I could not for love nor money put this down. It completely took over my life till I finished it.

Yellowface is about the deeply unlikeable June stealing her dead friends manuscript and publishing it under her own name. What makes the situation even worse is that her friend- Athena, was a great writer when June herself is not that great. The stolen manuscript was about the unsung contributions of Chinese workers during the war. June can’t begin to comprehend the intricacies of this effectively white washes a lot of the writing and makes it more ‘commercial’ for publishing. Effectively ruining the book and her friends memory whilst being cringingly racist and completly ignorant.

This is a blistering commentary on the publishing industry (and online book communities ) whilst also being a throughly engaing lit fic/thriller with Kuang’s signature commentary on race. I was actually pretty scared at the climax of this book and found it quite unsettling. June is the most unlikable character I have read in a long time!

Rebecca F Kuang's writing is clever and fast-paced. The story was told entirely from June's perspective, this was intriguing as June is depicted as an antagonist, which makes her character complex and multi-faceted. Because of this, the reader is allowed first-hand insight into June's thoughts and feelings of jealousy for her friend and fellow book writer Athena. Throughout the story, June is trying to justify her manipulative behaviour to the reader, and I thought this writing was clever and engaging, especially because June is a very unlikeable character.

I absolutely loved the concept, not only do you gain insight into the world of publishing but also insights into the privileges that white people have within this industry. This was a very brilliant story and it had me hooked from the very beginning, and I will definitely be reading more Rebecca Kuang books

What I liked:
• The fast pace.
• How cleverly and well written the book was.
• The POV coming from the antagonist.
• The way the characters were written (specifically June).
• The intensity of the final chapter in particular.

I’ve had R F Kuang on my TBR list of authors for a long time and after been given the opportunity to read this ARC, I am definitely a fan! Her writing style is clean, clever and articulated. With June being the antagonist of the story, but the narrative coming from only her was refreshing and intriguing! Kuang done an excellent job of telling the story through June, all the while making sure the reader did not sympathise with her no matter how much it was attempted in her POV. June was a complex character when breaking down her tendencies of jealousy, manipulation and narcissism. The way she tried to justify and redeem herself was infuriating.

I loved the concept of having an insight to the publishing world from an author’s perspective. It was at times satire, but also showed many issues within the publishing world such as racism and tokenism.

The pacing of the book worked well alongside the differing intensity of the scenes. Those last few chapters in particular had me feeling so tense and unnerved, despite me having my suspicions.

I can see this becoming a very popular book once released and being featured among many book clubs! A brilliant, clever story that will have a lot of success coming its way.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins and R.F. Kuang for accepting me as an arc reader in return for an honest review.

Fast-paced and propulsive, which makes for a streamlined and enjoyable read, even if I had mixed feelings on its content. Felt a little too zeitgeisty and surface-level for my personal tastes, though I am happy to recommend to other people if it seems like they would enjoy it

It's not often not a book causes me to have so many "feelings": excitement, anger, laughter, worry - and all within a few pages. Such is the power of R.F. Kuang's writing.
The premise is an unusual one: Athena and June are both friends and authors; with one clear difference being Athena's epic levels of success. She is simply living the dream, while June is struggling as an author and once Athena dies accidentally, June sees a way to instant success.
Our protagonist is this same, June Howard, the wishful author and 'thief' of Athena's work. But this is just the beginning of the story and soon June is trying to justify her behaviour to the reader and also dealing with the issues of cultural appropriation, cancellation, social media and the everyday issues of the publication industry. June is not a likeable character (in fact few of the characters are likeable) but the storyline provides an insight into the publishing industry and also the privileges that among being a white woman.
Yellowface is an exciting and thrilling read, that engages the reader from the opening page and challenges your thinking by being uncomfortable and dark at times.

Oh wow. This book. I really am not sure what I thought about it. I guess it has managed to make some big point somewhere. But it was so full of aggression somehow. So full of frustration. It is my first book by this author and I really know nothing about her, her previous books, Twitter - history and so on, but "Yellowface" feels like some kind of vendetta against readers who leave 1* reviews, who don't like her books, it felt like either you love the author and you're the best or you hate mher and she hates you, too. On the other hand, the story touches upon soooooo important issues, like all the shit - storms, inquisitions, burning people at the stake on all kinds of social media. But. However. What was the motivation for writing this book?

Despite all those "important issues" the book reads like a dark satire. The writing style is fast - paced, modern and easy to get through. The characters are more than complicated, however I was not worried that I didn't like any of them - it is this kind of book where you have to like the characters to enjoy the story. The main character is a very unreliable one and you'll find yourself jumping between liking, disliking, adoring and condemning her.

My problem, however, is (I think) that, after all this drama, the cats of characters, the many different themes I finished this book thinking: "And? Was that it?" It was the end without the end, without a closure and after everything it felt like some kind of fraud, really. I walso had a feeling that I am forcved to think and react in the way the author tells me to think and react, with her direct - in - your - face insistent narrative.

I cannot express the range of emotions I felt when delving into this book. Kuang is one of my favourite authors and this book just solidified that. This book cleverly bounces between dark satire and a genuine critique on the publishing industry/social media.

It is a story about a struggling author June, who one night witnesses her more successful author frenemy die and takes the opportunity to steal her unfinished manuscript. Athena was a very successful Asian author and we watch June struggle to grasp how this story about Chinese soldiers that she stole is so vastly out of her depth.

Not only is June an unreliable narrator which I love but she is also a narrator that seems to be successfully gaslighting herself throughout the book which in turn creates the perfect amount of satire. As a person also not clued into the publishing process I found this book to be so eye opening on that industry and also the way in which it can be problematic too and the way Kuang makes these comments is so clever as usual and had me highlighting so many quotes.

I thought the ending was clever, but if you’re a fan of solid conclusions I didn’t really get that from this book. I understand why this may be the case but it just left me feeling a little unsatisfied and hungry for some sort of resolution and that is why it didn’t quite reach 5 stars for me.

Overall though, this book had me hooked from the beginning and I really thoroughly enjoyed it. Again, thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me to read this one early.

I really enjoyed this novel, although I felt the ending wasn't as strong as what had come before it. I was surprised at how early on the inciting incident occurs and I worried that the novel would drag or feel overly long as a result, but it didn't. As I said, though, I did find the ending pretty unsatisfying - the revelation was a good one but the device of the narrator describing what would happen next didn't really work for me, particularly as the Juniper had already described a similar way to achieve redemption not that many pages earlier.

Some good commentary on what authorship and therefore plaigirism mean and on cultural appropriation (handled with more nuance than I expected from the blurb) and the rise of (and need for) sensitivity readers. Recommended and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review

Lucky to get my hands on RF Kuang’s latest big change from her fantasy works to a more dramatic tale of stealing from the dead. It’s hard to find a likable character in this and I think it’s intentional, you are turning page after page to get to the conclusion just to see if the con ends. I dare say you will be surprised.

I really wanted to like this book as much as I like the cover. Instead I have mixed feelings, hard to put this review together. I might be in the minority here, but I always am so...

It is advertised as a thriller and it is not. To me, this read like some kind of fictional memoir with a very unlikeable main character. It is supposed to be a staire but did not find it funny. Myabe is not my typ2 of humor.

There is a lot of twitter drama written and, I read on another review, that is like the author put some of her own real life drama on the book. I don't follow the author so I cannot say if that is true but those parts in particular dis read quite personal rather than fictional.

Even though I love pop culture, those references thrown here and there on the story were quite unnecessary, in particular the BTS one.

What I did like and found very interesting, which kept me going (somehow an easy book to read, even though it gets repetitive) it was the discussion about race and the publisher world.

I just think it could have been executed differently.

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Yellowface
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): R. F. Kuang
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Contemporary Literary Fiction
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 25th May 2023
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 23rd April 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 5/5

”Aren’t all the best novels borne from some madness, which is borne from truth?”

[This review comes from the perspective of a welsh woman who is as white as a ghost.]

Talking of ghosts, this book will haunt readers for a long time.

There are two different synopsis’ on Goodreads and Amazon, surprisingly I think the Amazon one is perfect:

”Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.”

Yellowface is so clever, and I do not feel clever enough to write a review on it that conveys the reading experience for me. The problem for me writing this review is that there are so many ways to describe this book, because this book is so many things, it’s layers feel infinite and I am just one reader working my way through them.

Yellowface is a singular-genre-defying contemporary literary sort-of thriller. It dissects the toxicity of cancel culture and the bookish community from a satirical point of view. In this story, satirical should not be confused with funny, because it’s not funny, it’s really not. It’s a ridiculous, and ironic, and critical stance that the main character conveys.

Yellowface also exposes the shortfalls in the publishing industry: the xenophobia, ethnocentrism, lack of accountability, pretty privilege, and gender inequality.

As if this novel didn’t have more than enough on its plate, it also eyeballs Asian fetishism and throws knives into chopping boards of racial injustice. But, it manages all this in such a fearless and, to be blunt, almost demented manner, blurring fact and fiction along the way in a story filled with nuanced characters so that I found myself feeling literary whiplashed. In short: this was a triumph.

I found that on one hand, Yellowface acts as a mirror to the book community, but it also shows the side of political correctness that is harmful to progress on diversity. Either way, we all need to like what we see in the mirror.

—Kayleigh🤍
@ Welsh Book Fairy🧚‍♀️✨

Firstly, I did not enjoy this story but secondly it is memorable and very well written! So a conflicted four stars, two for the enjoyment factor but five for the originality and writing.
I started the novel with high hopes that it would be a different / literary fiction read, my favourite genre but as I entered the next two thirds I started to have strong feelings of animosity towards all the characters. This feeling of dislike continued and grew and made me review whether I liked this profession of writers and publishers, a world I have always wished I had entered! I skipped a good chunk of the middle section in disgust and despair at the world today and the people in it ( I am one of your much older readers, we always feel the world was better in the 60’s and 70’s, probably wishful thinking blurred by the passing of time ). I finished the book and felt that everyone probably got the result and life they deserved, with the exception of Athena, I really am not that harsh.
However this is most probably a novel I will remember and in that case deserves the five stars I didn’t give it as I hope never to have to read it again.
Thank you Netgalley for the A.R.C.

I feel really undecided about this book, looking at the reviews it's obviously very popular, but I found it difficult to warm to. I found the discussions on racism really interesting and the insights into publishing helpful if a little laboured, but the ghost story didn't really work for me and the reveal at the end wasn't a surprise. I think the same story could have been told equally well, if not better in a shorter, more condensed book
Thank you to netgalley and Harper Collins for an advance copy of this book.

I’ve read a few books based on the publishing industry before, and they’re typically considered ‘love letters’. They’re dedications to the fans, editors, agents, reviewers, fellow authors…essentially everyone who keeps the industry alive and running.

And in many ways yes, this book IS dedicated to the literary world. There are countless of niche references and inside jokes that will probably go over the head of anyone who hasn’t been exposed to the industry. But we also get a unfiltered reality check of all the ugly truths: the double standards, microaggressions, hive mentality of Book Twitter, etc.

This book is further testament to the fact that R.F. Kuang excels at writing the antihero. Rin is a parallel to one of the most brutal dictators in history. Robin’s urgency to safeguard victims of an imperialist power overwhelms his rationality…

and June Hayward is a manipulative liar who profits off of an Asian author’s legacy.
June is insufferable. She bemoans that every thing she does is FOR furthering BIPOC representation because if she doesn’t tell these stories who will? You want to punch her and see her exposed as a fraud, yet at the same time, a tiny part of you doesn’t want to see the fragile house of cards June’s built to come crumbling down.

Yellowface examines the critical question: what makes someone qualified to tell a story? We’ve seen authors profit off Japanese-inspired fantasies while citing drinking sake and watching anime as research. We’ve seen a white woman hit the NYT Bestseller’s by writing about a Mexican mother and son migrating to the US and being targeted by the cartel. So, can June Hayward tell the untold story of Chinese laborers in WWI?

In all its witty glory, Yellowface confronts the harsh truth that publishing has been failing those from marginalized backgrounds, not only BIPOC authors. We explicitly acknowledge how the industry has many barriers to entry, most notably due to low starting salaries. In fact, the industry almost relies on these editors and publicists’ passion for literature to keep them trapped in a Catch 22.

As someone who’s been a book blogger for 7 years and is *unfortunately* chronically online, I couldn’t put this book down. It felt like a trip down memory lane, and trust me…when you’ve been in the book community (specifically Book Twitter) for so long, you’ve seen enough drama that could be its own book.

That fact though may be the reason why Yellowface may not appeal to Kuang’s existing readership.
The second half of the book dives into the intricacies and controversies of Book Twitter, but Book Twitter (and I guess Book Tok now) is a bubble. Your average reader likely will not be on Book Twitter watching stan accounts have a field day. When drama happens on the Internet, it can feel overwhelming, but most of the time, it’s very insular and really only reaching 15% of your total readership. All’s to say, the stan accounts who lovingly prop up Babel and The Poppy War may not understand the self-reflection this book is requiring, and the average Joe S’moe who picks up this book at an airport won’t grasp the magnitude of how devastating being the target of the Internet’s wrath may be.

My interpretation of this work is from the POV of a reader and ‘influencer’, and I only wish I could read this from the POV of an author, editor, or any other publishing professional as I’m sure my takeaways would be different. Thank goodness we’re already guaranteed more books by Kuang because I never want to stop reading her writing.

This is an easy 5 stars to give - after reading Babel recently, I was so eager to read Yellowface ASAP. So wonderfully written with an engaging yet despicable protagonist, this gives an insight into the cutting world of publishing with plenty of twists to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Rebecca F Kuang is a Chinese-American writer aged 26 who learnt Chinese on a year-long trip to Beijing. From this viewpoint she is able to discuss Twitter pile-ons around racism and cultural appropriation in a way that a white female writer would not be able to do. She explores reverse racism.
On the surface it might sound like a light story line. Far from it. The manuscript in question is a treatise on the Chinese diaspora, the fate of Chinese labourers who were sent first to Canada and then to Europe to fight in the First World War.
I also loved the focus on the whole publishing process and the desire as a writer to reach great heights again and again, at whatever cost. June writes:
"Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much. To stop writing would kill me."
A very important novel and I predict another big success for Kuang.

4.5 Stars - absolutely amazing and compelling! Well worth the hype!

I seem to have a bit of a love-hate relationship with R.F. Kuang. I really enjoyed The Poppy War (Liked it, but didn't LOVE it), but DNF'd The Dragon Republic. I stayed clear of Babel because Academia Fiction is not my thing.

YellowFace promised to be completely different from Kuang's previous books - and it definitely delivered in that promise.
This book follows June, our narrator. June is friends with Athena, who is a best-selling author and has everything that comes with that - fame, money, critical acclaim - everything that June wants.
June is also a writer but her debut novel was a complete flop.
When tragedy hits, and Athena dies, June takes Athena's newly finished manuscript and passes it off as her own work.
The story is told from June's perspective and it's obvious from the first few pages that June is very bitter and extremely, bitterly jealous of Athena. This is clearly a Frenemies type relationship, and we learn that June resents Athena for her success, and the way in which June presents Athena makes us believe that Athena only keeps June around to boost her own ego. June paints her as someone who is very self-centred, egotistical and pretentious. In a way, June is laying the groundwork right from the beginning to show Athena in such a way that it almost justifies her actions later on. The relationship between them is extremely toxic.
But of course, we know that June is an unreliable narrator.
This book is sooooo clever!
We KNOW that June is a horrible person - her actions and her narrative reflect that. But despite this, her story is utterly compelling. As a reader, you hate her, but you also want her to succeed.

This book is so gripping, I honestly couldn't put it down. I was hooked almost from the very first line!
Kuang is a genius!
You are all going to FREAK OUT when this is released and it will definitely be worth the wait!

What a cleverly written, layered story this is. I don’t think I have read anything else like it.

It starts as a story about plagiarism but it unfurls to encompass a myriad of topics. It is a behind the curtains peek at the publishing industry, its processes, its successes but also its criticisms around racism and tokenism. The story looks at race and representation and asks the question - who does have the right to tell the story?

It also takes an excoriating look at social media and the harassment, abuse and pile -ons that happen online - something I’m sure rings a bell with anyone with a Twitter account.

The book is filled with brutal but accurate observations of personalities and behavious we will all recognise both from real life and social media.

Unusually for me, although I didn’t like the main characters at all (and I don’t think you’re supposed to), I still felt very invested in the outcome.

Initially it took me a while to get into the story but once I was in, I couldn’t read it fast enough. The story really did give me the rage at times though - June was so infuriating!

Highly recommended read. My first Rebecca Kuang book but the writing was so good that I will certainly be taking Babel off that to be read shelf soon.

Thanks to and Harper Collins & Netgalley for the chance to read an advance copy

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Yellowface is an incredibly good read.

Wow this book was so much more than I was expecting. I went in completely blind and had no idea on the premise only the title and author and having read Kuangs previous books I knew this would be excellent.

Yellowface starts as a novel demonstrating racism and politics in publishing as well as the morality around white authors profiting off of racial topics. This by itself is a very interesting discussion particularly when paired with the plot of the novel. But what I found most interesting was the victimisation of June and the way Athena and the characters that came to her defence were portrayed as almost a ‘villain’. The author did an excellent job at making June someone you sympathise with and want to support but at the same time you know her actions are wrong. It creates this scenario where as the reader I’m both rooting for her to make the right choices but also making excuses for her actions.

I was a little worried at around 75% of the way through that there wasn’t much left to the story and the rest would be kind of dragged out but it definitely picked back up again and I loved the ending!

Overall, this is an excellent novel that shows that you don’t have to be a villain to be involved in racism and even though there’s no villain, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a victim.