encompass how beautiful, sorrowful, hopeful, and powerful this book is. 

R.F. Kuang has written a dark academia book that centers it’s entire plot around the dark and all-too-real effects of colonialism, imperialism, racism, classism, and misogyny. There were sections of the book that hurt to read because of how realistic these instances were portrayed. And all of this goes on while simultaneously we get the story of four friends who cling to each other and form their own family of sorts. We watch as they struggle to rise above while not losing themselves to the crushing powers that have dictated their fate since they were swept away to work for the empire. 

I have so many paragraphs and lines copied down from how powerfully they hit, and this book will stay with me for a very long time. If you plan to read any book this year, let it be this one.