Fran
Wow! This one will stick with me for a long time. June, the narrator, is so disgusting but still somehow relatable? Kuang blew me away with the satire of making racist, deranged, and despicable thoughts ubterly mundane in June's voice.
Watching the train wreck of this character's own making paired with a critique of the publishing industry, systematic racism, white women tears, social media cancel cutlure was chef's kiss genius.
Tldr: The characterization of women in this book, and the flippant use of violence against women, child grooming, incest and rape gave me huge ick.
The main character, Mariana, feels like a punching bag for the author's never ending stream of violent and traumatic events.
There is a lack of believability extends from Mariana's inner world to the situations she finds herself in. Allowed to stick her nose in a police investigation, no problem. Eating dinner one-on-one with the man she suspects to be a serial killer, seems like a great idea.
The twist at the end is just so cruel, it's like the author tried to think of the most messed up thing that could happen and then dumped it on Marianna. It's not clever, it doesn't deliver some meaningful growth, lesson or change in Mariana. She is left more damaged, and the book leaves her there.
Honestly, I hate when authors use characters as punching bags for trauma and violence. It leaves me with the same icky feeling as a true crime murder podcast. But worse, because the author has the opportunity to make something out of the pain, to find meaning through their art. And this book just absolutely fails to do that.
Will try again another time, it's not compelling me to finish it.
Will loop back to this one, short-term hold elapsed at the Library.