Who lives, Who dies, Who tells the story

Finally a novel after the one-month break of reading. I finished it 5 days ago, but only have time for stringing some sentences now. There's a hook lying at every page's end, making the procedure of completing 10 or more pages quite smooth before I realized it myself. Reading is like floating along the stream of the storyline. Plots are careful and neat, each turnabout surprising enough to pique my interest; every time I took a ride on the light rail, I just opened the yellow covered book, to see what awaits Juniper at the front as the cost of all her choices.

Juniper, the protagonist of this novel, seems startling arrogant and innocent in a toxic way, while being repressed and vulnerable at the same time. At first I thought she merely did some fan art and published it base on the manuscript, The Last Front, by her already deceased friend Athena Liu, as a compensation for her repressed life being Athena's friend. Athena, when she was still alive, is described as the kind of exotic prodigy who always reaches the finish line when others are still figuring out how to start, with the help of her Chinese American identity, diverse living background, writing talent and outstanding appearance, so I nodded and continued turning the pages. As this book is exposed to public, it seems like a positive twist. Book reviews full of compliment flood in the main websites, Juniper gets invited to the ceremonies and speaks in front of larger crowd of people than she ever expected. You can easily tell the story has reached to its peak by the joy that fills the pages; however, in the meantime, Juniper gradually transfers from the surrogate of a book to the mother who gives birth to ever growing desire: once your voice gets heard and echoes in many people's heart, it's so easy to overestimate your capability, though in fact this can't be done without the scaffold other builds. But gradually something discordant is woven, deliberately, into the public opinion: the white racist stole the voice of an Asian female author. Partly because Juniper is the kind of person who will tear others' umbrella even she herself had been soaked for a long time, or rather, compared to the time she spent in torrential rain, what she gets now is merely a shred of her life. She instigated the publishing house to fire an editor for the reason of a mere fraction, though as former cannon fodder she knows well what it's like being orphaned by the industry; no matter why the editor, inferred from whose last name may be Korean, later leaves bad review and finally becomes the one who destroys Juniper's life, and takes what Juniper owns: fame, reputation, money, and the right to revenge. Isn't trying to eliminate every uncertainty in her career the largest uncertainty itself?

During my reading, what captivates me most is the relationship between Athena and Juniper. It's like a thorn that fails to be pulled out from one's palm in time, so it grows with the years and finally becomes part of the body-- although it still aches when pressed slightly. The metaphor only captures the negative part of the essence, for I can tell fear and fascination are mixed together in Juniper's eyes when she articulates her experience. Despite of the racial difference, Athena must be the silhouette of what she dreams herself to be, which is exactly why Juniper spared effort to maintain this relationship while pouring out her grievances in her words. In some sense, Athena is even the first mentor of her career, given that what Athena bequeaths is much more than the manuscript of The Last Front: being by Athena's side also means a chance to gain some understanding of the toxic publish system which Juniper hardly had any chance to learn about, although she doesn't feel the pinch of it until The Last Front goes viral. I wonder, when Juniper is stuck in the attack of the mobs on Twitter, has it dispelled the solitude and hurt a little by mentioning Athena's similar experience? Despite of all these, one thing remains unchanged. Juniper Song, which is her penname now, is now remembered as an appendix to Athena Liu. Her whole career sticks with Athena's ghost as well, for Juniper keeps referring Athena's scribble when she has no idea how to finish a new manuscript before due. Though in the last part of the book Juniper keeps trying to say something her own, it still seems she can hardly survive this highly imbalanced relationship, especially when Athena only exists in her brain. Still, Juniper defends herself by mentioning the possible theft by Athena, who stole her "didn't know if I was raped" story, just because she had better narrative skills. We all know the right of narration always flows towards those who have better storytelling skills; but when it comes to life and death, it's those who live that tell the story. So in some ways, Juniper keeps arguing with herself, that's exactly why she can't stand as an independent author in the literary world.

The last thing I would like to add some comments on is the ending. Rather than unsatisfied about it, I'm quite confused. It seems that after all these plots, there's no change in Juniper, who still seeks for revenge towards the woman who ruins her career, who fails to figure out the most important traits of a writer, say, the persistence and the the ability to talk to oneself, which guarantees one to truncate all the interfere from the outer world. Instead, she blindly takes or even chases all the things that the public throws to her, no matter they are warm greetings or rotten eggs; she lacks the ability to see the vain of all this drama, and even more startling, in the last part of the story, she keeps ignoring all the suggestions that are possibly helpful, but chooses to be a puppet hanging by invisible threads of the publishing industry and social media. Maybe I'm saying all these just because I'm not in the publishing field myself. I'm not in Juniper's shoes, who has been dreadly looking for acknowledgement as a writer all life long and finally able to lick her sweet, warm, bloody triumph. Maybe this is exactly what the author wants to portray: show her readers a vicious industry, in which everyone involved cannot keep themselves intact, in which every victory is meant to step over several other possible victories. But despite all the possible reasons above, the story maximises the drama side of the industry and the role as a writer in 21th century, but minimises the direct impact that writing process itself gives to the writer. Before a writer comes to fame, one must learn to get used to the solitude, and learn to dance with it; this fiction just nerfs this kind of initiative, which may lead the protagonist out of the dilemma. In the end, Juniper still doesn't figure out a way to let out her own voice, instead lives under the shadow of her "best" friend, although having mentioned her reluctance several times.