Yellowface
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3.9 • 581 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
“Hard to put down, harder to forget.” — Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author
White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We were sucked into this smart and shocking comedy of errors about race and the publishing industry. Struggling author Juniper Hayward can’t help feeling a tinge of envy about her friend Athena Liu’s literary celebrity and ever-growing collection of bestsellers. Then one drunken night, Athena shows Juniper her latest work in progress, a brilliant lost history of Chinese laborers that Juniper desperately wishes she’d written herself. And after a tragic mishap leads to Athena’s death, Juniper makes some seriously bad decisions. Author R. F. Kuang’s satiric gem takes on the hot topic of cultural appropriation in a unique and highly entertaining way. And Helen Laser’s narration is right on point, putting us right into Juniper’s mind and allowing us to experience her bizarre rationalizations and comical self-righteous indignation. Yellowface is the kind of book that everyone will be talking about.
Customer Reviews
A perfectly flawed character
No one’s perfect, right? That’s what makes this main character so relatable. She made some unquestionably bad choices, and yet the author has created a character that I found myself rooting for. I also found the information about what it takes to succeed in the publishing industry to be a very interesting component of the book.
Thought-Provoking but Not a Favorite
This was my first R. F. Kuang book, and it was entertaining enough to hold my attention, but I think if I had read it physically without the audiobook, I would’ve gotten bored. The story dragged a bit in places, and none of the characters were particularly likable. After the plagiarism, every thought June had seemed focused on how to spin each new problem into another opportunity for success—which made her frustrating but also fascinating to follow.
Listening to the audiobook while following with my physical copy helped me stay immersed, and I did enjoy the narration. As someone who knows little about the publishing industry, it was interesting to see these issues play out, especially since they mirror real-life conversations about race, privilege, and who “gets” to tell certain stories. It made me reflect on questions like: Who’s allowed to write what? Does race matter when writing characters? I don’t have all the answers, but the book definitely pushed me to think more deeply about it.
June is deliberately unlikable, yet I found myself feeling a little sympathy for her at times. I think that was intentional, especially since Athena was also written to be difficult in her own way. June’s perspective on being the “token Asian girl” and how that shaped the stories she was allowed to tell did add some nuance, even if I didn’t agree with her choices.
Overall, I would recommend Yellowface—not because it’s enjoyable in the traditional sense, but because of how it exposes the flaws of the publishing industry and sparks important conversations. It’s not a book I loved, but it’s definitely one that left me thinking.
Meh
Not too deep