Yellowface

I devoured it in a single day! Refreshingly simple narration and casual language that holds your attention from start to finish. Kuang perfectly crafts each character with such realistic flaws that you’re left unsure how to feel about any of them.

The protagonist and narrator, June, epitomizes this complexity. Despite her numerous morally questionable actions, a small part of me couldn’t help but hope she gets away with her transgressions, simply because she resonated with me on a human level—a connection that’s both unsettling and also a testament to how well Kuang created her.

The last couple chapters left a strong impression on me—June remains trapped in her victimhood, never truly learning from her experiences. This lack of show more growth feels all too real, reinforcing the novel’s themes. Her subtle yet telling racist remarks—like complaining that Asian food is too oily and unhealthy while indulging in greasy comfort foods like pizza and doughnuts—and her frequent surprise at older Asian immigrants’ fluency in English without grammatical errors, as well as her confusing Diana with Athena despite their clear differences, all reveal her thinly veiled racism.

In the end, it’s striking how little June evolves. Instead of reflecting on her actions or offering any genuine apology, she doubles down, trying to figure out how to manipulate her exposure to her own advantage. It’s a bold, unflinching conclusion, and realistically, the only one possible. show less

If you haven't been living under a rock the past few years, and you have any connection to or interest in the publishing world, you will have watched a major controversy erupt over the question of identity, who is allowed to write which stories, and the marginalizing of writers of color. R. F. Kuang's complex and well-written novel Yellowface examines authors, publishing, and these very timely controversies.

June Hayward is a struggling writer. She went to Yale with current literary darling Athena Liu, with whom she's always had a complicated relationship. Are they friends or enemies? Whatever they are, June is with Athena at her apartment when Athena dies in an accident. And then June, whether in shock or in a calculated move, steals show more the only extant copy of Athena's recently finished manuscript about the neglected contributions of Chinese labourers on the WWI front, rationalizing that she will edit the rough manuscript to make it publishable. Only she rewrites so much in the editing process that she ultimately submits the manuscript to her agent as her own work. The book, which goes on to be a runaway bestseller, is published under the name Juniper Song (which is actually June's name: Juniper Song Hayward) with a racially ambiguous author photo. June is not, however, of Chinese descent, which raises the question of who gets to tell certain stories and highlights the lie of marketing. As the furor over June's identity escalates, she is also working hard to conceal the fact that the novel itself was Athena's and that she stole it.

June narrates the novel, making bad choice after bad choice, arguing that she herself would have found great success as a writer (her one book was published with a whimper) if she was not white. She is a complicated and eminently unlikable character with her wrong ideas and her grasping to hold onto the fame she has found, by any means necessary. She is not the only unlikable character here though. All of the characters are spiky and flawed, as is publishing itself. The industry is the subject of wicked, pointed satire, showcasing its penchant for choosing a single literary darling to be the voice of all people of a certain race. The dramatic narrative tension, as June scrambles to try and stay ahead of the rising backlash and finds herself terrorized by the perfect anonymity and hate of social media, is very well done.

This is very much a novel of our time, one of secrets, cultural appropriation and identity politics, racism, and diversity in publishing. That Kuang has made a novel with no likable characters so very readable is masterful. And let's not forget the delicious irony of an Asian American writer writing a novel centering a white author pretending to be an Asian American author. Layers upon layers upon layers. show less

June Hayward and Athena Liu were college friends, so when they both ended up in the DC area, it seemed natural to renew their acquaintanceship. They're the type of friends who work in the same industry (they're both authors, though Athena is by far the more successful) and get together for drinks once every few months. After one such evening, Athena invites June to her apartment, where they engage in a tipsy pancake-eating contest -- and Athena starts choking. June tries everything to save her, but Athena is dead before the paramedics arrive. In shock, June returns to her own home . . . with Athena's last manuscript tucked into her bag. Athena would want to see her work published, right? If June presents it as Athena's last work, it'll show more just get caught up as part of her estate, and it's in no shape to be published as is -- it's barely a rough draft, all sentence fragments and (fill in details here) notes. June starts polishing it up -- as a writing exercise, she tells herself. And soon, the book feels more like June's than Athena's. She sends it to her agent, who gets her an editor, and the book is a breakout success. But now June has a secret. How far will she go to protect it?

As the author intended, I hated June with a burning fiery hatred, so this book took me a while to read, because I had to step back from it every so often. Kuang does a fantastic job of writing from June's perspective without making her either too sympathetic or a caricatured villain. It's clear all the way through that the author is Making A Point, so sometimes the story takes a backseat to the message. However, it's a gripping read overall, thought-provoking and timely. show less

June Hayward's debut novel flopped and she hasn't been able to write anything else since. She lives in perpetual jealousy of her friend Athena Liu, whose books have been published to critical acclaim and multiple film options. When June is the only one present when Athena dies in a freak choking accident, she doesn't think -- she takes Athena's just-completed manuscript from her apartment. Soon, June has revised the manuscript and submitted it to her editor, convincing herself that she's done a good thing -- it's not like it was publishable as it was, and nobody needs to know it wasn't entirely her own work. But while June's pretty sure she's getting away with it, she can't shake the feeling that it all might come crashing down...

Oof, show more what a read. This was compelling and also hard to read because June is such an awful character and you're in her head the entire book. Well done, if maybe a little heavy-handed at parts -- but I guess it's satire. show less

Yellowface is quite the roller-coaster ride! The basic plot--cultural appropriation and plagiarism--is layered by turns with mercenary avarice, guilt, achievement, alienation, elation, prosperity, misery, triumph, more guilt, more misery, and not a little introspection that may or may not be evidence of insanity. The narrator, a flawed human being experiencing tenuous interactions with her family members and with few friends, comes across as likeable but limited in her ability to connect with other people. One example of her underdeveloped understanding of others is that she's a writer who is skilled at the craft but much less skilled in telling a compelling story.

When her one long-time close friend succeeds and moves into fame and show more fortune, and then dies tragically, leaving behind an early, unpolished draft of a brilliant story . . . well, climb aboard and buckle in. Before the end of the ride, you'll laugh, you'll scream, you'll hold on with both hands, but you won't be able to close your eyes for fear of missing out. And when you survive the final drop, exhausted, you'll be ready to go again. show less

R.F. Kuang gets a lot right in her new novel, Yellowface, which takes a run at the publishing industry, social media, and AAPI racism. June Hayward struggles to make ends meet as a writer while her frenemy from Yale, Athena Liu, becomes a book-world darling with six-figure advances and Netflix deals. When Athena dies, June takes advantage of their friendship to forward her own career. I’m not a writer, but a lot of the industry mechanisms and messiness feel very real, as well as the daily struggles to write and find footing in a very difficult business. But a lot of the plot and character development feels very forced and unnatural — some of this is the nature of an unreliable narrator, but a lot just falls flat. Overall, Yellowface show more gives readers a strong statement about racism, publishing, and the black hole of social media, but as a thriller, it doesn’t hold up. show less

But enter professional publishing, and suddenly writing is a matter of professional jealousies, obscure marketing budgets, and advances that don't measure up to those of your peers. Editors go in and mess around with your words, your vision. Marketing and publicity make you distill hundreds of pages of careful, nuanced reflection into cute, tweet-sized talking points. Readers inflict their own expectations, not just on the story, but on your politics, your philosophy, your stance on all things ethical. You, not your writing, become the product--your looks, your wit, your quippy clapbacks and factional alignments with online beefs that no one in the real world gives a shit about.

This novel begins with two young authors. Athena is show more successful and has just finished her first draft of a new novel, this one centered on the Chinese workers who helped the allies in France in the First World War; June is struggling to find a foothold after her first novel didn't sell well. When Athena suddenly dies, June takes the manuscript and so begins her journey as an author with a book publishers want to print and that readers are willing to buy. But along the way, her journey as a white woman who has written a book about the Chinese experience is marketed and positioned in ways that aren't entirely honest and June is always worried that her theft will be revealed.

And once you're writing for the market, it doesn't matter what stories are burning inside you. It matters what audiences want to see, and no one cares about the inner musings of a plain, straight white girl from Philly. They want the new and exotic, the diverse, and if I want to stay afloat, that's what I have to give them.

This is a novel about cultural appropriation, and also about social media and a scathing look at how the publishing industry operates. Kuang is doing a bunch of stuff all at once, all with the breezy, easy style that conceals how much Kuang is taking on with this novel. It felt sometimes like a parody, except every over the top event in this book is similar to real events. Kuang is simply putting them all in the same book. June's own very unexamined racism felt jarring -- Kuang here creates a sympathetic character who does bad things -- yet not a single thought of hers or reaction wasn't one I hadn't heard another person saying. Lots to think about with this one, and despite all the issues the author took on, this was a lot of fun to read. show less