After witnessing the accidental death of her frenemy Athena Liu, failed author June Hayward refashions herself as Juniper Song and steals Athena’s posthumous masterpiece to pass it off as her own. Cue white woman tears, as she’s victimized and vilified by the consequences of her own egregious actions. It’s compulsively readable, as dishy as a Buzzfeed scoop, a horror-thriller of The Discourse™ and the chronically online. True to RF Kuang form, though, it repeatedly goes after the lowest hanging fruit in frustrating fashion, and, not unlike Babel, seemingly condemns the status quo while actually reinforcing it. (Do not drink a shot every time you read the word Yale.) There are times where there’s not enough framing to tell what is the author’s voice or the narrator’s, which is crucial in satire. Once she discovers the intersectionality of race and class, watch out. RFK will be a force to be reckoned with. Right now, she’s almost there, just missing an elephant in the room.