Nancy Nightingale

I got about 33% through, or about 100 pages in. I feel the subject matter the book touches on could have been approached better. The whole thing with him running off to Berlin for a book he wasn't even gonna try to work in frustrated me and felt unnecessary. if it was focused on just his experience with the TV show and being with his family as he sees this rise of radicalization take place I would have been more absorbed, but everything about the first half just made me not care for him or any of the story. 

There's a great message on the impact of stigma in this book, it felt frustrating that the characters seemed to explain the same thing in detail even to characters they know would have that knowledge that was frustratingly repetitive. All the queer characters in the story also felt like pure stereotypes of queerness and the way they some times interacted felt like what a well meaning straight person thinks we talk, especially the drag queens in the book.

I only got like 17 pages in. I knew it was inspired by actual news of that girl whose name I currently cannot remember but actually reading felt exploitative from the jump. Like it immediately just didn't sot right with me and I just couldn't keep going.

The concept I think is like classic fantasy, which I generally like! But ultimately i ended up giving up in this book due to the amount of repetition and grammatical issues that likely resulted from being a self-published work. Several times I felt confused what a character was actually doing, something i think having a proper editor would be able to catch and correct. It's not a bad book, but I get taken out of it a bit too much to continue.

I feel frustrated because I love the concept of this book, I love how she built this world and the characters. I'm just struggling to connect with the writing, which might just mean her style isn't my cup of tea, which happens even if we really want to connect with the author's style. I thought maybe at first I just wasn't in a place where I have the stamina for this book, but I have tried reading another of her work and having the same experience. I love the the concepts of Kuang's books and the topics she tackles, and she's very talented. I just don't know if she's the writer for me :(