Rebecca F. Kuang is an award winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author. While her novels range from historical fantasy to literary fiction, there are often topics of racism, political violence, and colonialism (to name a few) that ground these stories in reality while adding an extra bite to them. She does not shy away from these harsher topics and is more than capable of keeping the reader fully engaged in the story being told without diluting these topics to appease a certain audience. Kuang has won several awards for her writings, including the Nebula (2022) and British Book Awards (2023).
“This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.”
“You don't fix hurts by pretending they never happened. You treat them like infected wounds. You dig deep with a burning knife and gouge out the rotten flesh and then, maybe, you have a chance to heal.”
“Most of the accounts that participate so clearly do not care about the truth. They’re here for the entertainment. These people love to have a target, and they’ll tear apart anything you put in front of them.”
“You have such a great fear of freedom, brother. It's shackling you. You've identified so hard with the colonizer, you think any threat to them is a threat to you. When are you going to realize you can't be one of them?”
Kuang was one of those author’s that I happened to find on Twitter a few years back, and I was drawn in by the premise of her, then unreleased, book Babel. When it came out, I left it on the shelf for months before I actually sat down to read it, but since that time, I have never slept on another one of her works again. Kuang has such a profound way of weaving a story that compels you further and encourages a deeper engagement with the narrative. I often find myself taking detailed notes while reading, as I have way more to say than could fit into a small annotation. This is what I enjoy the most about her books, they invite analysis and welcome dialogue about the subject matter and characters.
“War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who remains.”