I am honestly baffled. I don’t know what I expected, but what I got was certainly Not That. After reading Babel and absolutely loving it, I had a level of confidence that Yellowface would also be an enticing read. Sad to say it didn’t turn out so. I Loved the premise of the book; it sounded absolutely amazing and I was excited to see Kuang bring it to life.

Instead of a gripping narrative exploring many sinister aspects of the publishing industry, Yellowface turned out to be an impressively unsubtle, lackluster story with a ridiculous emphasis on online book communities that are trying to be literary fiction and satire and failing at both.

Yellowface features all of R. F. Kuang’s writing weaknesses and somehow heightens them to a whole new level. While I enjoyed the lack of subtlety in themes in Babel(I genuinely believe they fit there and they are written beautifully), here it became downright unbearable. Kuang doesn’t give the reader a chance to ponder on anything, instead Yellowface, with a Very insistent and loud voice dictates what to think and how to react to the narrative. Relevant, interesting, and important ideas are brought up and discussed, but the narrative voice frames it all in such an in-your-face light that after about the tenth such occasion it gets really Really annoying.
Yellowface starts off promising, and it is incredibly easy to read. It is exciting, fun, and entertaining. It is grim and funny and absurd and that’s the appeal. The relationship between Athena and Juniper is fucked up and fascinating and so interesting to explore. I’d say the best parts of the novel are the ones concentrating on their dynamic. Unfortunately, as the first act of the novel ends, the narrative goes downhill fast.

My biggest problem with this novel is its second act. It could literally be renamed Book Twitter Discourse: the Book. A huge chunk of the book is just the protagonist recounting how Book Twitter is reacting to the drama around her book and it comes off as terminally online. Countless threads and hashtags and discourse and it takes up so much of the book I was genuinely questioning why is it even in the book. At some point, it feels like this book was an opportunity for the author to address every criticism her other books have received with a “well, actually!”. It irritated me immensely. I won’t go into detail here, since the publication of the book is still far away, but certain parts genuinely bother me the more I think about them.

On a very subjective note—I’m really not a fan of books packed with pop culture references. In my opinion, it dates the book greatly; and while I can forgive them when it comes to YA contemporary novels, this isn’t the case. Every other page is Filled with very specific references, which quickly started to irritate me.
This book isn’t subtle enough to be literary fiction and isn’t funny enough to be satire. Yellowface frustrated me immensely; throughout the reading process, I constantly had a question in my mind if I was missing something. I was neither compelled by any idea discussed in the book nor entertained for the vast majority of the novel. I’m still not certain what the goal of the author was, but it definitely didn’t work for me. Perhaps this book simply isn’t for me.

“But the living are burdened with bodies. They make shadows, footprints...only the dead can be so present.”

This passage struck me because Athena does permeate the pages and feels like a living breathing character, though her death occurs quickly within the narrative.

R.F. Kuang is coming for NECKS in this one, y’all. Juniper is a character I hated, loathed, and abhorred — which is the point. Juniper, a white woman, espouses so many different Asian stereotypes while being convinced of her own virtue, my head was spinning. (Her protest of “I voted for Biden!” Oh, please. I screamed.) she is racist, xenophobic, resentful of diverse voices, and despises being told not to write lived experiences other than her own. She balks at suggestion to get a sensitivity writer - which is prevalent among today’s white, cis, and heterosexual authors today. This book highlights the insincere inclusive rhetoric that veils the same racism, tokenism, and xenophobia in the publishing industry. With Yellowface, R.F. Kuang is saying the quiet part out loud.

Brilliant. Though there is no moral ambiguity for Juniper, she does not portray Athena in an altogether flattering light which i felt required a deft hand. The ambiguity and nuance for that character is handled beautifully. Justice for Athena.

This book is absolutely insane. I binge read the last two thirds of the book in one sitting! I was slow going with the beginning of the book but it very quickly picked up and took me for an absolutely wild ride.

I honestly can devour an unlikeable female main character - and this book nailed it. Everyone basically is terrible in this from racial insensitivities from the in world publishing industry, to the female MC to the ghost of the dead author they’re all utterly unlikeable (some more than others) and it’s all incredibly exciting.

The commentary on tokenism and who should be telling diverse stories is splattered all over the place and it’s fantastic. The strongest message for me was the one that wasn’t at the forefront of the narrative. Even amongst minority groups who’s allowed to tell the stories? What matters if you are by blood connected to certain groups if culturally you were never invested?

I personally enjoy books about the book industry it gives the general public a peek into a world we don’t know about and Kuang’s tellings about the conversations that happen behind closed doors feels raw and earnest. The descriptions of online mobs felt too real for comfort and flashes a mirror to the court of public opinion that often shoots first and asks questions later.

This book feels like the novel version of midsommar in that many people will walk away from this thinking “good for her” when in fact they have missed the entire point of the project. Female MC Juniper is deeply flawed and spends the whole book justifying herself and making the reader feel sympathetic for her struggles and it’s so good it almost gets you, but you have to remind yourself how crazy bonkers this all is and you snap out of your pity.

This book was fantastic and I’d strongly recommend to any bookish person I know. Solid 4.5 ⭐️ and I will be talking about this for AWHILE.

Thank you NetGalley/William Morrow for the E-ARC!

Sharp, darkly funny satire taking down the entirety of the publishing industry and our very online intelligentsia.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

Thanks Netgalley for this DRC! Look man I really couldn’t put this down. It’s satire and social commentary, yeah, but it’s also just a really engaging story. This will be a popular book club choice, for sure. June’s inner monologue is painful and embarrassing to experience at times, which is clearly by design. R.F. Kuang is an exceptional writer and does a brilliant job keeping the pacing of the story while injecting commentary about racism and stereotyping in the publishing industry and the world at large. I couldn’t look away.

This book seems to be a polarizing one; for me, it was an easy 5 star read. RF Kuang does an amazing job at creating characters that you absolutely detest, but whose story you just cannot look away from. I was in the middle of several books and decided to pick this one up on my kindle before bed.

The other books were immediately forgotten. I devoured Yellowface in 24 hours. I could not put it down. I went into it knowing that it would be satirical; but even with the humorous undertones, the plot was so strong and the characters all felt very real. This book was the one that solidified in my mind that RF Kuang is an auto-buy author. Her fantasy works are phenomenal -- but the way that she was also able to write such a solid contemporary? *chefs kiss*

Well this was less than I was expecting. I knew nothing of he novel’s content when I began. Imagine my disappointment to find a long, repetitive, not especially profound take down of current publishing and social media mores, revolving around an unappealing central character and her implausible addiction to writing. Juniper isn’t a credible character and nor is her dilemma. Okay, it’s a satire, but it’s one note, and after the lineaments are established, it only has binary choices to make. I read it, felt depressed about the industry, and went on my way looking for something less modish.

This satirical novel novel, offers a rare look at the lives of Chinese immigrants and the world of publishing as their story is rewritten thru the eyes of a white journalist after stealing the written work from her newly deceased classmate as a rising up and coming Asian writer. Once the work is stolen and rewritten with an American lens, the true value of its authenticity is about desecrated, as its Caucasian perpetrator drowns under the weight of ghostly sightings. This book is definitely not worthy of Babel praise, but Kuang brings to light issues of racism, diversity fro an Asian perspective.

Once began, YELLOWFACE did not let go of this reader's mind for one moment. I could not wait to get to bed so I could return to this racing novel.

I definitely thought I would have hundreds and hundreds of highlights to go through for this review but I think I spent too much of the time just goggling at the text to pause and take the time to reference something later.

This is a book that for someone who is Very Online will feel both absurdist and elle-oh-elle. Because that’s what being online generally feels like. In fact, here’s a perfectly timed quote!

<i>I [..] stare at the wall and mutter “what the fuck?” several times a day.</i>

But seriously, this story feels, in some way, like falling down the rabbit hole on a twitter thread; because while so much of it does detail the every day bits of publishing, the parts we see play out in the internet space and the parts we only hear about after the fact, the pile-ons, the speculation, the conspiracy (insert “I’ve connected the dots” / “you haven’t connected shit” gif here) the rest of it feels like something you’d see <b>play out</b> on booktwitter.

Because the way this story unravels, the way June slowly gets up on that hinge and then subsequently unhinges herself, is just.. unreal. Strange. Unbelievable. But un-look-away-able. I was glued. And I don’t know why I thought we’d have a reasonable ending to this story but I did and wow sorry but spoiler alert it was something else. Fascinating might be a weird word to use but I’m using it. I was fascinated.

I wish I had more brain power to really dive into all the issues that Kuang tackled — the push for diversity but only so much, the dialogue around who can write what kinds of stories, cancel culture, the toxicity of social media, the publishing industry as a whole, cultural appropriation, professional jealousy, and so much more — but honestly just touching on them is as good as it’s going to get right now. And honestly it’ll be more fun for you to experience without a dissertation on what is almost <i>already</I> a dissertation, though a satirical one at that.

Highly recommend you give this one a go.

What can I say about Yellowface.

A contemporary fictional (as far as we know ;) ) satire novel based on the inner workings of the publishing company and one c-rated author who wishes she could break it big. But alas, she has a friend, who isn’t exactly innocent herself, who does have the like she so desperately yearns for and lo and behold after a terrible and super off freak accidental death, the narrator is given the chance to steal her belated friend’s last manuscript. Enter a surreal story of making it big and all the travesties that live within the publishing world.

R.F Kuang has a way of sinking you deep into her words, and you’ll find yourself reading faster than your fingers can catch up. All the characters were well thought out and honestly you may not like some of them. This book was refreshing and unlike anything I’ve ever read. I so desperately wish there would be a continuation to this book one can only hope.

What an interesting premise and inside look at the publishing world. June and Athena had known each other since college but it was Athena who became the famous author and June had a hard time selling copies of he one and only book. When Athena dies in June's presence, June takes Athena's latest manuscript and edits it to make it her own.

Racism in the publishing industry is a main theme and June's theft of a story about Chinese men during WWI drive the story forward. June is not a sympathetic character, neither is Athena, but I didn't want to put the book down. I became invested in how the story would conclude. And I'm still trying to decide how I feel about the ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. I highly recommend the book!

I liked The Poppy War series, didn't like Babel, and now I can't really say I enjoyed Yellowface. I ended up DNF'ing the book more than 50% in because the writing was wooden, the main character was poorly written, and it seemed like Kuang was using the book to process her experience as an author/as a vehicle to get back at anyone who has ever criticized her. Too bad, because the concept was interesting.

4 stars

Yellowface is a rather difficult book. And that's putting it mildly. What it aims to achieve isn't the magical element from The Poppy War, but neither is it the stance on imperialism and colonialism from Babel. It is a wholly different thing—a captivating and gritty story of a young writer haunted by the ghost of her guilt.

Admittedly, as many reviewers have pointed out, this isn't in any way, a remarkable and groundbreaking story. But it is born of all things mundane. A white writer steals her "friend's" manuscript and puts it off as her own; only to land an expensive deal; the rest is history. Kuang set out to tell a story of publishing and the difficulties of being a person of colour in the industry, but what emerged was a book that asks more questions than answers them.

Juniper Hayward is nothing, while her friend Athena Liu is the beloved of the community. Adored by all, she's the token Asian writer in the industry, who writes about her identity and intersectionality, which only skyrockets her career as a marginalised writer. Only human, Juniper is bound to be jealous of her writer friend. But as tables turn overnight, Athena is no more and Juniper is now the only person who has in her possession, Athena's unfinished manuscript. A little too convenient, isn't it?

The book, irrevocably, is a remnant of today's world. Does belonging to a marginalised identity immediately make you the people's favourite? Readers these days are, of course, gaining interest in "own-voices" stories, so naturally white authors should be on the decline. But are they really? Or is it the complete opposite? Nobody knows, and these are only some of the questions addressed in the thought-provoking literary fiction.

And what's more unique about the novel is that there is no "someone" to root for. The story, all displayed in Juniper's head, takes us through all the good and the bad in her. From her voiced thoughts to the dark ones lingering in the corner of her mind. And it's not just her. We learn more about the celebrity author, Athenia Liu—whether it is through June's capricious narrative is for the readers to find out.

Yellowface is, in all, a satire on the publishing industry. It is also very meta, exploring topics like Twitter discourses, privilege as an author, and many others. This honestly, isn't like her other projects, which was for a wider variety of audience due to the nature of its themes. It's not nice, the truth never is. And as a bottom line, I would say that go into this book without expectations because the presence of them would perhaps ruin the aftertaste of finishing the book. Or not, depending on t
he reader.

Thanks to NetGalley & William Morrow for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a fantastic yet morbidly hilarious book! Very entertaining and meta--love all the digs at books and publishers in today's culture.

Fair warning, I don't think this book will be for everyone. The protagonist is an insufferable know-it-all and constantly makes terrible decisions. It's very entertaining, though. I think having a background in internet culture & book publishing helps but the author does a good job of breaking it down as it happens.

This book is brilliant. Wow, the audacity of Juniper. I love how R.F. Kuang can play in any genre and just hit it out of the park. The satire of this book is funny even as it drops truth on you. I loved this book.

June and Athena are authors on two different planes: Athena is destined for fame while June is struggling to get published. So when Athena dies and leaves behind an unpublished manuscript that is destined to be a best seller, June decides to edit it and publish it under her own name... (Well, under a pseudonym that sounds a little too suspiciously like she's trying to pass for Chinese.) After all, it's not stealing if you make it your own, right? It's a tribute to her late "friend"! At least, this is what June convinces herself as she goes further and further down a dangerous path toward plagiarism and cultural appropriation. But just how far will June go to feel the serotonin boost of success? And will it pay off?

This book exceeded my expectations! It hooked me from the beginning, and June was so insufferable yet fascinating to follow as she descended into madness and self obsession. It was a humorous yet infuriating look at racism inside and outside of the publishing industry with stark social commentary and a dash of mystery/suspense. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC audiobook! The narrator was incredible and made the story even more addictive.

★ARC review!★
Wow wow wow
This is the first book I've read from R. F Kaung and I couldn't get enough.
For me, this was the perfect blend of satire, ridiculous while still getting the point across and I absolutely loved it.
The story unravels to become less about the circumstances framed within the story and more about the lengths people will go to rationalize their own behavior, no matter how disgusting, wrong, and out of touch they come across.
I found this perfectly entertaining, I literally could not stand to put it down.
★Thank you NetGalley, the opportunity to read an Advanced Copy.★

Thanks very much to the publisher and Netgalley for this review copy!! I am a big fan of satire, so this one was a fun and important read. My first RF Kuang, and won’t be my last.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first R. F. Kuang book. I liked her writing style and enjoyed the commentary on racial inequalities both within the realm of publishing, but also just in the world in general. This book also commented on cancel culture, and how canceling an author can actually boost them and their sales. I spent the whole book, hoping our main character would be found out. The ending was both disappointing, and sadly the most likely conclusion. I enjoyed this book despite the unlikable main character, which is new for me, because I typically cannot stand to read from the point of view of unlikable characters. I can’t wait to read another RF Kuang book because I really vibe with her writing style and I have recently purchased the poppy war trilogy in the hopes that her writing style is similar in those.