Eight
Contains spoilersOverview
June’s rising fame triggers fierce online backlash, zeroing in on an interracial kiss scene that becomes a meme. Critics denounce the book’s authenticity and ethics while friends advise silence. At a Cambridge event, June defends her right to write. A museum flashback casts Athena as exploiting others’ pain, bolstering June’s self-justification.
Summary
June, now widely read, fixates on hostile online reviews and threads. She vents to industry friends Marnie Kimball and Jen Walker, who urge her not to read reviews and to ignore trolls. Despite their advice, June keeps doomscrolling, tracking every barb to gauge reputational damage.
Major critiques pile up: Adele Sparks-Sato’s review in the Los Angeles Review of Books labels The Last Front an exploitative, missionary-glorifying historical. A YouTube takedown by Kimberly Deng catalogs cultural errors and mocks a controversial scene. Xiao Chen’s Substack attacks the book and June’s motives. The focal point of outrage is an added scene where Annie Waters allows a Christmas kiss, spawning the “Annie Waters” meme.
June privately rehearses rebuttals, marshalling facts to counter claims of inauthenticity and simplification. She frames conversion and interethnic conflict as historically plausible and seethes at being policed by identity rather than craft. She resolves to project calm and authority in public.
At a Cambridge bookstore event packed with students, a Chinese American audience member asks why a white writer should profit from Chinese histories. June delivers a prepared defense: literature as empathy, research over identity gatekeeping, and opposition to censorship. The room offers modest applause; she moves on to safer questions.
A flashback recalls a Korean War exhibit visit with Athena Liu. June watches Athena meticulously harvest tragic details, interview an elderly veteran, and convert others’ pain into material. Concluding that Athena profited from suffering despite privilege and distance, June uses this memory to rationalize her own choices and authorship.
Who Appears
- Juniper (June) Song
Bestselling author; obsesses over backlash, fields a public challenge, and defends her right to write The Last Front.
- Athena Liu
Appears in flashback; portrayed as harvesting others’ pain for art, reinforcing June’s justification of her own appropriation.
- Adele Sparks-Sato
Critic who publishes a widely shared review accusing the novel of historical exploitation and missionary glorification.
- Kimberly Deng
YouTuber who catalogs cultural mistakes and mocks the contentious Annie Waters scene, fueling memes.
- Xiao Chen
Online polemicist whose Substack condemns the book and sneers at June’s motives and fetishization.
- Marnie Kimball
Industry friend in Eden’s Angels; advises June to ignore trolls and not read reviews.
- Jen Walker
Industry friend; counsels silence and frames critics as misogynistic clout-chasers.
- Chinese American student at Cambridge event
Audience member who asks why a white writer should profit from Chinese histories.
- Annie Waters
Fictional missionary’s daughter in June’s novel; her kiss scene triggers the chapter’s controversy.