The fact that everyone was horrible in different ways was what I liked. I found it really refreshing not to have a protagonist to side with or a good guy and it was just an unravelling of the vicious cycle of greed in publishing. That all of them were "explainable but not acceptable" was really masterful imo, and I appreciated it for leaving me so uncomfortable. The ending was admittedly silly :p but I liked that the whole thing culminated to be crazier and less believable as it went heh I loved that June didn't have a redemption. Not every story ends nicely because people don't always improve, and June's arc was to worsen. Felt truer to life that way, although it's all fiction ;P
The more I think about the book, the more I like it that we don’t have a protagonist to support/side with. It pushes the reader to find their own meanings and interpretations. It did confuse me with the message though. When I was looking at the book reviews, I realized that I misunderstood what Kuang wanted to say. But hey, it’s all a process :) now I know what the idea was. And who knows, maybe my interpretation was also something that the author agrees with, but It just wasn’t the main idea. As for June’s redemption, I agree that it does feel more real the way Kuang did it, but boy I wish it ended differently. All the events were just so “ugly” that by the end you’re hoping something good will happen, and it still doesn’t.
The fact that everyone was horrible in different ways was what I liked. I found it really refreshing not to have a protagonist to side with or a good guy and it was just an unravelling of the vicious cycle of greed in publishing. That all of them were "explainable but not acceptable" was really masterful imo, and I appreciated it for leaving me so uncomfortable.
The ending was admittedly silly :p but I liked that the whole thing culminated to be crazier and less believable as it went heh
I loved that June didn't have a redemption. Not every story ends nicely because people don't always improve, and June's arc was to worsen. Felt truer to life that way, although it's all fiction ;P
The more I think about the book, the more I like it that we don’t have a protagonist to support/side with. It pushes the reader to find their own meanings and interpretations. It did confuse me with the message though. When I was looking at the book reviews, I realized that I misunderstood what Kuang wanted to say. But hey, it’s all a process :) now I know what the idea was. And who knows, maybe my interpretation was also something that the author agrees with, but It just wasn’t the main idea.
As for June’s redemption, I agree that it does feel more real the way Kuang did it, but boy I wish it ended differently. All the events were just so “ugly” that by the end you’re hoping something good will happen, and it still doesn’t.