This small beautiful book helped me see more magic in the harden, heartbreaking world we live in. And for that, I'm thankful. 

I'll always have a soft spot for Snicket.

Got distracted. Probably won't come back. 

Felt like it falls very short of having anything interesting going on. The main character is emotionally withdrawn, which is wild since this feels like a memoir, and as a result, the story lacks emotional depth/growth. I do think it holds some realistic portrayal, as I think a lot of people with these experiences find a sense of normalization and also would seem emotionally disconnected to the events. But that makes for a boring book.

Though Kuang touches on a number of intriguing, worthwhile topics/themes that many readers will love in this novel, I personally was drawn in by the utterly accurate portrayal of poverty and actions one will take to attempt to secure a future. Yes, the Poppy War has incredible writing, the world building feels real and the setup for the rest of the series is immaculate, but at the core of everything is a young woman who understands entirely that sometimes terrible actions must be made to survive.

The meta-layer of the real author being a women of color writing about a white women stealing the work of a women of color, while the white women is low key trying to give POC vibes to sell themselves and their fiction book is brilliant. This is someone who has thought deeply about race, culture, and what it means to write about heritage. "Yellow Face" is the perfect name for this book. The writing is spectacular. As can be expected with Kuang book. 

The writing didn't seem good enough to continue. 

The pacing is quite slow and the introduction to multiple characters, especially some that seem like one off sub-plots, made it difficult to focus on the central plot. Felt like I had read less than half of the book, but couldn't list all the characters introduced.