WOW. For starters, I could not put Yellowface down. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, as the author has primarily written SciFi/Fantasy before this - and this is decidedly not SciFi/Fantasy. Yellowface was shocking in its conclusions, and at the same time, the ending was not surprising. This is certainly a book that traffics in the grey areas, and leaves us unsure who really should "win" in the end. Not being an author myself, the insider look at the book publishing industry was shocking, but certainly rang true from what I know about books. Yellowface never really lets you get comfortable rooting for any of these characters, and it leaves you feeling more than a little unsettled. At one point, I had to force myself to put it down, because I could see where the action was going, and it all made me feel so uncomfortable. This is a novel that deals in hard truths, and doesn't spare any person, or type or person, from it's withering criticism. I will whole-heartedly be recommending this one to my more bookish readers.

I am shocked that Babel and Yellowface were written by the same author. Not from the quality standpoint, but from the ability to craft multiple nuanced stories with more depth than the Mariana Trench. A must purchase.

Content warnings: racism, white privilege, choking, death

A slight caution to readers who will pick up YELLOWFACE because they have read either The Poppy War trilogy or BABEL... if you expect this book to be anything like those books, you'll be disappointed. Sure YELLOWFACE (like Kuang's other novels) tackles the tough topics of racism and colonialism... but the plot and writing style of YELLOWFACE is entirely different.

Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about YELLOWFACE as a novel. This is full of sardonic, dark humor as Kuang explores how white-centric publishing (and readers) are - and a lot of it has been pulled directly out of recent authors' bad behaviors and drama between Goodreads reviewers and Twitter discourse. Which makes me wonder how this book will age if/when these social media platforms are no longer thriving, even though the issues will still be alive and well unfortunately. Our protagonist June Hayward isn't a good person, and she's not meant to be, and truth be told, Athena Liu isn't a great person either. But this isn't a novel about liking or cheering for a character, and I can see how Kuang will face harsh criticism from a certain type of reader because of this novel... which actually will just prove Kuang's point in the end.

YELLOWFACE is well written and is an important topic. For those readers who lean into contemporary literary fiction, I think they'll really enjoy it. Me personally? I preferred Kuang's other works better, but that's not to say this isn't a solidly good novel.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and William Morrow in exchange for an honest review.

GRACIAS a Harper Collins y Netgalley por la copia avanzada!!!

Que hermoso delirio es este libro. Me encanta como la autora tomó la mayoría de las críticas que le suelen hacer a ella y las incluía en la trama o tomaba cosas tipicas que podes ver en las redes hoy en dia con muchos autores . Definitivamente es un libro para leer si ya conoces a la autora y ya leiste minimo uno de sus trabajos, no lo recomendaría como primera lectura.
Es diferente pero muy interesante, le tenía muy poca fe porque sólo había visto reseñas malas pero personalmente yo lo disfrute mucho.

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...