An Un-Calibrated Centrifuge

I'm glad I looked up the author before I started reading this book. I thought she was a Japanese woman but she's white (expat living in Japan). I'm nervous because the last book I read by a white female expat living in Japan ended very badly. Hopefully this is a better experience (but I'm keeping my expectations low).

I gave up on this book after 100 pages. Each chapter is from the POV of one of the four girls, but the chapters aren't divided equally. In 18 chapters, Harumi only got three of them.

Kamata also tries too hard to be "original" when describing things that should be straightforward. Instead of saying a crowd is diverse, she writes that the people ranged "in color from pearl to ebony." She also talks about "listening to plucked strings" in a Chinese restaurant.

More words/phrases Kamata used that bothered or annoyed me: exotic, "smooth hairless skin" about a Japanese man wearing a suit (so presumably the only skin showing is on his face/hands... also this observation was made by another Japanese person and felt disingenuous to me), replicated slurs against Asians, "Asian eyes," "my Japanese-American friend told me all this and I know it's true," "came here [from Japan] to be free," minority, q***r, s***tic, g***y, "a fresh-off-the-boat accent" when it was unnecessary to mention the character's accent at all.

On top of that, I didn't find the story interesting either, so this felt like a huge waste of time.

I keep saying I'm going to give up white authors writing PoC (especially Asians), and I think the time has finally come. I have Girl in Reverse by Barbara Stuber from the library, but that one's going back unread.