I used to wonder how my life might have turned out differently had I been raised in a less STEM-focused family. Perhaps, if my parents had seen writing as an aspiration equal to science, I might have become a journalist or a writer, given my perpetual itch to tell stories.

About five years ago, a friend disabused me of this notion shortly after publishing her first novel to critical acclaim. “Writers are the most miserable people,” she said. She bemoaned the constant comparison game, the prize list drama, the gossipy backstabbing. Anything from not receiving a phenomenal blurb for one’s book to being snubbed at a conference was grounds for war. In a profession whose metrics of success are incredibly subjective, writers easily succumb to insecurity, self-doubt, and jealousy. To be clear, this isn’t an indictment of writers, but of the limited crumbs of capitalist leftovers that they must fight for in an economy that doesn’t place sufficient value on the humanities.

If my friend helped pull the wool off my eyes that night, YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang takes it to a whole new level. In this satire, Kuang excoriates the entire publishing industry. Critiques of racial privilege and cultural appropriation predominate, but Kuang also takes on Twitter activists, pressures to stay relevant, and how “winners” are chosen in advance by publishers that pour money and marketing into certain books, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is a page-turner of a send-up that ultimately left my feeling profoundly sad. Since childhood, authors have been my heroes, and confronting the morass in which they must operate is disheartening – but important.

June Hayward, a struggling author whose debut novel flopped, is trying hard to come up with a novel to make her splash. At the same time, she is seething with jealous over her the success of her friend Athena who is a literary whiz. The two are celebrating Athena’s success when a freak accident in Athena’s apartment leaves her dead. June, now alone in Athena’s apartment, steals her new manuscript about the exploitation of Chinese laborers during World War II. June edits and works on the novel and submits it as her own, publishing it under the name Juniper Song, her full and middle name. Oh we forgot to mention, Juniper is white.

If you like books with unreliable narrators, Yellowface is the book for you. June Hayward is a struggling author, jealous of her "friend", Athena Liu's meteoric success. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals a manuscript from her desk, thus setting into motion June Hayward's transformation into Juniper Song, and her rise to literary infamy. This is a satire of the publishing industry, book twitter, neoliberalism, and modern society as a whole. When Athena's past sins are revealed, they pale in comparison to everything June has done and justified along the way. The writing in this is fantastic. Even though I never fully sympathized with June, Kuang will make you feel some empathy as June is attacked on social media, until you realize she deserves it. This is a book that feels rooted in this present time, and is all together a compelling read.

Yellowface is a fun departure from Kuang’s previous works, but it remains deeply unapologetic in tone, taking aim this time at racism and whiteness in the publishing industry. I might be in the minority here, but I think Yellowface is my favorite book of hers that I’ve read so far.

I loved the commentary on publishing’s lackluster commitment to diversity, favoring performative check-the-box behavior rather than meaningful action. In fact, Kuang highlights the ways that the industry actually enables people like June. We see her marketing and publicity teams suggest a “rebrand,” conveniently ignoring the fact that her middle name “Song” is more ethnically ambiguous than “Hayward.” Despite accusations of theft, June’s agent and editor continue to work with her because controversy drives book sales!

Yellowface also examines the ethics of writing. Beyond the debate around white people profiting from POC stories, Kuang also questions if folks from the diaspora can write about history and trauma they never personally experienced. and should writers treat their personal lives and those of their friends and family as fodder for book material?

I’m sure some people will think this book is too heavy handed, but June feels like so many people I’ve met in real life: She’s liberal (in name only), feels some remorse for her actions, but is ultimately determined to play the victim. She bemoans how marginalized people are soooo lucky because publishing only wants their stories, how hard work and merit aren’t enough anymore, refusing to acknowledge the fact that those very dynamics are what keeps marginalized groups out.

I couldn’t stop reading this book. This is everything I want in a novel: good writing, morally problematic characters; a skewing of society and books.

🟡The Story: When she was June Hayward, her debut novel flopped and she was floundering trying to come up with a novel to make her splash. At the same time, she is seething with jealous over her the success of her “friend” Athena who is a literary darling. The two are “celebrating” Athena’s success when a freak accident in Athena’s apartment leaves her dead. June’s alone in Athena’s apartment and swipes her new manuscript about the exploitation of Chinese laborers during World War II. June edits and works on the novel and submits it as her own, publishing it under the name Juniper Song, her full and middle name. Oh yea, Juniper’s white.

🟡My Thoughts: Just wow. When I saw it was written by R.F. Kuang, I thought fantasy books, which are not my thing. Nope, she has such a range of writing talent. This book is fast-paced, funny, thought provoking and on-point. It covers social media culture and the toxicity associated with it so very well. This is going to be one of my favorite books of the year. After I read the book, I read the reviews in The New York Times and the Washington Post. I completely disagree with the criticisms therein, but I can understand why this book would irk folks in the publishing industry —- I am just a reader and I loved reading this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was my first experience reading a book by R.F. Kuang and let me tell you, the writing was excellent! Engaging, intriguing, with that spark that keeps you hooked in from the first page. I enjoyed the writing a lot, so much that I read Yellowface in one sitting. That’s how good the writing was.

The main character was so mired in her exaggerated sense of self-importance that she’d built this whole reality where she was the victim. I kept reading to see just how far she’d go and how she’d rationalize to herself every awful thing she did. It was like watching a Final Destination movie. You know it’s going to get horrible but you’re hooked and you can’t stop watching, i.e. reading in this case. And that ending? Yet another twist.

I think it took a lot of courage to write and publish this story. Kudos to the author. It’s made me an instant fan and I cannot wait to read R.F. Kuang’s other books.

3 controversial opinions out of 5

"How does someone go from being a real person, someone you actually knew, to a set of marketing and publicity points, consumed and lauded by fans who think they know them, but don't really, but understand this also, and celebrate them regardless?"

Writing a review about a book that talks heavily about book reviews is ultimate metacore. And while RF Kuang's subject matter did resonate with me, I'm not overly satisfied with her delivery. Before I get into the why, here's the who, what, where.

"We owe nothing to the dead."

Juniper Hayward is about to make it big. She just wrote a fantastic historical fiction novel on Chinese laborers in WWI, and it's gonna be the next best thing (unlike her flop of a first release). There's just one small detail: she didn't write it. Oh, and she's white.

After the sudden death of her 'friend' and bestselling author Athena Liu, June discovers an unpublished manuscript... one that she's ready to pass off as her own in order to get the fame and fortune she's always envied Athena for having.

Will she be found out? Will the ghosts of her wrongdoings haunt her forever or will her success wash away her guilty conscience?

"I hadn't realized how much this terrified me: being unknown, being forgotten.
'And then when I die, I won't have left a mark on the world. It'll be like I was never here at all.'"

I think this book tried so hard to social comment that it got lost in the weeds. It forgot about the excitement of storytelling, which RF Kuang ironically highlights the importance of a handful of times. I would definitely not call this a thriller, as some book sites have been categorizing it, although it had the potential to be. In the end it reads more like a collection of ranting opinions, some hilarious, but others overused.

It touches on a rainbow of hot topic issues: own voice writing, plagiarism, cancel culture, self righteousness, the illusion of public personas... And when you attempt to cover them all in under 300 pages, none end up feeling particularly important.

"I've written myself into a corner. The first two-thirds of the book were a breeze to compose, but what do I do with the ending? Where do I leave my protagonist, now that there's [...] no clear resolution?"

I also found that towards the end it was difficult to distinguish between what was fiction and what Kuang may have been actually living while writing this book and using to fill the pages, a blurring of genres that I didn't enjoy.

If you want characters you can anchor yourself to, this may not be the book for you. Even the protagonist feels detached in a he-said-she-said sort of narrative that makes for an impersonal recounting. The book does have some fun insides into the publishing world, if you enjoy that.

Wow. I used meta twice— Ok, now three times— in one review. Time to end this. #writersgonnawrite

Big thanks to Harper Collins Canada for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

June Hayward and Athena Liu meet as undergraduate students at Yale—both dream of becoming authors one day and even debuting in the same year. But when Athena becomes an up-and-coming literary star, June can't help feeling jealous when her book's sales are underwhelming. After celebrating another win for Athena, June witnesses a tragic accident that kills her frenemy. She seizes the moment and steals Athena's recently completed novel following Chinese laborers during WWI. It's the perfect heist since nobody knew she was working on it.

June furiously edits Athena's manuscript and sends it to her editor, passing off the work as her own. When her publisher rebrands June as Juniper Song, the con is on. June believes anyone can tell any story, and she's got the sales to prove it. But when someone claims her bestselling novel is the work of the late Athena Liu, June goes on high alert to hold on to "her" hard work.

Yellowface had my attention from the beginning. I knew June would be insufferable, but the woman goes far to be the worst type of author. I was equally compelled and horrified to watch June dig herself into deeper and deeper holes. June's insistence that SHE is the best person to write a fiction book about Chinese history is laughable. But that's what casual racism does to people. The book perfectly explores racism, xenophobia, and discrimination in the publishing industry. June is so woefully unaware of her biases that she can't help exacerbating the problem. Instead, she plays the role of a white woman who is somehow always the victim.

This book was meta in the best possible way. I was endlessly entertained as someone who has watched tons of author drama on Twitter. R. F. Kuang is a genius, no question about it.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

R.F. Kuang has done it again, unleashing another absolute banger! This book was so tense and cringey (on purpose) that I found myself pacing and fidgeting with discomfort at the main character's choices. I love a book so visceral I feel the discomfort from the page in my body--that's powerful writing! The form for this book is truly fascinating--it's perhaps the only book I've ever read that really only has one character, with no real relationships to speak of. We get to know almost no one else--an extended metaphor for the protagonist's inability to connect with anyone and her narcissism. And what's most impressive is how Kuang propelled us forward without relying on other characters to serve as foil or push the plot. It was un-put-down-able all by following the main character down her one-way road of increasingly catastrophic choices.

This book is incisive in its commentary on entitlement--on the entitlement this white character feels to success, to being able to tell any story regardless of her proximity to it, to other people's stories altogether. It takes a riveting look at identity and at whiteness's resistance to any boundaries.

And while the book is making several macro statements, it's also just extremely compellingly told. Another unmissable Kuang book!

wow! this book knocked my socks off. Satire targeting publishing and racists, cultural appropriation and mean people. I loved it. Could not put it down. Not for everyone but very good.

“Hear me out.
It’s not so awful as it sounds.”

Yes, it was technically wrong for June Hayward Juniper Song to steal the unfinished manuscript of her wildly successful writer friend Athena Liu on the night of her death. She’s not denying that! But that doesn’t mean it isn’t hers. Sure, Athena came up with the concept, did the research, laid down the preliminary draft, and just so happens to be a part of the Chinese community, but Juniper is the one who perfected the story into a masterpiece! It’s almost as if Athena’s death was the universe’s way of passing the work on to its rightful heir.

“The whole project is beautiful, in a way. A never-before-seen kind of literary collaboration. And so what if it was stolen? So what if I lifted it wholesale?”

Of course, some people are going to play the cultural appropriation card, and some people are going to criticize her for being a white girl writing an Asian story but the truth of the matter is that Juniper is just delivering on exactly what the publishing industry, and her readers, demand!

"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."

It’s almost as if all her actions are justified…Almost.

Sometimes, death-by-pancake leads to intellectual theft. Sometimes that leads to a massive book deal, a film adaptation, awards, fame, and fortune. Sometimes conspiracy theories turn into the unstoppable force of social media outrage, cancel culture, and ghost sightings, which necessitates elaborate coverups and perhaps a little editing of the truth here and there…

"It boils down to self-interest. Manipulating the story; gaining the upper hand. Doing whatever it takes. If publishing is rigged, you might as well make sure it's rigged in your favour."

Ok for real though, this book had me in my FULL rage. I’ve never met such an unreliable narrator who is so self-deluded that she believes herself to be the only reliable narrator in a reality she knows she must actively manipulate. Juniper Song, Bestselling Author of The Last Front has to be one of the most unlikeable MC’s I’ve ever encountered.

It’s the self-centering, the self-victimization, and the Oppressed White Woman Tears for me. It’s the casual and confident micro-aggressions that happen not only in her writing choices (softening the language & white characters, editing history, making space for white savior stories), but in her interpersonal relationships and in her own internal narrative as well. Constantly! This woman hates Chinese food, gets annoyed at Chinese elders who can’t speak English, tells young writers that their identity is their selling point for their art, and so much more! So bad that even the Fox News Freedom Rally dudebros jump on the bandwagon of support for her book.

Juniper Song is the type of person who begs you to feel sorry for her, but you simply cannot feel sorry for her because she is so deeply twisted on every level. The whole time I’m screaming GIRL STOP but she just won’t!!!

"Okay, yes, I know how bad this looks. Like Taylor Swift, I had no intention of becoming a white supremacist Barbie."

OH JUNE…

I loved and hated this book at the same time. R. F. Kuang writing from the perspective of an entitled white woman thief of art and of culture, was such a fascinating experience. It was one of those things you simply could not stop watching even though you knew the train was headed straight for a broken bridge and into a firey river right from the start.

So good, I read it twice before its release date. Yellowface is a must-read new release and if you don’t plan on it, know that I will be chasing after you until you do!

“The truth is fluid. There is always another way to spin the story, another wrench to throw into the narrative.”

You're either going to get this or you won't. I got it and I loved it.
Juniper "Song" is a failing writer when she watches her much more successful acquaintance Athena die. She impulsively grabs her manuscript after the fact, not expecting to be inspired by it...and certainly not expecting to publish it as her own. Everything that comes after is nothing short of a panic attack.
The big reveal at the end fell a little flat for me, but that doesn't make this any less masterful. In fact, there would be no other way for this story to end because every detail, from beginning to end, is purposeful.
I found this to be full of important questions we should be asking of ourselves as readers, writers, and humans.

Yellowface by RF Kuang is a literary thriller that feels like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion and then fast forwarded to how quickly things go awry, from the perspective of June Hayward (writing as Juniper Song). It's a thrilling page turner that leaves you hanging at the edge of your seat, waiting to see just how badly things would go, but also anxiously covering your eyes for the impending peril.

I also wondered if RF Kuang felt a bit chaotic being an Asian woman writing from the perspective of a white woman 👀 the irony was not lost on me and I was here for it.

June's perspective is so interesting to read because she isn't just a one-dimensional 'bad guy'. A lot of the things she says are definitely out of line, but she's also not wrong. Yellowface takes a long hard look at racism and the publishing industry and brings up questions on diversity and cultural appropiation.

I've struggled writing a review for this book because when you read it and reach the end, there's this experience where you feel like you've been hit by truck that then evolves to a constant state of !!!. And then the best thing you can do is fumble around with words to tell people to read it.

I can definitely see this book upsetting others but personally for me it was one heck of a wild ride and I'm in awe of RF Kuang's craft.

Thank you Harper Colllins for the ARC! All opinions my own.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I do think the subject matter is an important one though. It was well written, I just found myself bored. I think I was just hoping for more. I will be purchasing this for my library.

Giving this a 4.5/5 rounded up.
I am going to preface my review by saying that this is the first RF Kuang book I've read, as many other reviewers make comparisons to her other works and that is not relevant in this case.
I think this book succeeded in what it was trying to do, make comments on the publishing industry. I can say that I didn't like how any person behaved in this novel, yet somehow I still cared about them and their stories which is an amazing feat.
I didn't exactly love the ending, as it seemed just a bit absurd that this is how it would go especially based on other commentary from the book. She is also a bit in your face with some of the satire that she uses throughout the novel. But that doesn't detract from what I think is an amazing novel overall.

I have no idea if it is possible to review this book properly. All I can say is, it's a must read and you'll get what I mean once you've read it.

When I turned the last page, I sat there for a good minute. My brain was like "ugh, of course" and "white people don't know when to stop" and "why do they always want to twist everything so they're the victim."

This book can be so frustrating to read, especially since it is written from the perspective of a white woman who steals her "friend's" manuscript and convinces herself she hasn't done anything wrong. But at the same time, it captures the real life experiences of POC and diaspora writers so well, it was almost haunting in its accuracy.

One thing about this book, your experience reading it vastly changes if you've spent any amount of time on book Twitter or bookstagram. Because many of us have seen "book drama" happen live, when "book drama" starts to happen in Yellowface, it's so reminiscent of things you've seen or heard, it's almost funny. And if you're a POC on book twitter or bookstagram you get to see how one tweet can set everything off. All your friends and their friends are suddenly hating on someone, only to find out that they should be hating someone else, and then finding out none of us know the entire story, and everyone was slightly in the wrong, but also not really, and you're left more confused than anything else. And yet...this is such a niche book world we live in, that in the grand scheme of things it does not actually impact sales all that much and "drama" can actually hype up a book even more.

Getting to see the ins and outs of the publishing industry was also very interesting. And honestly, as someone who wanted to publish when I was younger, and then grew up and realized just surviving life was more than enough work, I'm now a bit hesitant to enter the publishing world. It's scary seeing how focused publishing can get on POC trauma stories, and how they like to lump AOC into one big group. And as someone with no publishing experience, this wasn't surprising to me because I've heard these stories again and again. Yet, as Rebecca said during her signing in Toronto on May 14th, the book focuses on bad experiences in publishing, yet it was her good experience in publishing that allowed her to publish this book.

Yellow is the first of R. F. Kuang’s books that I’ve read, and I was pleasantly surprised with it when I picked it up.

The entire book is a reflection on the publishing industry touching on so many aspects (including so much I didn’t know) of a book launch, marketing, social media and more.

About half way through the book, the plot was completely bonkers, I loved it, it was impossible to put down and I finished it so quickly.

“I know what you’re thinking. Thief. Plagiarizer. And perhaps, because all bad things must be racially motivated, Racist.

Hear me out.

It’s not so awful as it sounds.”

Readers, it is exactly as bad as it sounds. Juniper Song Hayward is bad person, but don’t worry, she has forgiven herself.

Yellowface is told to the reader by June. We are her confessor. She tells us all of her resentments, fears, manipulations, and triumphs. Most of all, she tells us her rationalizations.

Athena Liu and June Hayward are the same age and attended Yale and many of the same writers workshops together. After college, their careers diverged with Athena becoming a breakout literary star and June becoming a failed writer and a standardized test tutor. They get together periodically, though June isn’t sure why, except that Athena doesn’t seem to have any friends and June likes to torture herself with jealousy. On the night they get together to celebrate Athena’s Netflix deal (see above, June torturing herself), Athena dies in a drunken choking accident and June steals her completed manuscript.

Yellowface is a satire, a psychological thriller, and a ghost story that ends as a horror story. It’s What Lies Beneath with the cheating husband as our narrator. As unpleasant as June is, the book is hard to put down. I have learned that I will read about awful people and horrible things if R. F. Kuang writes them. I probably missed a lot of the pointed publishing commentary, but I did not miss the white woman fragility of it all.

CW: on page choking death, emotional manipulation, psychological terror, bodily harm, white supremacy in action.

I received this as an advance reader copy from William Morrow and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

This book is biting, pageturning, and eerie. While I've been aware of R.F. Kuang for years (you can't exist in a bookish space and not be), I haven't read her previous books since SFF isn't really my thing. You can tell from reading Yellowface, however, that the author has a lot of experience within and things to say about publishing as an industry, writing as a career, and those of us who read and talk about books online. It's thought provoking and satisfying, and the fact that it's already garnering plenty of opposing reviews will probably invite even more readers to want to engage with it.

4.5
While this book (a contemporary literary thriller) is outside of my preferred genres, it rose immediately to the top of my most anticipated reads of 2023 list because R. F. Kuang is one of my favorite writers and this book did not disappoint! I finished it in one day (practically in one sitting) because I just could not put it down!

June has a complicated relationship with fellow author Athena. While June has struggled to find a place in the literary world, Athena is a rising star and June is extremely jealous since she believes that Athena has a leg up because she's a minority. Of course, June is horrified when Athena chokes to death in front of her, but that doesn't stop her from stealing Athena's newly finished manuscript, which is of course brilliant, and publishing it as her own.

This is a sharp critique of racism and white privilege in publishing as well as an exploration of just what lengths people will go to for the fame they believe they deserve. Kuang's prose is just as flawless as ever and, paired with a fast-paced plot, makes for a very binge-able book. If you're not as interested in the publishing industry and as involved in online book spaces as I am, this novel might not be as fascinating to you, however I would recommend this to just about anyone!