"Stop looking through the white gaze" (Situational Irony)
When June tries to go into Chinatown to do "fieldwork" and research potential new book ideas, she scolds herself for subconsciously making prejudiced judgments of the people around her, instead telling herself to "stop looking through the white gaze." The irony here lies in June's own ignorance about what the "white gaze" really is: her whiteness isn't a facet of her identity that she can simply "stop" looking through, as being white has entirely shaped the privilege and experience she's had going through the world. June is telling herself to do something that is impossible; instead, she highlights her own ignorance and inability to understand how identity isn't just something someone can "stop" or dissociate from their way of interpreting the world.
June's Constant Plagiarizing (Dramatic Irony)
After June teaches a class of young high school student writers at a summer seminar, she finds that her writer's block is suddenly gone. She goes home and writes several stories, each of which in reality is a loose copy of the stories her students have written. In another instance, she writes a book based solely on the beginning of a draft she found at Athena's apartment. June, a published author, can't break out of plagiarizing. The irony here lies in the number of times that June romanticizes the beauty of writing original work. Despite her own ambitions to write—a desire she frequently expresses to the reader within her internal narration—she routinely demonstrates that she is unable to come up with ideas of her own.
"I never wanted to pigeonhole my brand into writing about China; it only happened that way by accident" (Dramatic, Verbal Irony)
June states that her writing about China, and having her brand become that topic, wasn't something she did intentionally. However, the reader has witnessed how much effort she put into shaping her social media and image into one that is defined by her decision to write about Chinese culture—going so far as to publish under a different name in order to give the illusion that she is of Asian American identity. It wasn't an "accident"; June's decision to plagiarize Athena's manuscript was one that she had full agency over.
The Stairs (Situational Irony)
When June goes to meet up with the person who's running the Athena's-ghost Instagram account that harasses her, she goes in part because the choice of meeting place—stairs where she and Athena used to meet—is a location she believes was special to her and Athena. However, Candice then reveals that she chose the location because Athena loved to work out there. June realizes that the location wasn't special to their relationship at all; it was just convenient for Athena.
"Athena wouldn't have wanted this..." (Verbal Irony)
When June tries to convince Candice not to publicize the fact that June plagiarized Athena's work, she tries to tell her that "Athena wouldn't have wanted this." The irony here lies in the fact that June, for the entirety of the novel, has never cared or considered what Athena would have wanted. Would Athena have wanted June to plagiarize her novel? Would she have wanted June to continue profiting off of her work without credit? June's attempt to convince Candice to spare her is nothing but an empty lie that is contradicted by all of her prior actions.
