📒YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang📒

📆Pub date: May 25, 2023
➡️Swipe for synopsis
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read if you like:
📚 Books about books and writers
🥶Chilling reads with a bit of satire
📍Books set in the publishing industry

Yellowface was a chilling book about racism and cultural appropriation in the publishing industry, and now diverse voices are consistently erased by white society. This book centers on June, a white woman who steals her dead friend’s manuscript about Chinese laborers during World War I. There were so many angering plot points in Yellowface, with Juniper always finding ways to justify what she did.

It felt a little weird reading this book as a book reviewer because there is a lot of discussion on how readers and authors interact, and how Goodreads and social media reviews have so much influence on the book industry. There was soooo much information on the publishing industry and I loved that! I always love reading about writers and publishing professionals, and the addition of the chilling, satirical plot in Yellowface made it all the more excellent. There were a few things I didn’t enjoy, mostly that the ending was pretty vague and unsatisfying, and the chapters were very long. If you’ve read R.F. Kuang’s previous work, this is completely different. Overall I highly recommend this!

Thank you so much @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for the gifted advanced copy of Yellowface🥰

The villain was the publishing industry and white supremacy all along! Also, June f’d around and found out, but still didn’t learn anything at all. Loved this book from Kuang. its a departure from her magical worlds, but still has her strong voice throughout. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

I’d love to interview R.F. Kuang for my podcast Raise Your Words. Yellowface is an incredible book that includes twitter, drama, & a dark satire. If you loved Babel, you’ll love Yellowface!

As a fan of Kuang's previous books (Babel and the Poppy War trilogy) I was excited to read her newest endeavor.
And I'm still not sure how I feel about it. There was no one to root for, no happy ending to hope for.. and yet I couldn't stop reading.
It was undoubtedly well written. It flows seamlessly and I was immediately pulled into the toxic friendship dynamic between Athena and Juniper. Which did not end with Athena's sad, and peculiar death. (Choked on a pancake? Really?) But Athena's death allowed June/Juniper to steal her finished, but not yet edited manuscript, which in turn propels June's career into previously unknown heights.
Would Juniper get away with her theft? Would the guilt eventually eat away at her? (Though she seemed very good at justifying any flashes of guilt she felt until the very end) But also, how much more of her self justifying whining could I take?
Seeing everything solely from June's perspective was interesting. Her own insecurity, her envy, it made Athena seem like a cold, calculating villain, enjoying her pampered life in her penthouse. And June did her best to present Athena as a thief herself, albeit in little ways- stealing stories and experiences from everyone she met, to justify June's own larger theft. But this is June's story, and she is the hero, and every hero needs a counterpart. In Athena's life, June may have only been an old college friend she met up with on occasion., but to June, Athena was the epitome of what she herself should be.. if only... so we can only accept June's unreliable narration and wonder.

The ending felt a little abrupt- but also inevitable. June was taken down by her own earlier pettiness. And June's response to it, fit her to a T (for all that I despised her, she was very resilient!.).


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an copy in advance in exchange for an honest review.

Another incredible work by R.F Kuang, honestly I would buy and read anything she writes at this point. This book had it all, and even with the unlikeable narrator I was still riveted. I finished this book at 2 am and I have zero regrets on the sleep I missed.

After finishing this book I needed a couple of hours to process my thoughts into one cohesive review.
I think this book will be very divisive. People will either really love it or really hate it.
I loved this book. June is a character you love to hate and someone you want the absolute worst for. Warning, June doesn’t learn, theirs no growth, no acceptance, no understanding of how her actions have consequences.
I saw Junes character as a personification of the industry itself. It will defend itself and reimagine its motives even when confronted with its own truth. The industry as a whole will never take responsibility because the industry is not a person, it’s a million people upholding a million lies. June’s character shows the worst in an industry and it’s lack of remorse. When you put everything June has done side by side you think to yourself “this is crazy, no one would be this cruel” but if you look at her actions individually: people have always plagiarized other people work and gotten away with it, if not even celebrated for that work years later. People have pretended to be a certain ethnicity to sell themselves and their projects. People have said racist, homophobic, transphobic problematic things and still survive in the industry. People get cancelled and uncanceled, torn down then applauded for doing the bare minimum everyday. Junes character is all those things in one person. She represents everything this industry upholds and allows.
I loved Athena’s character, she was only shown through the eyes of others and were never quite sure what’s real or not. She was the most interesting and well rounded character and I always found myself second guessing anything that was said about her. We never got to know the true her only the imagined version of her. And I think that represents celebrity culture and this parasocial relationship we have with authors. Making judgments based on the one encounter we had or friend of a friend encounters. We don’t know Athena but I wish I did.
As I mentioned above I think some people won’t get this book, as we get into the second half it’s definitely more stream of consciousness then the structured story we were starting with. I think that shows how unhinged June is becoming by the end of her story. She was always a little disconnected from reality but by the end completely comes undone.
It was satirical and funny, and I found myself laughing out loud at certain points, cringing most of the time and wanting to throw my book at the wall at everything June thought or said.

Very meta, very harsh, and very smart. Yellowface absolutely eviscerates the publishing industry in a way that makes me want to give up on my author dreams and go hide in a corner--or better yet, delete Twitter and retreat to the woods. Despite not having much of an actual plot and a despicable narrator, this book was really hard to put down--the voice was so gripping (and honestly, it's super impressive that Kuang managed to even craft any sort of compelling plot out of the publishing timeline). Definitely worth a read!

RFK is so, so good at relentlessly letting characters face consequences. She's never going to pull a deus ex machina on you or write anything less than excruciating. I do think Yellowface should have been a writing exercise for her, but I was compelled the entire 2 hours it took me to slurp it. For better or worse, it's the eerie equivalent of reading booktwt (and bookstagram and book tumblr and la review of books and andrea long chu takedowns and and and and), and it scratches the itch of submerging yourself in hyperspecific online spectacle. It felt like a coke wormhole of YA author drama. Do I think she made the most subtlety scathing critique of racism in the publishing industry ever? Not particularly, but I don't care because she's so talented at representing the stupid intricacies of being online in 2023. Again, I'm in the position of defending RFK against accusations of a lack of nuance - I really think people get upset when her characters are too self-aware or (in this case) absurdly UNself-aware of racism. Yellowface isn't a mystery novel (it's probably at its weakest when it's trying to be); it's not bad that the ultimate critique is clear from the start. The devolution of June is more about evoking an affect of discomfort, rather than revealing some unexpected truth about racism. Delving even deeper, it's both brilliant and annoying that she self-parodies with Athena's lust for vicarious trauma, and I would have loved even more exploration of the relationship between her and June.

Of course this is a great book. Of course R. F. Kuang's writing is as engaging and immersive as ever, even when she's stuck us in the head of a privileged, racist, self-deluded white narrator. This is scathing, needed satire about cultural appropriation and more, and I'm so glad it's going to be huge.

I want to thank RF Kuang's team for giving me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Yellowface is RFK' take on the publishing industry guise as a drama & a satire book. June
watched her famous author "friend" die in an accident and stole her novel to publish as her own.

Summarizing this book review in three points without spoiling anything for you:
1. plot - I personally felt that this kind of drama & narrative is Rebecca's way of coming out of her bubble. I mean no swords & daggers you know? Just a book with real people dealing with mundane issues about the publishing company-- exposing the nitty gritty details of how hard it is to publish, market, sell your book, and most importantly, to thrive in the setting. Every time Goodreads & Twitter are mentioned in the texts, it felt like Rebecca & I shared some kind of inside joke lol If you're a bookworm, it wouldn't be difficult to grasp the concept of the publishing world. To be honest, reading this book felt like a heavy veil has been lifted and it exposed the publishing world for what it really is-- just not all rainbows & cotton candies.

2. characters Contrary to the Poppy War trilogy where we have been exposed to a lot of characters, Yellowface only has a few. First, Athena Liu- the famous Asian author/friend of June Hayward. Second, June Hayward and some publishing company characters. Yellowface is June Hayward's narrative- of how she witnessed the "accident" up to the things she had to do to climb the literary world's ladder. Juniper Hayward was a jealous, racist woman who tries to justify her actions JUST BECAUSE she was white. I assure you that reading this would give you mixed emotions about rivalry, friendship, jealousy, etc.

3. theme Let's face it.. Yellowface is Rebecca's commentary on the publishing world. And as much as I find it really interesting, I also love her takes on racism discussed all throughout the book. But you know what's more interesting? It's kind of fucked up whenever Athena's ghost haunts June's narrative -- from her works, thru flashbacks, and in the latter part of the book, thru flesh.

I kind of had high expectations with how this story ends but I'd give it a solid 3.5 (just the ending) just because I know it's a very antagonist thing to do especially with the "The truth is fluid. There is always another way to spin the story, another wrench to throw into the narrative." June's trying to distort everything and I hate that of her but I sure love it for the plot.

CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU GUYS TO READ THIS ON MAY 2023!

No one writes morally gray like R. F Kuang. This book is definitely for the niche publishing industry nerds, but it has enough information to not only inform the unknowing, but also capture and keep the ones who picked this up due to loving R. F Kuang. I appreciate how she was able to take these modern controversies and straight up not only address them, but get it published in a fiction novel that only just adds to the story. This story blew my mind and I was unable to put it down until the ride was done, if you had any qualms about preordering or seeing what other people had to say, don't. It is AMAZING.

Really enjoyed this as an inside look into the world of publishing, in all its biased, racist truth. This is a book that could only have been written by Kuang, as a publishing industry wunderkind who has also been outspoken about the racism she's experienced. A lot of this book reminded me of her speech at the 2020 Hugo Awards (where, notably, George R.R. Martin mispronounced her last name while presenting her with an award).

People have criticized RF Kuang's writing in TPW trilogy and Babel for a lack of nuance/a tendency to hit readers over the head with her themes and messages. I tend to agree, and I think that problem (if you see it as a problem) persists here as well.

I loved this book! I will definitely recommend it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A scathing story of the publishing world following June Hayward, a novice author trying to find her big break when her peer and best-selling author, Athena, dies while they celebrate Athena's latest Netflix deal. After all is said and done and June is reeling from the shock of it all back in her apartment, she is holding Athena's unpublished manuscript for her next book.. This could be exactly what June has been waiting for, her big break.

Utterly brilliant. It’s been about 5 seconds since I finished reading this and I am in an infatuated daze.

RF Kuang knows exactly how to emphasize your own emotions and unconscious biases via her writing. I found myself, at moments, sympathizing with the arrogant, narcissistic main character — and a moment later, when I’d notice this, I’d be absolutely revolted with myself. It so beautifully and clearly shows how our society forgives and forgives and forgives select races (i.e white people). It exposes the horrors of the publishing industry. And, all in all, it slaps you in the face with every toxic trait of the modern day world.

I’m the first to admit that there is a lot I don’t know, having grown up learning a very whitewashed version of history, and a lot that I continue to learn; but, RF Kuang is a masterful teacher and this book was nothing short of excellent.

Thank you HarperCollins Canada for the arc in exchange for an honest review (and congrats on the ratified contract!!!)

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow! Due to spoilers a link to my review is posted below from Goodreads.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I finished it a few days ago and reflected on this book. There are a few things I loved and a few things I didn't.

I loved Kuang's writing. It felt nuanced and punchy. I love that she's experimenting with a genre that isn't fantasy. I thought this book is timely with everything happening in the publishing world, the nonstop drama with Book Twitter/BookTok, and racism within these worlds.

I didn't particularly like that the book was dominated by the re-hashing of the social media drama happening with the main character, June. The repetitiveness of it got a little boring.

I am looking forward to reading more novels by R.F. Kuang.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the e-galley.

What an absolutely stunning book! A combination thriller/behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry that will make you think twice before querying your first novel in hopes of catching the eye of the Big Five, or Four, or whatever it is this year. I read it in two sittings, and only because the first sitting ended after the sun came up.

I gave this one a chance despite not being at all a fan of Babel, and boy I should not have. The same style persists here that did in Babel: RF Kuang's complete lack of trust in her reader's intelligence and ability to form opinions without being instructed in what they should be.

I do not like being bashed over the head with obvious themes, which happens in Yellowface just as it did in Babel. I personally value nuance in my fiction, and Kuang clearly does not believe there should be any. Intelligence and education alone do not a writer make — I will not be reading any further RF Kuang, but I wish her readers the best. I also wish them other authors to fawn over.

Very different from R. F. Kuang’s previous works but brilliant nonetheless, Yellowface really solidified her as one of my autobuy authors. This was so compulsively readable, a meltdown you can’t look away from as well as an insightful critique of the publishing industry. Also the cyclical nature of bookish discourse made some of this SO funny.