Reviews

if you, too, need a coping mechanism for graduating as an english lit major, this might do the trick. a masterclass in satire *just* niche enough to make the overpriced piece of paper worth it

eclairedelune's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

sarahlouiser's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

600bars's review against another edition

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4.0

This was absolutely hilarious. I listened to it as an audiobook and thought it was a typical campus novel so it took me a second to realize it was actually a biting satire of the exact sort of institution I attended. I’m always loving schadenfreude twitter tales about academics who get caught race faking. It makes fun of “woke” culture but not in a way that is cruel or discrediting, Ingrid ultimately has important revelations about what it means to be Asian American while the book still pokes fun at that milieu. Stephen was literally killing me every time he said “dear”. Stephen is Ingrid’s white fiance and he is a Japanese translator. He’s an academic weeb if you will. The college town they live in is called “Woodlebury” (due to audiobook idk if these spellings are accurate). The short story book I’ve been making my way through while I was also reading this was translated from the Japanese by a white man named Stephen who is the head of Japanese Studies at Middlebury. I thought that was a suspicious coincidence. I think many of the other reviewers missed the fact that it’s satire…. I kept loling out loud at things like Eunice’s thesis on Hegelian Ethics in K Dramas and Vivian’s paper about Boba Liberalism. I probably would have a lot more to say if I weren’t trying to finish my review backlog before the end of the year but it’s a can of worms tbh

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