An amazing, searing, and meta look at the publishing industry. June, while unlikable and unreliable, makes it hard to put this book down. She had me cringing so hard at points in her internal monologue, but it added so much to this story. Such a smart, brilliant work. A must read.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @harpercollinsinternational for an early copy of Yellowface by @kuangrf. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Yellowface tells the story of June Hayward, a struggling author who after witnessing her friend Athena Liu’s (an Asian American cross-genre literary darling) death, steals her just finished and unpublished masterpiece. Athena’s work is a novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during WW1. June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work, she gets rebranded as Juniper Song despite being white. She deems this novel that depicts history deserves to be told, whoever the writer is. As the book is published and gets popular and June receives her royalties, she can’t get away from Athena’s shadow as the emerging evidence of her stealing Athena’s work threatens her success. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Babel was one of my top 3 reads in 2022, and Yellowface may be just the same for this year. If you found Babel quite daunting, Yellowface is much more intimidatingly impressive. Despite having an awful protagonist with misplaced values, the storytelling was very engaging and engrossing. It paints a picture of how difficult it is in the world of publishing and how June navigates it as a struggling author. She’s jealous of Athena’s success and couldn’t help but steal her work for a moment of fame. It was also interesting how Kuang integrates racism in June/Athena’s novel The Last Front, within publishing and the overall story itself, as June, who is white, publishes a novel about Chinese laborers; she gets a lot of questions about this throughout the book – what gives her the authority to write about Asians with her being white? Additionally,

Yellowface also covers the disadvantages of social media. You know how most of us are so engrossed in the latest tea? Think about how the subject/person feels. It made me ponder and empathize with June regarding how she felt being bashed on social media despite her horribleness.

Once again, Kuang gives us a thought-provoking novel that will make us angry, think, and ponder. Rating this ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5! Releases May 16th, 2023.

Is there anything Rebecca Kuang can't write? Just like The Poppy War and Babel, Kuang once again takes on a relevant and heavy topic-- this book is insightful, thought-provoking, and doesn't shy away from anything. Such courageous and unapologetic writing. Definitely getting one for our collection.

I read this book and listened to the audio book - this was immediately engrossing, the narrator is most infuriating and her lack of self-awareness was frustrating, and as the book moved along, she became a little more self aware at least in regards to what she wanted in this life. The truths about publishing and about dominant culture and defensiveness and fragility were excellently portrayed.

This book was thoughtful, shocking, and has stuck with me since I finished it weeks ago. I enjoyed the complexity of the characters, and appreciated the comments this book made on the publishing industry. While the plot stalled here and there, I ultimately enjoyed this book, and would recommend it.

Update 4/2: I’m STILL thinking about this book. That doesn’t happen often because I’m always on to the next. With that said, GREAT job to RF Kuang.

Original review 3/30:
Stellar writing, good plot, interesting and thoughtful subversion, and overall a really interesting commentary on diversity in publishing.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow / Harper Collins for the ARC.

I was expecting to love this book, so these 3 stars are a big disappointment.

Let's start with characters. Juniper was obviously supposed to be unlikable, which it's fine, but I think her portrayal changed too often between big bad villain and humanized bad person. She was also too inconsistent in what she said and what she did. The reveal in the end was too obvious for me, so the fact that Juniper was so completely oblivious was very annoying.

I understand the discussion about publishing, and I'm sure this conversation will be more relatable to writers and people involved in publishing. But I get it, and I really think it's an interesting and important discussion. And although there was some nuance, many parts, in my opinion, were too heavy-handed and were just exposition of the themes, which fit awkwardly in a fiction book.

So overall, it was not a bad book, the plot was interesting to keep me intrigued, but it really missed for me in the characters and the way the themes were explored in some parts.

I received an arc of this book from NetGalley to which I am very grateful. Babel and The Poppy Wars were some of my favorite reads of 2022 but despite this novel being immaculately written, I did not like it. The big picture of the plot was interesting but the ending felt rushed. I didn’t like or dislike any characters. The book is just okay.

So, the author is a genius. It is amazing the way she puts her satirical opinions of the whole racism concept in the publishing interweaved with a mystery/drama plot. June is a struggling writer who is sort of an acquaintance with the famous author, Athena. When they were hanging out, Athena ends up dying in an accident and now June steals Athena's unfinished manuscript which she continues to work on. June ends up extremely successful in publishing Athena's work as her own but the problem is that it heavily focuses on Chinese history. From there, with this content coming from a white writer changes the whole response slowly. It calls out all the microaggressions and then, there is also cancel-culture, social media trolling, etc in the picture.

But things get messier when Athena's account becomes active and the person behind seems to know more about the truth behind June's book. It was intriguing to see how things ended with June, does she manage to escape unscathed? How does the public handle when truth comes out? It was a fast read that kept me engaged all the way!

Yellowface explores ethnicity and the misappropriation that takes place therein. Two women: Athena, an Asian American and June, a white American are friends at Yale and beyond. Athena becomes a popular writer while June has no such luck.
When Athen dies, June chooses to take her latest manuscript and pass it off as her own. This leads to repercussions that threaten to take June down.

Similar to The Plot and the Other Black Girl, the book is fascinating and a good psychological read.

A viciously biting satire of racism and publishing, Yellowface pulls no punches while exposing exactly how badly publishing fails readers, writers, and the world at large. June Hayward is a mostly unsuccessful author whose first novel flopped. When her friend Athena Lu dies in front of her, June steals Athena's manuscript and passes it off as her own. The book becomes a runaway hit and June, using the name Juniper Song, revels in her stolen success, until rumors of its true authorship begin to spread. Brimming with fury towards the literary boxes Asian people are shoved into, Yellowface tears apart modern publishing's cruelties and pettiness with verve and passion. Every aspect of the publishing universe is examined, exposed, and parodied with the knowledge that comes from Kuang's own career. Her own obvious talent and skill did not exempt her from the bullshit that Yellowface so aptly skewers, and reading it gave me a new appreciation for what she must have gone through to create her body of work. Each reader will find a different point when June goes from antihero to monster- mine came when she added more "good" white characters to a novel about Chinese laborers, a trend that is why I refuse to read any books about WW2 (I couldn't care less about pretty white people while my people are being mass-murdered, thanks all the same).

I cannot describe this book as anything other than pure genius.

This last year, Tik Tok was rife with discourse regarding R.F Kuang's characterization of white characters in her previous novel, Babel. Well, it is safe to say that this book is all the response that Kuang will need to give. I find this book nothing less than revolutionary in its ability to accurately convey the very real and pervasive impacts of "cancel culture", racism, online activism, and social media.

In Yellowface, we follow the mental and social journey of an author, Juniper Song Hayward, presented with an opportunity for career advancement following the death of a woman who is the object of Juniper's deepest jealousies and insecurities. Readers are left to decide for themselves the moral implications of not only the narrator's actions, but of society's at large.

For any reader who loves nuanced takes, works reflecting current societal issues, and absolutely superb writing, you will not be disappointed by this read!

This was such a fast paced read. I feel like there will definitely be mixed reviews, especially from people who are not a minority. The nuances of microaggressions, blatant call-outs, this was my first R.F. book and I really enjoyed it. I'd say read it if you're not going to get easily offended.

This was quite the ride.

Overall, I enjoyed reading R.F. Kuang's Yellowface. It was entertaining, it kept me hooked and guessing till the very end. I did find that it lagged a bit in the middle and while I thought that the information/history provided was important, it felt a little out of place within the story. I mean, it was relevant to the story but it felt like someone inserted textbook information in the middle of the narrative.

I will say, it was fun being in the head of an unlikeable character who does mental gymnastics justifying her horrible actions.

Yellow face is a biting satire about the current state of race/racism in the country and publishing industry. The author does not shy away from criticizing even herself, as there’s obvious parallels between her and Liu (the white boyfriend drama, successful at young age, in her own elite world, etc.) Even far right detractors will have to admit this book paints a far more nuanced portrait than the typical evil white villain. Race (and paired with gender) is complicated and messy, and the book addresses that.

Well, that was a read.

I never thought I'd enjoy a book with such an awful protagonist so much, but the mental hoops she knotted herself into to justify being the hero was fascinating to watch.

Kuang can get herself into the head of a white woman better than most white women can, and I say this as a white woman.

From racism in publishing to white womanhood to white supremacy to lies we tell ourselves to no perfect victims to Highlander Syndrome to cultural appropriation to plagiarism and theft to...well, this book has it all and then some.

It's such a departure from Kuang's earlier work, and while it's messy as hell, I loved it. It worked so well. Now I just want to know where the idea came from...

This is a hard book to review because it's probably going to be a love it or hate it type book. Or in some cases, one that you may have to sit with a while.

That's my thought at the moment. The thought of an author stealing another author's book and then getting into a culture war about the fame that follows was fascinating. Especially for those of us who follow Twitter wars and social media. If you don't enjoy the drama on social media, this may not be the book for you.

I would be interested to hear how much relates to Kuang's own experience as an author.

DNF around 20 pages. Wish there had been a trigger warning for Athena’s manner of death. I liked the pages leading up to it and thought the writing style was nice.

Yellowface is about Juniper "June" Song Hayward who takes the manuscript of her more successful college "friend," Athena Liu, after she passes. Hayward edits and publishes this manuscript as her own. Through Hayward's unreliable narration, readers get to see how her career will unfold following her theft of Liu's manuscript. Will she get what should be inevitable?

I was so curious to see how R.F. Kuang was going to move away from speculative fiction in this novel and honestly I could not be more thrilled with the result. The genre switch was seamless in my opinion. R.F. Kuang is talented in her plotting and writing. I enjoyed learning more about publishing all while reading a critique on some of its current practices that are harmful and further marginalize communities. Readers should be left really wondering about why tokenism, among many other things, persists in an industry that would be rejuvenated by diverse voices telling their own stories. You may need to get ready to sit with your discomfort!

Everything R.F Kuang is magic. Including this one. Yellowface is so piercingly insightful about how quick white people can be to take things that don't belong to them. If you're white, this book will force you to look within yourself and wonder, "is this me and have I actually done this?" And maybe you'll be uncomfortable, but that's good and necessary. Sit with the discomfort and figure out why you're uncomfortable.

R.F Kuang is a gift.