by R. F. Kuang, 2023
A page-turner! What an original tale! Spellbinding! This is the Fort Collins Reads book for 2024. The author comes Sunday, October 27th at 2 p.m. to the Fort Collins Marriott. It is also our first selection for the 2024-2025 season of the Old Town Library’s Book Club.
An unsuccessful author, June Hayward, is jealous of her super-star friend, an Asian author, Athena Liu. Everything Athena writes is successful. One night, they are celebrating Athena’s Netflix deal and Athena chokes on a pancake and dies. June steals Athena’s latest typewritten manuscript and makes it her own. All of June’s success is haunted, though, and there are a few people out there who know the truth. I was in distress at times reading this story. I felt June’s fear, shame, guilt. What an incredible writer. But the world June lived in was so empty and shallow – all she wanted was fame and fortune; being the best, the most popular, and having all the attention. Her life is ruled by social media, Twitter and Instagram, for hours upon hours. (Facebook is never mentioned, not once.) She could live with herself as long as she didn’t get found out, and she is constantly checking social media. At only one point in the book does she regret what she did and think about coming clean, giving all the profits to Athena’s mother and charities. But that is only a fleeting thought. She quickly goes back to spinning her messy web of lies and deceit. There is also an insider’s look at the publishing world. June’s experience makes it seem like success has nothing to do with the talent of the writer, but everything to do with slick marketing.
Excellent book! I almost stopped reading it at the beginning because she starts out describing how June feels about Athena so well, and it was ugly, spiteful, jealousy. I didn’t want to be immersed in that world. But I didn’t stop reading and was soon immersed in the horror of it all – how could June do this and now, how is this going to end!
It ends with a vengeful author getting June to admit on hidden camera that she stole the manuscript, and then going public with the story, getting a 7- figure advance for her tell-all memoir. June considers suicide but then she decides to write. Her writer’s block disappears. She is going to write her own memoir, spinning the tale in her favor. The madness goes on and on.
I remember Crime and Punishment and the feelings I had while reading that. This book evoked similar feelings – fear, guilt, shame. Excellent writer, but what a sad, ugly world!