Admittedly I've only read a small amount of this book, but already I don't like how it talks about Chinese people basically as if they're idiot savages who don't deserve autonomy in their own country, the way their speech is written is pretty offensive, that the first and only woman mentioned so far is a dumb blonde American. 

Also not very interested in all the ship/mechanic stuff. 

I don't think this book is for me.

I really wanted to read this, but I didn't realise one of the characters has my deadname. Too uncomfortable to listen to sadly. 

 
This is written in such a boring, generic writing style, and I'm not interested in a semi-sordid love affair and fighting in the trenches. I should have known really, I've never enjoyed WW1/2 stories, they're so overdone and dull.  

Also, reading how Stephan thinks about 'Madame Azaire' is like being in the mind of a stalker. Already so deranged and unhinged after spending one night in her house? Its creepy how he observes her in such great detail.

This is truly the final straw. No more WW1/2 books for me, ever. 

First of all, this book made me really realise how the coast does almost nothing for me. I couldn't think of much worse than seeing endless coast for weeks at a time, slogging up and down endless meaningless undulations. This also made the book pretty boring nature-wise for me. Give me fields, mountains, and lakes any day.

These people also pissed me off to no end - they were infuriatingly underprepared idiots, and put themselves in SO MUCH unnecessary danger. Even if you don't have much money, you could still plan A LOT better than they did. Especially if they've done loads of backpacking before?? They should know the drill.

All in all this book is pretty miserable, and I feel I have nothing to learn from it. AND it's so repetitive - oh look the coast, oh look we fucked up (usually avoidably), oh look other walkers, oh look we spent more than we should have, oh look bad people think we're stupid and unprepared, but actually we're brave.

Not for me I'm afraid.  

First of all, the first section of this book truly disturbed me with how obsessed the author was with breasts and breast milk... You couldn't go for a page without a batshit description of one or the other.

Aside from this, I think this book is just way too poetic for me, at least with how my brain is working at the moment. I found it hard to fully process what I was reading, which is ok for a shorter book, but for one this long I just felt lost. While I don't think this is a bad book, possibly quite the opposite, I'm not clicking with it enough to invest more time into it. 

 

Unfortunately, the only bit of slight originality in this book is that is it based on Egyptian culture rather than Western culture, and even then, other Middle Eastern fantasies do exist... 
 
I've read every trope and plot point in here before, the majority of which are overdone in modern fantasy. If this story had sprinkled in some other unique features, I'd be more interested to continue, but this just seems like a rehash of the same overtold story, and I'm not interested in continuing it.
 
These plot points/tropes include:
 
 - An emotionally unavailable, impossibly physically strong, 'not like other girls', secretly magical heir. 
 - A 'peasant' girl who falls in love with an 'evil'/morally grey on the outside but really secretly good royal.
 - A main character apprenticed to a grumpy older tutor. 
 - The one little child that breaks through the main character's hard outer shell, and who the mc would do anything for.
 - A tournament and training.
 
Also Sylvia's only character trait is "I've got to be ready to escape at a moment’s notice"/"oh no I've been discovered" - so being in her head was a drag. 
 
Pleeease can we have some original fantasy ideas??  

This book is incredibly racist and misogynistic, especially in the way it portrays and treats Phuong. She is only there to make a point of tension between the two male main characters. She's infantilised so much, and xenophobically othered. They talk about her as if she's not there, even when she's sat at the table with them. She's purely an object to be won and serve the men. The book isn't making commentary on how badly she's treated, the author is just writing as if he believes this is the right way to treat women.
 
The quote that was the final straw and made me DNF:
 - Pyle - "But she loves you, doesn’t she?"
 - Fowler - "Not like that. It isn't in their nature... It's a cliche to call them children... They love you in return for kindness, security, the presents you give them - they hate you for a blow or an injustice." 
 
Also, all of the Vietnamese are portrayed as having zero intelligence, like they are animals rather than humans. The only people the foreigners deem to be fit to be talked to as peers are other white foreigners. 
 
This book is technically well written, but Greene's disgraceful portrayal of the Vietnamese people, and women in particular, meant I couldn't continue reading. I wasn't enjoying it, and I don't really care about war stories anyway. 

This is a reluctant DNF. I had the audiobook out from my library, but left starting it so late that I now only have 7 days to listen to 15+ hours of it. This is not the sort of book I want to rush, so I'm having to put it down for now. I don't want to keep reading only to get really involved, then have to return it.

I am enjoying it, and will continue if I have another chance at getting the audiobook (it's currently reserved until 2026 at the library). 

I went into this with high hopes after hearing people gush about it, but dear lawd no... I've tried to broaden my reading taste and try romances recently, but maybe the genre as a whole just isn't for me.
 
Reasons I didn't enjoy this book (and eye-rolled every other minute) include:
 
 - I have read SO many books about publishing recently, so this just adds to that long ass list. Publishing is not THAT interesting.  
 - Clementine is such a stupid name 😭
 - At 18% I guessed that he's the chef from the beginning of the book. I can't be bothered to read it to find out if I'm right (for the love of me I can't find spoilers), but I'll eat my hat if I'm wrong.
 - Some guy is magically in her house, and within the space of him cooking her a meal she's already basically in love with him? 
 - If her favourite colour being yellow is 'one of the most surprising things' about her, dear lord she must be boring.
 - Not the horrifically cringy PET NAME he gives her within the first couple of hours of knowing her. Creep behaviour.
 - Fajitas were made to a 'secret family recipe' - which fucking part of them?? I can't believe it would be every single element. 
 - I hardly read romance books, but I'm already tired of 'work obsessed woman with no life gets shown how to have fun by quirky artsy man'. WHY DO THEY ALL HAVE TO GO THROUGH SELF DISCOVERY?? People can (and should) figure out who they are by themselves, before getting together with someone.
 
What's absolutely wild is that I do love a romantic movie on occasion (especially About Time, which got me excited about this book) AND romance in other book genres, but romance books (at least the popular ones) just don't seem to do anything for me. Then again, popular books are usually the worst out there...

June criticises Athena's work by saying she often 'Hits the reader over the head' with her ideas. This is a perfect description of how I find Kuang's work. Her points are pertinent and important, but are very often portrayed in a very heavy-handed way, in my opinion unnecessarily.
 
Unfortunately, this book is no different. I get it - racist people = bad. But after the first 50% or so, the delivery just gets old. It’s a book about a racist, overall horrible woman trying to find out who's calling her out for her actions and trying to get away with theft. I don't care about June, so why would I care about how her story progresses/ends? 
 
If the book had more plot than 'racist author scared she'll get found out' then I could see myself enjoying it more (I'm currently reading 'The Other Black Girl' by Zakiya Dalila Harris, which comments on many of the same issues within the publishing industry, but in a much more compelling and readable way), but as it is I'm just over this book.
 
There's no intrigue, nothing is new to me, it's just a barrage of racist ideology. Maybe it could be an important read for people who are completely oblivious to race issues, but I'm bored by it.
 
This is me officially giving up on Kuang. After loving the first two books in 'The Poppy War' trilogy, hating the last one, and finding 'Babel' so horribly pretentious, I won't be reading anything else by her.