Who Would Like This Book:
If you like juicy literary drama, industry satire, and characters you love to hate, this is a must-read. Yellowface is a whip-smart takedown of the publishing world, cultural appropriation, and social media pile-ons - all told through the eyes of an unreliable, trainwreck protagonist. It’s fast-paced, morally messy, and darkly funny, making it perfect for fans of character-driven thrillers, modern social commentary, and anyone fascinated by the underbelly of the creative process. If you enjoy books that spark debate and keep you glued to the page, you’ll eat this up.
Who May Not Like This Book:
If you want a subtle or purely plot-driven story, you might struggle here. Some readers find the protagonist unlikable to the extreme and the narrative heavy-handed with its themes, leaving little room for nuanced interpretation. If you dislike being lectured or prefer novels that “show” rather than “tell” their big ideas, you may find the messaging too on-the-nose. And if heavy doses of internet drama, social media spirals, or industry in-jokes aren’t your thing, it could feel grating or overly specific.
About:
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is a suspenseful novel that delves into the cutthroat world of the publishing industry. The story follows June Hayward, a struggling author who seizes an opportunity to steal her deceased friend Athena's unpublished manuscript and claim it as her own. As June's success grows, she is haunted by the shadows of her past actions and the consequences of her literary theft. The narrative explores themes of jealousy, friendship, cultural appropriation, and the negative impact of social media on an author's life. Kuang's writing style is described as compelling, witty, and fast-paced, keeping readers engaged as the plot unfolds with unexpected twists and turns.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Triggers include themes of cultural appropriation, plagiarism, racism, social media harassment, and mental health struggles, alongside the depiction of a character's manipulative and morally questionable actions.
From The Publisher:
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
"Hard to put down, harder to forget." - Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author
White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn't write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American-in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena's a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song-complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang's novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
Ratings (269)
Incredible (29) | |
Loved It (104) | |
Liked It (59) | |
It Was OK (49) | |
Did Not Like (22) | |
Hated It (6) |
Reader Stats (478):
Read It (271) | |
Currently Reading (8) | |
Want To Read (145) | |
Did Not Finish (8) | |
Not Interested (46) |
22 comment(s)
there is nothing wrong with admitting athena liu had flaws. there is nothing wrong, even, with sympathizing for june at certain points. sometimes she had the right idea. sometimes she was the victim. but overwhelmingly, this book is a litmus test. it’s a test of your ability to think complexly about an issue. it’s heavy-handed at times, sure, but i think it works. it shines most when highlighting june’s microaggressions, though.
i enjoyed the “pulling back the curtain” on the publishing industry. that expose was probably some of my favorite parts. could have used with less twitter and way less pop culture, which kind of took me out of the story.
middle did lag somewhat, but first and last third were very engaging. the plot twist wasn’t super twisty - i didn’t predict it, but i wasn’t surprised by it. kuang absolutely ate me up in terms of writing a despicable character, though. i hated her to the point i had to consider my own rage and its consequences.
wasn’t expecting it to turn horror, was confused. did enjoy though.
is this book possibly candice’s book?? may be my favorite theory. explains parts of why june’s character is so cartoonishly awful. explains why not all the writing always hits, why not all the social issues are fully explored. candice isn’t a writer at the end of the day.
i wasn’t a fan of the ending. i get the metaphorical purpose of it. she’s a white woman, and at the end of the day, she always gets off without culpability. she’s so deep in her denial her life is irrevocably changed at athena’s hands. blah blah blah. it wasn’t my favorite.
reading slump :((
will pick back up in january
I’d recommend this book to anyone! The story is a little slow but it definitely builds towards the ending of the book.
It really puts into light the cancel culture we have adopted of “crucify without all the facts” but turning tide when new information comes available.
It honestly felt like a real story that can happen in our day and age. Kudos to the author for this piece!
R.F. Kuang's Yellowface is a gripping, fast-paced novel that pulls you into a murky world of publishing, authorship, and appropriation. I could not put this book down. I believe I read it in just under 5 hours today.
This was my first time reading anything by Kaung, despite having her Poppy War Trilogy and Babel sitting on my shelves. I figured I would start with Yellowface because it felt like a lower-stakes introduction to her writing style. After this novel, I might move some of her other books up on my TBR.
June (MC) is one of those characters you almost want to root for, but you absolutely can't! From the moment we learn she stole the manuscript, you know as a reader that she cannot be trusted to be our reliable narrator and should definitely not be supported. However, Kuang crafted June in a way that kept me in this morally gray area (the liminal space) of viewing June as a scorned writer and a thieving and backstabbing friend. So I will give her grace, but June, if you're out there (I know you are fictional), please know grace is a finite resource, and you are reaching the bottom of that well.
And let's not forget Athena! As the novel progresses, we learn that she isn't that great of a person either. She had her demons and flaws but knew how to play the game for her publishers. You have to do what you can to keep the lights on. Honestly, this added a lovely layer to the storyline between June and Athena, making them both human.
Overall, Yellowface is a sharp and thought-provoking novel. It challenges you to confront uncomfortable truths and forces you to grapple with the darker sides of one's ambitions.
3.75/5⭐️
I'm not even sure what Kuang was trying to say here, and on the whole I think that's a good thing.
The writing itself was much better this time around, without Kuang's usual SJW penchant for inserting every idpol talking point known to mankind directly into the mouths of her characters, making them sound like 21st-century time travellers (Babel), or the Mary Sue story beats of The Poppy War. It's more subtle on the "Did you know white people evil?". More "Did you know white people are racist? Racism bad, mkay?"
Juniper might be a racist plagiarist, but she feels like the most well-intentioned, most oblivious kind of racist plagiarist. As much as Kuang winks at the reader when Junie falls flat on her face in her (comedic?) attempts to "stop looking through the white gaze", she also has some fair points. Because after all, why *should* diverse stories only be written by people of that ethnicity? And why *should* toxic internet discourse and cancel culture involve people digging through the author's years-old reviews? Why should Twitter generalisations about "white Karens" and "all white people" be excused? Now, I'm not familiar with Kuang's previous work, so I can't say whether she, as an Asian-American author, has been unfairly affected by the sort of relentless online scrutiny Junie undergoes, albeit that Juniper is much more culpable here.
If this wasn't Kuang I'd say maybe that's the idea: maybe we're meant to sympathise with Junie. Maybe anyone of any background can write a story, if they do the proper research. But right from the squirmingly uncomfortable scene at the Chinese club, where Junie panders to the audience's assumption that she is Chinese, to the tone-deaf alternations she makes in the name of "polishing up the book", it seems we are to infer that Junie THINKS she has done the proper research and written a historically accurate bestseller through an authentic perspective, even though she hasn't.
What is both searing and mildly irritating, in a meta way, is that the dead Athena is never given a chance to speak her piece except through snatches of unfinished, and is never interrogated with the same lens as Junie. She is quite clearly a self-insert, albeit a caricatured one. The accusations of theft and appropriation against her are seen through the perspective of Junie, a proven liar and plagiarist. The book never actually addresses these allegations: would the final book, in scene with Annie, for example, have hamfistedly painted all white people as two-dimensional, racist, and privileged as Kuang herself seems to do? Are we to condemn or condone the allegations Junie levels against Athena for being a second-generation ABC writing about her parents' and grandparents' trauma? Does Athena have any more right than Junie to write this book?
The main takeaways I got from this book were "Who is allowed to write what stories?", "Lots of people in the publishing industry are racist pricks", and "POC authors are always pigeonholed into token immigrant stereotypes and not allowed to deviate: generational trauma sells".
Which... yeah, okay, but was writing an entire book about it really necessary?
Honestly, I felt like it DRAGGED on. I didn’t really like how 3/4 of all the words were just interior monologue. I was constantly waiting for action! However, the acknowledgements say that it’s about loneliness and that was certainly prominent. I felt like I was going a little crazy (just like the protagonist was) because I lived in her brain
RF Kuang does such a good job in writing this extremely unlikable narrator that is racist, a faux ally and a typical white person who wants to be a victim at every turn. You see these kinds of people at every turn of a movement, a man who thinks he can talk for a woman just because he read Jane Austen once, a faux LGBT ally who thinks that Pride is a party, a feminist who actually doesn't give a shit about women and trans women and joins the bandwagon. You read this book and your blood boils because of how white people culturally appropriate and leech off of stories of the minorities. The question remains; should you censor writers? it's a good question to think about, but a white woman will never do justice to my story. white writers are not directly suffering the consequences of oppression. White writers should take a step back and pass the fucking mic because it's time to let minorities speak. Practice radical alterity (Levinas) and epistemic humility and let others speak for themselves. You read this book and you probably think "I know a writer like that". You read this book and you get triggered.
This is a good book club book. It wasn’t the best book I ever read but it definitely brings up lots of morally questionable themes.
When I think of Juniper and Athena, my 2 brain cells can't help but play "this is why we can't have nice things". It was horrifyingly fun to read and I don't know what it says about me as a person
What can you read after
Yellowface?
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