When Athena Liu dies in front of her, June Hayward is obviously devastated over her friend's death but doesn't tell anyone that right before she choked to death, June read the first few pages of Athena's manuscript - a story no-one else in the world has read or even knows about. Now June has Athena's novel with her, and with a few changes, she passes it on her own and becomes an instant bestseller - but then the critics come in, those that wonder about the similarities between 'Juniper Song's' book and previous work from Athena as well as the rightful critics of a white woman writing about Chinese history.

This was very readable, and I don't know if enjoyable is the right word because there were times I felt deeply uncomfortable with June's behaviour and some of the things she said, as well as highly embarrassed or anxious about everything was going to turn out. But I think if you didn't feel these things (especially as a white woman) you probably weren't getting the message of the book even though it's very clear.

As someone who has been reading books her entire life, and active in the book reviewing community for ten years, I did enjoy seeing the parts of the publishing industry that you don't get unless you work in the industry or you're an author.

June Hayward is not a likable character, and she's also quite an unreliable one and it does make the story quite fun as we really hope she does get caught out yet seemingly again and again, she gets away with it - and uses her white woman tears to full advantage. I also appreciated how RF Kuang explored how no matter what you do, or what you write (though let's be clear here, what June did was VERY wrong), you aren't going to please everyone and there will always be someone who will have a criticism somewhere as we see when some of the Athena haters come out even within the Asian-American community.

This is actually the first RG Kuang book I've read though her fantasy books have been on my TBR for ages and this is the final push I need to finally give them a go as the writing in this was sharp, entertaining and really compelling.

I was intrigued by this book when I requested it - a sneak peek into the publishing industry. But for a thriller it just fell flat and I was completely uninterested. It was just a big disappointment although it did highlight some of the issues that are rife within publishing.

I really enjoyed this book despite how uncomfortable the main character made me feel. This book gives an interesting perspective on the lives of writers trying to win that big publishing contract and how low some will stoop to get recognition. I really disliked the main character and all that she did, which demonstrates the skill in the authors writing as usually I would have stopped reading if I didn’t like the main character. Instead I wanted to find out what was going to happen to her.

A stunning and hilarious novel that I just couldn't put down! I would have read the entire thing in one sitting if I could have. Absolutely brilliant.

Loved this book and it was so highly anticipated! Would have given this five stars but felt it was slightly longer than maybe it should have been.

I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang is a darkly humorous and compelling literary thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The premise is intriguing: June Hayward, an unknown figure, suddenly finds herself in possession of a manuscript left behind by the deceased literary darling, Athena Liu. The narrative is expertly crafted, with Kuang weaving a complex and absorbing story around themes of identity, ambition, and the lengths people will go to for success.

The characters are vividly drawn and multi-dimensional, particularly the enigmatic Athena Liu and the ambitious June Hayward. The plot is filled with unexpected twists and turns, and Kuang's storytelling shines through every page. Her prose is sharp, engaging, and full of dark humor.

What sets this book apart is its thoughtful exploration of identity and the commodification of culture in the literary world. It is a bold, unflinching look at the often unspoken realities of the publishing industry. The book is an impactful read, one that leaves a lasting impression long after the last page is turned.

Yellowface is a triumph, a masterfully told tale that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. It is a testament to Kuang's talent as a writer and her ability to craft narratives that are both enjoyable and meaningful. This is a must-read for anyone who appreciates well-crafted fiction with a message. An easy 5-star rating for this brilliant book!

I didn’t expect to like this book but got swept into it and had to finish it. An exciting story about young women’s friendships without the cliches. Good on books, publishing, life and how things turn out. Lives up to the hype.

This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read and whilst the contents are unsettling at times, it is ever so relevant in our world today as R.F. Kuang writes about themes such as social networks and connections, racial identity and racism, authenticity and plagiarism, as well as cultural appropriation and cancel culture. ⁣
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The book mainly centres around June Hayward, a struggling writer, and her friend, Athena Liu, who made it big in the literary world. When Athena dies in an accident in her apartment, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. The rest of the book the revolves around how June is being presented with various threats to her success and what she would do to keep what she wants.⁣
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“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.
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…Writing has formed the core of my identity since I was a child. After Dad died, after Mom withdrew into herself, and after Rory decided to forge a life without me, writing gave me a reason to stay alive. And as miserable as it makes me, I'll cling to that magic for as long as I live.”⁣
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My experience reading this book was like reading a psychological thriller that’s playing with your mind. You’re uncomfortable, but you couldn’t stop reading. Glad I picked it up.

I've had this sat on my shelf for months and months but couldn't bring myself to read it, that was until I saw a recommendation from a local independent bookshop.

I'd give this 3.5 out of 4, loved 80% but the last part seemed to trail off.

Thanks Netgalley!

Interesting premise and definitely an interesting read. The writing style didn't really gel with me which made the book feel much longer than it actually was, but the story itself and the characters created a good read.

R F Kuang is a genius!

This book did a realistic portrayal of modern day racism so well. It also handled issues in publishing and social media cancel culture so cleaverly.

June Hayward is unlikable right from the start and she quickly devolves into absolutely horrible.
The her publishers and agent also supported her whitewashing is appalling!

All in all, this book leaves no doubts in a reader's mind that everything about this character and what they are doing is extremely toxic.

I also liked the snippets of Chinese contribution to WWII cleaverly interwoven into the plot.

Rebecca is the queen of storytelling. It’s so compelling and thrilling you can’t stop yourself from finishing her words.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced digital copy! I enjoyed reading this one. But I did like Babel better. In "Yellowface" I had some trouble getting into it.

Yellowface is a literary thriller which takes the classic crime motives of jealousy, greed and resentment and places them into a modern and relatable setting. There is also another layer to the story focusing on racial stereotyping and cultural appropriation which is fundamental to the plot and is very cleverly written but is linked with the other elements of the story in a way which is completely accessible to the reader.

This really is a case of ‘Art imitates life’, the narrative towards the end of the book switches to June (the main protagonist) actually telling us what we’re currently reading - how the book is being written, the genre, the structure and the scenes unfolding in real time as we read. It’s incredibly clever and a really interesting way to tackle the subject matter.

It’s not exactly enjoyable to read because most of the story is really uncomfortable. It’s not a ‘thriller’ in the same format as many of the other books I’ve read from this genre but what it does so brilliantly is put you on edge from the first page and never lets up. No matter what you think about June and the things she’s done, it’s impossible to not feel a very real sense of urgency as she battles with the fallout of her actions. The racial tension, the scathing comments about the publishing industry and the reflection of the modern day obsession with social media and bullying are all serious talking points and I’m not surprised at all that it was chosen as the ‘Best Book Of The Year’.

This is a book that will pull you in immediately!! I devoured this book and soon became consumed with it - adds to the overall message of the book!
I loved the insights into publishing and how cut throat it is. The whole social media aspect of the novel was very up to date and the unreliable author was hilarious!! A brilliant read and one I would definitely recommend!

Believe the hype! I gobbled this down in a few hours, bewitched by its head-spinning audacity, brilliant writing, satire and one of the most unreliable narrators since Ian McEwan's Atonement. Absolutely stunning, clever, hilarious, and not afraid to be mean - its largely female characters, from the seething editorial assistant to the senior editor who makes un-PC comments in editorial meetings, are fuelled with largely justifiable rage. A satire on the publishing industry that also brings to life the magic and redemptive power of authorship, as well as its ability to completely screw up one's life.

Every so often, I succumb to blogger fatigue. In fact, since having my children it is not even 'every so often'. There are long weeks and even months where I barely sit down at my computer. I struggle to find the time to read, let alone draft my thoughts on it into coherent sentences. But every so often along comes a book that makes me remember why I love being a book blogger. Yellowface is one of these books. It was lovely to get an early copy, stay up late so I could storm through its nail-biting final pages and then stand back to watch the book soar through the bestseller charts. Given its subject matter, this also felt very meta.

This is a tale of a truly toxic literary friendship. There is Athena Liu, beautiful, thin, sophisticated with three best-selling novels behind her at only twenty-seven and a Netflix deal on the table. Sitting beside her sipping celebratory cocktails is old college friend Juniper Hayward who has not had the same luck. June's debut novel was a flop which is not getting a paperback release. Green-eyed with jealousy and resentment, June grits her teeth and toasts Athena's success. As the evening progresses, the two head back to Athena's apartment. Tipsiness turns into late night cooking and then out of the blue, Athena chokes to death on an undercooked pancake.

After the blur of 911 calls and blue lights, a shellshocked June gets an Uber home and starts the motions of public social media mourning, guiltily aware that she had never really liked Athena that much anyway. But stuffed in her bag is the completed manuscript for Athena's new novel about Chinese labourers in World War I. It's type-written. No back-ups. No electronic trail. It's the perfect literary crime. June quietly takes it and redrafts it as her own work. It is published to great acclaim. June finally has the literary success which she has craved for so long.

But right from the very start, there are cracks. Eyebrows are raised at this novel about Chinese labourers being authored by a white woman. June's publishers encourage her to rebrand as Juniper Song, using the middle name given to her by her hippy mother. Author photographs are taken which are carefully lit to suggest racial ambiguity and an author bio is drafted to emphasise the same. All June wants is to enjoy her new success - why are there just so many haters and killjoys?

June's Olympian levels of self-deception make her an absolutely fascinating narrator. She tells the reader with apparent sincerity that she only took Athena's manuscript since otherwise it would never have been published. The edits and adjustments that she makes to the text are only done to improve on Athena's work, to make it a better novel. She softens the racism suffered by the Chinese labourers, makes one of the villains Chinese and one of the British soldiers becomes a hero. June glows when her editor praises a passage which was her own original creation, secure in her delusion that she is the reason for the book's success. But when reviews come in finding fault, June smirks with delight that people are finally catching on to Athena's bullshit at last. Stepping back for this review, I can see that June is utterly ghastly ... and yet for most of the novel, I was cringing as the net started to close in, hoping that she would not get caught. Kuang has pulled off a masterpiece in framing such a compelling narrative around such unlikable characters.

The kernel of this idea - you have access to an unpublished manuscript which you know is a masterpiece, would you put your own name on it - opens up a lot of questions about the book industry as a whole. Debates around cultural appropriation, #ownvoices and how we confront racism in literature. Recent debates and Twitter mobs have centred around books such as American Dirt and the work of Kate Clanchy.

I was also reminded of the controversy around the then teenaged Kaavya Viswanathan's debut young adult novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild And Got A Life which was found to be largely plagiarised from a variety of sources. At the time, Viswanathan claimed that she had simply read the books in question and reused the passages unconsciously. Recently though, I was remembering the book and surrounding hoop-la and fell down an internet rabbit hole which suggested that Viswanathan's family had paid for a ghost-writing service (apparently not a very good one) in order to beef her up as some kind of literary wunderkind and get her into Harvard. They seemingly assumed that nobody would notice pilfering from young adult literature. As in Yellowface, the positioning of the author was deemed more important than the book being published.

I remember listening to Kirsty Logan speaking at a writing retreat and she remarked that her books are marketed as literary fiction because that was what her publisher specialised in. If she had been signed by a different publisher, they might have been sold in the fantasy section. I read an interview with Kuang where she noted how unhelpful so much of genre labelling can be. Kazuo Ishiguro is a respected writer of literary fiction but books like Never Let Me Go are prime examples of dystopian fiction. This is all very interesting to me as a reader because the reaction I get when someone sees me with a book whose cover marks it as science fiction is very different to the one that I get if its cover looks like literary or mainstream fiction. This is the main reason why Terry Pratchett never got the literary acclaim he deserved. And at that point, you can see that June has a point. Bestsellers are chosen long before they ever hit the shelves.

The question though of who is 'allowed' to write certain stories is an increasingly thorny one in our cultural commentary. Kuang considers the question from all angles. June argues that she has every right to tell a story about Chinese labourers. Except of course, it is not her story in any sense of the word. However, does Athena have any more right than June? Her life is a world apart from the lives of those whose experiences she has appropriated. Indeed, June insists to the reader that Athena abuses her position of privilege. Athena never even liked being asked to mentor younger Asian writers and June felt that Athena has realised her role in the literary world was to be 'able to explain Asians to everybody else'. If June is not to tell stories about China, is Athena allowed to tell stories about anything else? Or was she just as trapped in her lane?

To be clear, I think there is a definite advantage when a writer is speaking from a place of experience. I have read and winced through books which misrepresented various areas which are close to my own heart. Coming from a Northern Irish family, it is toe-curling how uninformed American and English writers can be on the geopolitics of that region. Similarly, I remember giving up on a book which had a bizarre take on growing up with an absentee father. But I would also add that I have similar levels of disdain when I read bad historical fiction. My views on The Boy in Striped Pyjamas are well-documented. That book still sells. What is the moral difference between a book which is badly written and one which is possibly well written but covers sensitive issues with poor taste? At what point do we let people read and decide for themselves?

Yellowface dances around the question of whether all creative work is predicated on pilfering. June is still bitter about an incident during their early years at college when Athena won a prize for a short story which seemed to be based on a sensitive incident from June's personal life. June remembers watching Athena questioning Korean War veterans at a museum exhibition as research for her writing. Watching her in that moment, June sees Athena not as a talented writer but as a vampire. Athena's own mother gives hints over personal feelings of violation at how Athena plundered their family history in her work. Naturally, June looks back on these incidents as justification for her own theft but even so, it leaves the reader pondering who exactly owns a story. 

Lost in a mess of her own making, June looks back over her teenaged notebooks and mourns the time when she wrote simply because she loved writing. I have always felt that the Charlotte Brontë quotation, 'I am just going to write because I cannot help it' is slightly misused since she originally wrote it in the context of her own mental health issues. I always wince slightly when I see it used in a pretty font on literary gifts. But still, I think people are drawn to that phrase because there is something about that uncritical boundless pages of utter drivel that one produces as a teenager which represents a creative freedom to which adulthood will never live up. June was the villain of the story, there is no doubt about that. But she and Athena are also victims of an industry which cares little for their art and more for the money which can be made.

It feels strange as a book blogger to be recommending a novel whose plot centres on a writer going through the mill of the online book community. But it has definitely made me more aware of how the opinions of others can influence my own. I do find myself sometimes 'checking' before I post a review in case a book that I have enjoyed is somehow problematic and I have not noticed. Is Kuang's message that we should look at the book rather than worrying about reaching a united public opinion? They say that no two people ever read the same book and yet people still get very upset if your opinion does not match theirs.

Every time I go into a bookshop and see which books have been placed on the front table, I think of Yellowface and wonder how exactly those have been picked. I have my own misgivings about how Amazon and Goodreads are choosing the books we read next but Kuang took my thoughts and turned them into art. This is a deliciously addictive literary thriller, skewering the BookTok generation with style. Fiendish, fascinating and utterly fun, it has placed high on my list of Christmas gifts for bookish loved ones.

Really fast read, an interesting look into the way white people conduct themselves in the book industry and how they appropriate the stories of people of colour. Wish it had been a little bit longer and the end wasn't my favourite

Outrageously good! I'm absolutely fascinated by Rebecca Kuang and her ability to write so beautifully in such a range of genres.

This was an uncomfortable read, but so valuable and so enjoyable. Some thoroughly unlikeable characters and satire that skewered society and the publishing industry. It really got me thinking about the power of stories and about who gets to tell stories.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.