This book was done perfectly, it was timely and progressive. I felt engaged and enraged as I read it and yes, the characters are flawed and definitely unlikeable but I feel that is what makes it so good.

R.f.Kuang has done it again!

This book hooks you in from the first chapters. The characters are all flawed and pretty unlikable, i usually struggle with unlikable characters but they are written in such a way you are intrigued to see the outcome. There are nuances thought the book however it is clear that June is in the wrong for the majority of the book.

I overall enjoyed this book however I wasn’t 100% on the ending. This being said it is beautifully written and I read it in one evening.

This review is spoiler free and I will write a fuller version closure to publication. Thanks to netgalley for providing this ARC.

I finally finished a book after a whole month of struggling and I absolutely loved it!

There's something about R. F. Kuang's writing that just does it for me. I get caught in it from the very beginning and it holds me til the very end.

This novel somehow combined so many of the things I absolutely love: writing, publishing and booktwt drama, so I had a blast. The whole story was fascinating and once I started reading, I couldn't put it down.

I'd like to try to write a longer review after I've had some time to process it as I just finished it. But this is easily a 5-star read right from the start but I am, of course, biased.

This book was so ‘on the nose’ and realistic that at times I forgot I was reading fiction altogether. I thought the way the author handled complex issues with insight and grace made this a really interesting and necessary read. This is a conversation that needs to happen beyond just the publishing industry & I really hope this book manages to break through; it just might make all the difference.

Thanks for letting me read and review.

This book has a very interesting premise of looking at the publishing industry and at social media from the perspective of a writer who has some complex relationships with writing and life. It was a lengthy tome which went on a very varied journey.

I came to this book unfamiliar with RF Kuang’s previous work in the fantasy sphere and, for fellow readers doing the same, this in no way proved a disadvantage in either my enjoyment or understanding of it, especially as a bi-racial woman. For Yellowface is a standalone - Kuang’s first foray into literary fiction - and a great one at that.

The novel follows June Hayward, a young and once promising nascent author whose first book fails to set the world alight. The disappointment of this may have been easier to bear were it not for June’s one-time fellow student and wunderkind Athena Liu who initially on the same trajectory, soon surpasses June’s achievements with her own work which attracts significant artistic and financial rewards. The women’s friendship - tentative, slight, and variously defined as either manipulative or simply convenient - endures as Athena’s star rises, or at least until the fateful night when Athena dies in a freak accident with June as its only witness.

In the midst of the aftermath, June steals Athena’s latest novel, an unpublished and previously unseen manuscript destined to be Athena’s magnum opus on the unacknowledged allied Chinese labour force during World War 1. Recognising its flawed but potential brilliance, June does the unthinkable - “finessing” the novel and then passing it off as her own work. The novel is, of course, triumphantly received and so begins Kuang’s excoriating take-down of the contemporary publishing industry which prizes commercial success over both authenticity and accountability, cleverly using the metaphor of plagiarism to frame the age-old question of who exactly has the right to tell whose story.

As befits the nature of satire, there is nothing subtle about the author’s approach and the novel races along at a cringe-inducing, car-crash pace as an increasingly desperate June battles with the external and internal challenges of telling a story that is not hers. We are treated to the whole gamut of morally dubious acts - from the ambiguously ethnic author photo, to the damage limitation exercises of her agent and publishers (always with an eye on the commercial “spin”). Throughout, June (or Juniper Song, as she conveniently reinvents herself in order to appear more Asian sounding), cites the siren song of white writers throughout history: namely, that no one has the right to police the imagination, and that authors should be able to tell whatever story they want. But publishing is not a meritocracy, and the novel posits vital questions: whose authentic experiences are we closing ranks against in order that white voices maintain their supremacy in the literary space? Why is it necessary, even now, to have a white champion hiding behind an apparent shield of moral virtue, in order that these stories get an audience?

The fact that it has taken until now to see such a story by a Chinese author in the mainstream partially answers this question, and Yellowface is certainly a modern and timely book, oscillating between the established tropes of satire and the righteous outrage of Gen-Z. Social Media features highly in the novel, as the medium du-jour of toxic discourse, and Kuang does a fantastic job of encapsulating the urgent echo chambers of Twitter and Goodreads which in the grand scheme of things should mean nothing, but in the tunnelled world of paranoid authorship take on huge significance. There is something that smacks of both recent history and prophecy in her dramatisation of Twitter’s online hate campaigns, as there is in the way that it quickly descends into an “us vs them” war drawn against racial battlelines. As much as the novel casts its magnified lens on these issues, however, there is also verisimilitude, such as the portrayal of the token minority voice in publishing which, instead of being embraced, has its cry of dissent squashed and minimised out of fear of blowing the gates open. When all you know is privilege, equality feels like oppression.

All of these issues are beautifully rendered by Kuang, as is the meta debate on the writing process itself, and yet part of me thinks that it would have been even more powerful had there been slightly more nuance to her story. June is SO morally compromised, so blinded by her own ego, that there is none of the subtlety that confirmation bias often displays. It’s important to note that Athena is hardly rendered as a paragon of virtue either, but nonetheless, I couldn’t help feeling Kuang’s foot a little too hard on the tonal pedal at times, the strings a little visible in her writing, directing the reader what to think rather than trusting them to come to their own conclusions. There are, for example, only brief and usually self-serving musings by June as to the moral dubiousness of her enterprise, which become lost in the sea of her constant attempts to double down on her lies. Elsewhere, her exaggerated disgust of “greasy” Chinese food and callous disregard for important ethnic details as insignificant can feel a little heavy-handed. In the thematic debate of “means and ends” there needs to be more of a balance between the extremes of the question for it to feel like a proper tug of war and it was this I missed, coupled with the slightly disappointing ending which I personally felt did a disservice to what had gone before.

As an important, overdue exploration of literary culture and what needs to change within it, this book deserves a five, but judged purely on reading experience, it’s a four and highly recommended.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Harper Collins for providing me with an ARC in return for my unbiased opinion.

What would you steal for successes:

her face?

her name?

her skin?

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

Who wants stories by basic white girls anyway?

But now Athena is dead. And June has her unfinished manuscript…

A darkly funny literary thriller from the New York Times bestselling author.

This novel blew me away - the first line packs a punch and straight away I wanted to know more. I was transported into a world where I felt I was access all areas into the world of publishing; the good the bad and the ugly.

I spent the book disliking the main character June/Juniper however by the end I was strangely rooting for her, as I felt she had come to terms with her actions and was looking to be pragmatic (while also stroking her ego)
My feelings towards Athena were ambivalent to begin with which morphed into dislike however with so many lies being told, it is difficult to know if my thoughts were justified and I like the ambiguity as I think that this is clever writing.
I felt as though the lead up to the ending felt a little rushed and somewhat ‘Hollywood’ The frantic scenes at the end seemed quite over the top but redeemed by the decisions made by the main character which made me smile.
R.F. Kuang has given me plenty to think about on sensitive topics while entertaining with some dark humour on others. I know that this book will stay with me for quite a while.
I hope that the parallel between R.F.Kuang writing about reviews in this novel and real life reviews of this novel are making her smile.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC

What a ride this book was! I've never read anything from this author before, so I read "Yellowface" without any preconceived notions or expectations, and I think this definitely enhanced my experience.

I very much enjoyed this book and was hooked from the beginning. The main character, Juniper Song, is an unlikeable, unreliable narrator you love to hate. Kuang crafts the voice of a resentful, racist, "liberal" white woman unbelievably well, laying out all her ugly, entitled, horrifying thoughts with unflinching honesty. I was entranced by June's toxic, fascinating relationship with Athena and the trainwreck of her actions and couldn't wait to see what would happen next. The tension and discomfort leap off the page, making the book impossible to put down. The moments of dark humour were also clever and ruthless.

The insights into the world of publishing, with all its prejudices, barriers, superficiality, and inhospitality towards young writers were also very intriguing, and something I really appreciated, having always been interested in the world of writing. Kuang's takes on race, diversity, tokenism, materialism and survival are incredibly relevant and cutting. Also, despite all her disgusting, despicable actions, I did feel for June at times purely because of the very universally human feelings of disillusionment, self-doubt, depression, and anxiety she experiences as she is chewed up and spit out by the capitalist workings of the industry.

While I felt that the plethora of pop culture references and constant focus on social media were a bit excessive, they do make the novel feel very grounded in this time, and illustrate the life of a terminally-online young person in an age where the internet is everything.

I can't go into the ending without mentioning spoilers, but I felt that, while ultimately a bit anticlimactic, it was very fitting and indicative of how stories like June's go. This was a deeply entertaining, fast-paced, tense, and enlightening read that I would highly recommend.

(I also need to point out that there were quite a few typos and grammatical/editing errors, which should be fixed before publication.)

First of all, this is completely out of my comfort zone in terms of genres... And still I finished it in two days. I cannot stress enough how entertaining yet mildly horrifying everything that happened in this book was and I was here for it. It is genuinely like watching a car crash in book form - impossible to tear your eyes away from it.

I despised every single character in this book yet I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I found it really quite funny that a couple of weeks after reading this book JKR released her newest book - If you've heard what the plot of it is and got the end of Yellowface I'm sure you can see what I mean.

It won't be a book for everyone that's for sure, but it really worked for me!

Rating - 4.5 stars

First of all, this book is very different from R.F. Kuang's other novels and yet, she never fails to make me enjoy reading all her works. Yellowface is no exception. As soon as I read the first page, I knew instantly that I was going to love this book. Even though this book was outside my genre tastes, I didn't want to stop reading and the plot always made me want to know what kind of disaster would happen next.

A large part of the novel explores racism and discrimination withing the publishing industry. I think Kuang goes into quite a lot of detail about the workings within publishing and I loved every bit of it as I've always been so fascinated with how publishing industry worked. Alongside that, social media also played a big role which was quite entertaining to read about as it felt very satirical.

Overall, the novel was highly entertaining for me to read as it was a crazy rollercoaster of events, and although this may be outside of your preferred genre, I think this is worth a try. I can't wait for this novel to publish and see what everyone else thinks.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4988216696

3.5 stars for this one. The author can obviously write brilliantly but I'm not sure that this idea is the best showcase for her talent.

On the level of plot/storytelling, after a great start, the pacing sags a little in the middle section, and the various twists and the ending are pretty contrived. In many ways, this is just an (I am sure justified) rant about the publishing industry and social media spun out into a pretty thin story. And although it is interesting to learn a bit about how publishing works, it doesn't quite make up for the lack of plot!

In terms of the intended message, I'm guessing that the narrator, June, is meant to be an out-and-out villain who is deluding herself about and/or completely lacking awareness of the awfulness of her actions and outlook. But at various points in the novel I have to confess to feeling a twinge of sympathy for her. I'm not sure if that's the author trying to force readers to critically examine why they are prepared to cut someone so unlikeable some slack. Or whether there is genuinely meant to be some nuance to the character beyond the awfulness. I'm guessing probably the former, but the novel is thought provoking either way.

I would try this author again, as she clearly has bags of talent, but this didn't quite hit the heights I was hoping for after an excellent start.

Thanks to her, the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This book was SO gripping. I found the ending slightly rushed but absolutely loved this tale of literary intrigue and jealousy. A must for anyone who loves pacy thrilling and wants an insight into the publishing industry, with a seasoning of messy friendship thrown in. Thanks NetGalley!

While different from RF Kuang's previous works, this still feels distinctly like an RF Kuang book. It's been weeks since I read Yellowface and I still can't stop thinking about it.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review contains some spoilers.

I was so excited to get my hands on this book. The premise is simple - June steals the final manuscript written by her friend (or frenemy) Athena after she dies. It explores June navigating the publishing industry as she tries to justify to herself what she's done.

The book is razor sharp and unflinching in exploring both June's inner justifications of what she's done (is it really stealing if the rough draft needed so much work?) and Athena's almost parasitic tendency to steal other people's stories to build her work around (such as June's own university experience). June draws the parallels often between them that Athena got stories out of other people's experiences so is what she did that different to anything Athena would have done herself?

The plot twists and turns as little things are revealed about June and Athena's relationship and minor characters are fleshed out and given their own purposes and back stories. June struggles to find her own narrative voice without the scaffolding of someone else's work to prompt her spark and her anxiety only increases when online trolls start to question her writing.

The online harrassment is piercing and realistic. The book provides a searing commentry on cancel culture from both ends of the spectrum. In this case, June is a plagiarist regardless of her rewrites and edits but does this mean she deserves to have death threats in her inbox? There is also the question - is June racist for stealing a book about Chinese experiences from her Chinese friend and passing it off as her own?

The part when the publishing company asked her to use her middle name as her last name, essentially to make her sound Asian when she was not, made me deeply uncomfortable as did the fact that June was unable to see anything wrong with this until she was invited to speak at the Chinese American Social Club dinner when she finally starts to feel guilty

As June is tortured seemingly by the ghost of her friend and rival, I had a niggle at the base of my spine that I knew who was behind it all simply because there was a loose end from earlier in the story that left me unsettled. I was deeply satisifed when I was right!

I was intrigued at how easily I felt sorry for June despite her making a series of deeply misguided choices. As the plot raced towards the final conclusion, I could really feel her unravelling and she had me wondering how reliable a narrator she was - did Athena really die that night and if so, was it an accident?

The final chapter of the book killed any sympathy I had for June. I had my suspicions when things started to take a turn for the worse but the end solidified for me that she was a sociopath. In the narcissistic world painted in the book perhaps she fitted right in.

Side note - I hope someone is going to proof read the e-book again before general release as there are a number of typos and instances where words are repeated/missing entirely or the wrong word has been entered i.e. 'do' instead of 'to'.

This book was certainly unlike anything I'd read before, and a fascinating departure from R. F. Kuang's other works, I'm always impressed when an author has such genre range.

Yellowface is a deeply meta, satirical look on the publishing industry told through the eyes of plagiarising white author Juniper Song, with atmosphere and tension ratcheting up throughout the book to the point that whereupon I'd reached the halfway mark, I couldn't put it down until the end.

What impressed me most from the book is that even though June is a horrific racist person who has stolen work and manipulated grieving individuals, you get moments in the book where you wonder how she's going to get out of a particular situation before remembering that this isn't someone you're meant to root for. A truly well written first person perspective to be sure. Also an interesting look into toxic friendships and how well you know a person vs their public persona as the book unfolds and you start to learn more about Athena Liu.

The only thing I feel that left the book down was the ending, which felt rushed and abrupt, but I can see why that is likely the intention, just for me personally it didn't quite work. I am also not sure how well this book works for someone who doesn't spend a lot of time on the likes of book twitter or doesn't have knowledge of the publishing industry as a lot of the more meta and satirical references to events and issues occuring in publishing today certainly added to the impact and my enjoyment of the book. Also if you don't enjoy first person viewpoint with an emphasis on monologuing over dialogue than this also may not be the book for you, but from my perspective I really enjoy the insight that gives into the psyche of our viewpoint character.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and will look with eager anticipation to see what book or genre Kuang comes out with next, which will certainly be an auto-buy for me.

The novel is told in a rather breathless present tense first person by June Hayward (named by her hippy mother Juniper Song Hayward) a whiter American novelist whose career already seems to be largely over after an underwhelming response to her first novel (her dreams of literary stardom after securing an agent and book deal rapidly quashed) but who remains friends with Chinese-descended Athena Liu who by contrast is something of a novelist superstar with her sales only matched by her literary acclaim.

The set up is simple: June is on her first visit to Athena’s luxury flat, after a night of drinking, when Athena chokes on a pancake – June fails to carry out even a part-functioning Heimlich maneuver but when later leaving the death scene does manage to carry out a part-finished historical-fiction manuscript: Athena’s next novel which she has been writing in almost total secrecy, about the WWI Chinese Labour Corps. What starts as a writing exercise – filling out and polishing Athena’s incomplete draft turns into a fully fledged completion of the novel-in-progress and then an impulsive decision to submit the novel as her own.

From there – and especially after a publishing decision to face up to appropriation claims by playing up June’s nomadic childhood and for her to publish under her quirky and ethnically ambiguous first and second names, the literary stardom that June craves (and at times implies was denied to her due her lack of diversity) arrives at a breathtaking speed matched only by the pacing and immediacy of the novel’s writing

This is then inevitably accompanied by a backlash featuring, among others, a junior editorial assistant (who publishes the first negative Goodreads review), a LARB reviewer who specialises in taking down the latest literary darlings, barbed Goodreads reviews and comments, You Tube critiques, online activists, awkward event panels and Twitter storms. Despite her fear of detection, June decides to double down on both her claims and on her literary borrowing – partly supported by a culture-war backlash against the backlash.

Of course meta-fictional conceit’s abound: the book is of course written by a Chinese-American author pretending to be a white author pretending to be a Chinese-American author, as well as by an author writing something very different to her usual (fantasy) fare. From the Goodreads reviews I have read (although I would not put in past the book for some of these to be fake or sock-puppet accounts – and the author herself does seem strangely fond for a cult author of 5* reviewing her own books) some of the criticisms which are aimed at Athena’s writing have been aimed at the author.

Overall I think this is a novel with a simple if clever premise, and with entertaining if simple execution. Very much a novel I found easy to read in a day it will I think appeal to anyone interested in the book industry – and particularly those who enjoy debates in the comments section of Goodreads, book event panels, literary controversies and the resulting Twitter spats – which is I think many keen readers.

3 ⭐️

This was an easy read and completely different to anything RFK has done so far.

Yellowface is a drama-filled satire on the publishing industry and there's no doubt that it's very well written and that RFK has incredible range.
And if there's one thing no one can fault RFK on, it's her ability to write an unlikeable character because June was absolutely foul.

I'd say the best parts of the novel were the parts centred on June/Juniper Song and Athena Liu's messed up dynamic and one of my biggest issues with this book is that there wasn't enough of this.
Also as interesting as the themes and discussion were, at times the narrative voice became overwhelming and the whole second act of the novel was a little too much book twitter for my liking.

With that said, it was still a solid three stars. Definitely would've been more enjoyable if the ending had felt more satisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

Wow wow wow a five star review, I was hooked from the first page. Truly contemporary and buzzing with humour. My favourite read of the year.

PHENOMENAL. Eviscerates publishing, lays bare the truth behind everything from well-meaning white authors to the way the industry formulates bestsellers. Just an absolute riot and a deliciously satirical read.