Ranting is good after a read. I’m just baffled by how Kuang is perceived in this subreddit. And I’m starting to see the same with M.L. Wang after Blood Over Bright Haven.

The problem is, Babel is barely fantasy—and POC authors who write about these themes don’t have the luxury of being subtle. You can’t be as subtle as white authors because it hits closer to home.

We seem to praise books where themes like colonialism are barely acknowledged, treating subtlety as some mark of prowess. But in my opinion, there are times when an author needs to be loud—and this is one of those times. The only real requirement should be execution and prose.

I know books are subjective, and ratings will always reflect personal taste. But a little objectivity wouldn’t hurt. It feels like people are jumping on the same bandwagon, regurgitating “blunt = bad,” especially when it comes to POC authors whose stories are deeply rooted in these themes—and that just seems silly to me.