Yellow face
R.F. Kuang
Pub Date May 16
Borough
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Literary Fiction , contemporary
Trigger warnings: racism, slur, suicidal ideation, sexual assault
I had trouble keeping track of the characters. This is not the book for me.
3 stars

This book was unlike anything I’ve read before. It is definitely a dark satire with realistic elements and I enjoyed every second of it. I think it’s going to make some people uncomfortable but I would say that’s the point of this book. I really enjoyed how awful the main characters are. Both June and Athena are quite the pair. R.F. Kuang knows how to write awful characters while still making the book enjoyable. The slight thriller aspects kept the plot pacing going and kept me on my toes as I waited for everything to come crashing down.

This book is immersive and I honestly felt at times like I was having a conversation with R.F. Kuang about the topics of diversity, cultural appropriation and eraser of Asian American voices. It is not so much a show me type story with flowery prose and profound dialogue. It’s a sharp and to the point tell me type story. The characters experience many of the hot topics and discourse that are currently kicking off on Twitter. I actually had to look up some of the mentioned drama to see if it was real or made up.

Overall I think this is a book that is going to divide people’s opinions but I personally really enjoyed it. As a member of the AAPI community it was inspiring and at times laugh out loud awkward how real and raw the writing was. I really appreciated how R.F. Kuang didn’t shy away from the uncomfortable reality and anger that often goes unspoken within the community.

Thank you William Marrow and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC/eARC

Great things:
- The insight of the innerworkings of white folks minds and ability to create justifications for our behavior or reframe ourselves as the victim is just *chefs kiss* very accurate for a lot of folks
- There are so many phrases where I was like "YES!"
- I like that there's not really a 'good guy' in this book. Even the characters we are supposed to like and agree with are problematic in their own ways
- Beautifully skewers the publishing industry

Less good things:
- The climax is very easy to see coming
- Even though it's in first person the MC conveniently leaves things out until they can be big reveals. This is kind of nonsensical when we're supposedly inside your head.
- This felt too long for the content. I haven't yet read anything else by R.F. Kuang but I know she tends to write long. It's too long for my tastes in this scenario but I also prefer much shorter books unless the length is really justified.

Overall:
Should you still read this? Yes.
Is it enjoyable? Yes.
Is it well written? Yes.
Do I think it will be one of my favorite 2023 releases? We'll see, but I don't think so.

This book is responsible for giving me back my reading mojo. I can hardly believe that this same author wrote Babel. What a range!
June Hayward has always been jealous of the success of her college frenemy Athena Liu. When Athena dies in front of June, she takes the opportunity to abscond with Athena's finished, yet unknown, war epic. It is so good that June passes it off as her own. June is White, and uses the pen name Juniper Song to seem more Asian. The book is a resounding success. But Can Juniper handle what's next?

This book is so well-written and incisive and so spot on. So many people will be talking about this book and I am so glad that I got to read it early. I will definitely be purchasing this for my library.

Some novels offer a side order of social commentary along with a healthy and fulfilling plotline. With this technique, even the most controversial subjects can be addressed without too much fear of rapprochement or outrage. Then, there are novels that don’t just sample potentially divisive topics but offer a full buffet of concepts for chewing. R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface is a wonderfully executed example of the latter. The author mixes in: American racial inequity and politics, intellectual property arguments, cultural appropriation questions, comments on the ephemeral nature of fame, and evidence of rooted prejudice within the publishing industry. The narrator, Juniper Song, is insecure in her own writing talents and covetous of the acclaim that she sees others receive. Her envy is embodied in her greatest rival and friend, Athena Liu, whose effortless rise to fame Juniper observes with obsessive contempt. Faced with a pivotal decision, Juniper quickly rationalizes that her theft and completion of Athena’s latest project is sufficient for her to claim total ownership. The “hybrid” work catapults Juniper to a heady and corrupting fame—one that she readily accepts while stifling feelings of guilt. The specter of imposter syndrome and dread of exposure, combined with a fickle and volatile public, requires her to exhaustively protect her secret. When the world pressures her to produce another opus, Juniper panics and her paranoia threatens to prove her downfall. A less-talented writer would have left a reader overly stuffed, but Kuang manages to balance the heavy issues with a gripping story. Don’t bother looking for a likeable character in Yellowface—even the smallest actor is depicted as somehow greedy and self-serving. This book is about as self-referential and scathing as it gets: providing a disparaging view of the very industry with which it is forced to comply.

Thanks to the author, Borough Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is the first R.F. Kuang I have ever read. I think compared to her other novels, this one is probably the most digestible (based on what I've heard), which alarms me. For a 300-something page book, I had to put it down a few times in frustration, which I'm sure was intentional. But I couldn't believe how unlikeable all the characters were. It was certainly a thought-provoking novel, especially the parts to do with the publishing business, but the ending was a bit of a let-down plot-wise. I liked the wrap up in terms of how June responds to what has happened to her (will elaborate in spoilers below), but the conclusion in terms of June's haunting was very meh and felt rushed. In general, I thought the parts to do with the haunting were much less interesting than the parts that dealt with writing and publishing. Despite all this, I am not deterred from Kuang's writing--I was drawn in and finished within 24 hours, which is always a win in my book.



SPOILERS**************************




I thought the Candice wrap up was oh-so-disappointing. It was pretty obvious to me when June suspects everyone \except\ Candice that she would come back later and have a big part in the plot. I did like the conclusion of June writing a book in response to what has happened, as it kind of encapsulates the whole book and how the publishing world is fickle and everyone has their side of things, but the mystery conclusion was very mediocre to me.

Wow, wow, and wow. This book made me feel all sorts of uncomfortable and for good reason. Kuang hits it out of the park with her eviscerating observations on the publishing world—one that glorifies white authors and continues to both fetishize and colonize Asian writers. The main character was so utterly insufferable while also appearing to have no personality/ conscience. The slow burn seething is unlike anything I’ve read and one can tell that this rage has been brewing in the author for a long time and rightfully so. Kuang asks the most astute and provoking questions: Who gets to succeed in publishing? Why are they mostly white? Why can we only have a few writers of color in a publisher’s docket at a time? Who gets to call out these transactions and does cancel culture hold the transgressors responsible or continue to sow their internalized racism? As a biracial women, this was even more painful to read because of racial standards/protocols that I was implicitly instructed to follow. Work hard, dress nice, be nice, be smart, but don’t call anyone out for their biases and prejudices. Kuang takes a jackhammer and blasts through these ideals. I love to read women's work that expresses anger because I still think it’s a little shown trope in contemporary fiction. The way Kuang has balanced sooo many different threads while staying true to her message—the publishing world either likes you or they don’t and it’s even better if you fit the desirable white mold. If you don’t, you really need to serve a specific purpose in order to fill a niche/hot category as a “diverse person” and you’d better be grateful that you got that far. The ending was SO well done and made more feel all kinds of icky in the best way and ends with the question: what’s the point of writing the great American novel if you’ve manipulated, exploited, and fetishized people of color to get there?

This is a tough one to review. There is already so much discourse surrounding Kuang, and this book specifically, that feels a bit ironic considering the book in question. There is so much promise in "Yellowface" and despite Kuang's desperate attempts to prove that there's a deeper argument, it all falls flat.

First of all: this is not a successful satire. Satire is meant to be exaggerated; it's meant to be over-the-top and outrageous so as to fully expose the inanity of its subject matter. At the same time, successful satire should be deeply self-aware -- it pokes fun at itself. Reality is more absurd than fiction, and to properly lampoon it requires a delicacy and a wit that Kuang just isn't capable of. Her work is both heavily plot-driven and self-involved and it reads like she has a million axes to grind while she dares her audience to disagree.

That's not to say Kuang isn't a talented writer -- she is, without a doubt. But she suffers from a lack of polish and subtlety, which I think stems from the fact that she is so young. Imagine this book written by someone in their late 30s/early 40s who hasn't had runaway commercial success. Their perspective on the publishing industry would be that much richer simply because of their life experiences.

The closest Kuang gets to actual satire is when June is briefly embraced by the far-right wing community. It's patently absurd, yet it's entirely plausible. Unfortunately, it's discarded within a couple of paragraphs. One could argue that the outrageousness of the final scenes of Candice confronting June at the Exorcist stairs is satire -- it definitely reminded me of the dénouement of Tár but it was so late in the book that it just felt out of place, rather than a deliberate set piece.

There are a lot of very interesting questions raised but never properly addressed. Is everything an artist experiences or witnesses fair game to be used in their work? Where does inspiration turn into full-on stealing? Who is allowed to tell what stories, and who gets to decide? These topics are barely glanced and never explored. Instead, Kuang's ham-handed approach removes almost all sense of complexity.

Wow, this book was not what I expected at all. I'm glad to see R.F. Kuang branch out from her usual writing, but this book just didn't hit the mark for me. I get she was trying to use satire, but she also has a way of kind of beating her readers over the head with what she thinks our opinion should be. As a reader, I want to form my own thoughts and opinions and I would hope that an author would trust that i'm smart enough for that??

More review to come. I really have to sit on this for a while longer.

WOW— I devoured this and cannot wait for my booksellers to read it!! There is so much to discus- it will be a great book club pick. Deftly written- Kuang uses the first person narrative brilliantly. June is very complex, a character with few if any redeeming qualities. Set in the world of publishing- you get an inside look at all the slight of hand involved in brining a book to life. June’s anxiety bleeds off the page. This is a brilliant work!!!!

I initially began reading this book bit by bit but after the 15% mark, I pretty much got through it in one day. The book is an interesting look at publishing, cancel culture, the media, and creative ownership. Kuang creates an unlikeable but complicated character in June and the way she navigates a big decision to claim the work of her deceased friend who is a POC. The conversations on race and how publishing treats authors was very interesting and it gives you insight into the conversations that are happening behind the scenes that general readers may never be privy to. This was definitely a left turn from the fantasy that Kuang has become known for and I'm very glad that she tackled a subject (publishing) that is close to home for her but also so far from what we have expected from her in the past. I think the book will open up a lot of great discussions and I absolutely can't wait to see what comes next from R.F. Kuang!

Athena and June are writers whose careers are going in different directions. June's first novel wasn't very successful, while Athena is literature's new darling. Her work is beloved, and she just signed a deal with Netflix. While celebrating with June, Athena dies, leaving behind her newly-finished manuscript. June takes the draft, decides to do some editing, and presents the book as hers. What follows is a timely story about representation, creativity, and who can tell what stories.

Yellowface isn't a thriller, but it's most certainly a page-turner. The tension builds slowly as June's lies start to unravel. I found her panic and sense of entitlement fascinating, as well as the behind-the-scenes look at publishing. I know Yellowface will be toward the top of my 2023 favorites list, and I can't wait for readers to pick it up.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

Phew, it had been a while since I read a book in almost one sitting: I started this at 8 am and finished it before midnight of the same day. Compelling is perhaps the appropriate word for it. Honestly, this story is like catnip for those of us who trail Book Twitter like hungry ghouls in search of the latest drama. We are, after all, the co-villains of this story.

And this book, another reviewer said that it reads like a gossip magazine, and they are correct. In a sense, Yellowface reminded me a bit of "No one is talking about this," in so far as it is so steeped in a particular type of online culture that it seems like an archive of a particular space and time that feels so ephemeral otherwise. But I also wonder how well this will go down with non-online readers

I don't want to spoil too much of the story, it's a very propulsive read that it is exactly what you expect, and a lot more. I think the meta elements were very strong and the ending felt very satisfying (good endings are hard to land, so this is high praise).

I do wonder at times, how much of herself Kuang put into this story (despite the white protagonist). Some of the criticism about the industry and the Twitter outrage cycle felt.. very personal. At times, this same criticism felt a bit overdone, as the same complaints kept repeating chapter after chapter.

Still, I had a lot of fun with this!

This book is my first 5 star read of 2023. The author does a great job exposing and explaining the dark face of publishing. The main character is so sure of their actions, especially as they have people who look exactly like them in piblishing supporting everything they do, even when there are BIPOC voices screaming at them from outside. This book makes me want to continue reading everything they put out! They can do it all!

I loved this book. I sometimes struggle with getting through books with unlikeable or unreliable narrators, but I couldn't put Yellowface down. I think it was because Kuang didn't ask me to like the narrator despite her flaws. She was the villain. It was very well written and unlike any other book I've read. As a book lover, I enjoyed getting to take a peek behind the curtain of publishing. Something that I appreciated about this novel is that there are times when the narrator says something ignorant, but Kuang doesn't always spoon feed her points to her readers. If you don't know much about the AAIP communities she's referring to, you might miss some of the narrators ignorance or note it but need to confront your own ignorance and do some research if you want to better understand some jokes that you're not in on. That said, most of the time the narrator's flaws and mistakes are obvious and they crescendo into a dramatic ending that ultimately concludes with the privileged white narrator's plans for a comeback, which I found to be an excellent way to point out the fallacy of "cancel culture".

June is the narrator I love to hate. I couldn’t help but wonder if this is how TJR thinks. June’s ramblings contained a never ending stream of bubbling doubt carefully laid over with delicate, deliberate lies to assuage her guilt. It was painful to read at times - June uses overt racism like a sick narrative quirk. It was easy to hate June. But her vitriol was addicting. I couldn’t put this book down and devoured every word. RF Kuang has woven a web of words to ensnare her audience… and make them wonder WHY they ate this book up. I want June out of my head like she wants Athena out of hers. Ew. Five Stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the digital ARC.

Thank you to HarperCollins for sending me an advanced readers copy of Yellowface in exchange for an honest review.

Where do I even begin? This book is BRILLIANT. It's frustrating and unnerving and beautiful. Through June and Athena, R.F. Kuang creates a novel that critiques and questions the publishing industry at large as well as white authors, editors, literary agents, and online book spaces. She also has sub-themes of being of the diaspora and what that means for storytelling.

What I love about this is the complexity and nuance that she brings to this story, not with June but with Athena. Athena is an interest character because she's not the "perfect victim". She has unlikeable traits and acts questionably. She's complicated and her complexity calls on readers to reflect on their own moral superiority and who they believe is deserving of justice.

What's the most unnerving about this, however, is June's delusions. The story is told from June's POV and her delusions at times become that of the readers. June is committed to her delusional victimhood and acts in horrifying ways to maintain, all the way until the final pages of the book.

This will frustrate you. It will unnerve you. It will stick with you long after you've read the last page. I can't wait to see what R.F. Kuang produces next because there is truly nothing she can't do.

I really enjoy Kuang's writing, and I feel like she is continuously pushing herself to branch out in new directions. I definitely enjoyed what I read of Yellowface, though I don't think it's going to be for everyone. You can really feel the narrator trying to justify her actions and see how when people keep lying to themselves enough, it seems like it becomes the truth. Definitely an interesting and worthwhile novel.

I recognize the irony of posting this review of an advanced copy of a much-hyped book that I was able to read on NetGalley, when the book is so critical of the publishing industry and the bookish internet world, including Goodreads. Nevertheless, here goes…

I was excited to read an advanced copy of Yellowface, after recently reading and loving Babel. While this story is very different, the writing was still excellent — uncomfortable, challenging, clever, and sharp. As someone who’s pretty involved in the world of books but not as an author, this was a super juicy, dramatic read that I flew through in one sitting. I’ll avoid spoilers here, but that ending!!!! Very satisfying.

Thanks to Netgalley and The Borough Press for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. Babel was one of my top books of 2022, so I was very excited to see Kuang was already releasing a new title in 2023. This is a giant departure from Babel, a scathing look at the publishing industry as a whole, who gets to tell what stories, and the overwhelming influence of social media on who is deemed worthy of writing. I was impressed by this first-person narrative, and the author's POV as a white author becoming a racially ambiguous bestselling author was dizzying. June's actions were wrong, but Kuang made the reader feel sympathy to some extent for her descent into madness. This book is set in a very specific time and place, and I will be curious to see the industry's response to this title. 4 stars.