'yellowface' was an absolute romp of a novel following june, a white author who decides to steal an unpublished manuscript by best-selling asian author, athena, after athena randomly dies. things spiral out of control as june passes the novel as her own and is haunted by the consequences of thievery and cultural appropriation

with acerbic social commentary, 'yellowface' calls out the publishing industry & online book communities, discusses cultural erasure, the treatment of marginalised voices & the need for non-white people to sell trauma stories in order to be seen, heard and acknowledged. it comments on cancel culture and online discourses surrounding controversial authors, and so much more

this book was compulsively readable, darkly comedic, satirical, and effective. 'yellowface' accomplishes everything it sets out to do, and it does it well. this story felt unsettling in how enjoyable it was. no matter how horrific & twisted it got, i could not put it down. i hated june with a passion, but being in her warped mind was so much fun. i loved the discussions in here, r f kuang makes acute observations regarding online book communities that really spoke to me

saying that, 'yellowface' might just be my least favourite release by r f kuang. it is, objectively, a great book that achieves what it sets out to do. but it's never a story i'm gonna reread. it didn't affect me as much as her previous work has. it has its flaws: for me, the ending felt cliché, the pop culture references got tedious after a while, and it was a little too heavy-handed at times (i would love to see kuang try something more subtle in the future)

i still highly recommend it because it is expertly crafted and an incredible response to a plethora of current issues. i just wish it had more of a long-lasting impact, if i'm honest

— 3.5☆

“Publishing gossip, it turns out, is a lot of fun when you’re speculating about other people’s misfortune.”

R. F. Kuang is a writing genius, she has somehow created such a compelling read FILLED with the most unlikeable people ever, but it just adds and fuels your enjoyment of the book. What the hell?

Yellowface follows our FMC June Heyward who steals a manuscript from her ‘friend’ after her untimely death and passes it off as her own work, to overwhelming great success!

What follows is anxiety inducing, infuriating and honestly overwhelming in terms of second hand embarrassment- I love it. June scrambles to hold together the idea she has put this book out into the world all of her own merit, whilst being challenged by others about her authenticity.

We have plagiarism, we have racism, we have classism and all are tackled head on from ALL sides. Honestly this was such a compelling read and I cannot recommend it enough!

Thanks so much as always to the publisher for the ARC and netgalley. I had this on pre order anyways…plus I partly listened to the audiobook…Must. consume. ALL. forms of Kuang media

There has obviously been so much hype around Yellowface, so I went in with high expectations. It was definitely gripping, and I kept picking it up to read more, but I wasn't completely blown away by it in the way I hoped. If anything, at times it just felt like an explanation of how the publishing industry works (which we know has its issues!). I am keen to read more of Rebecca F Kuang's work now though, out of intrigue.

Utterly compelling, gripping and emotional. Didn't think I was going to be absolutely unable to put this book down: a complete page-turner. Undoubtedly one of the books of my year.

New York Times bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she claims she is, she didn't write the book she claims she wrote and is certainly not Asian American
This was the first book by R.F Kuang I've read and it did not disappoint. It gives such a deep dive into the book and publishing industry, aspects we'd probably all like to know a bit more about, the highs and lows of writing and publishing your own book. June is like a love hate character, she makes me cringe with every bad decision she makes, but you also can't help but feel a bit sorry for her at the same time. It also deals with racism in an amazing and eye opening way, showing that it is everywhere and in everyone in some way. The pacing picked up the more the book went on which I was pleased about as it did start of slightly slower than I anticipated. Her use of cancel culture and social media throughout was also so good, how in todays society were so quick to jump on the bandwagon and cancel anyone and anything
It was such a good page turner and if this book is anything to go by I'm so excited to read more by Kuang.
Thankyou to @netgalley and @boroughpress for the arc

I'd seen people talking about this everywhere and as someone who has worked in the book world since graduating in 1998 I was intrigued but I found it to be a real emperors new clothes type of story and I spotted the 'twists' before they happened each time.

I have seen a lot of hype around this book, so was intrigued to take a look - sometimes hype works in a book's favour and sometimes not but I think that's still very subjective depending on the reader's tastes.

Front and centre in this tale is June Hayward, a young white writer who's not the success she'd dreamed of being - she did have her debut novel published, but it didn't receive a lot of fanfare or break any records. Unlike Athena Liu, June's college classmate and literary darling, published to great acclaim and considered a rising star in the publishing world.

They maintain a friendship of sorts after college, which leads to the evening which changes everything - Athena is suddenly no longer around and June takes what she sees as a prime opportunity to find her true place (in her mind anyway).

What follows is a gripping story of what it means to be not where you thought you should be and not getting what you think you're worth with all the questionable decision making along the way (the pen name change to Juniper Song is deliberately racially vague), while remaining intentionally (?) blind to the privilege that comes from being a white person in ostensibly one of the whitest professions around. June is anxiety-ridden, jealous and envious of anyone else's success (perceived or otherwise) but would strenuously deny being racist - she feels her whiteness counts against her and is therefore a disadvantage she should be able to exploit how she sees fit.

Athena is not presented in a more agreeable light, as we learn over the course of the story that she liked to gather first-person experiences from people in her moleskin notebooks and then use them without consent in her own writing.

There are not really any likeable characters in this story, the author has a real knack for shining a light on things you have noticed, pointing out things that make you uncomfortable, upset or even angry and articulating them in a clear way that does not allow for any blurring or camouflaging. Confronted head-on we see things for what they are, but how do we feel about it - do we agree or disagree? How does social media warp these things and influence opinions?

I thoroughly enjoyed Yellowface, I found it thought provoking, shocking and it gripped me from the very start. A dark insight into the behind-the-scenes of the publishing world, how much is truth? I suspect more than we may imagine.

This scathing and unflinching contemplation of the publishing industry captivated me from start to finish, offering exceptional character development and a well-maintained momentum. Did I like any of the characters? I'm still unsure....

I think it's fair to say that this was my most highly anticipated release of this year, and my word it didn't disappoint. The satirical nature of Juniper's narrative voice lends itself to comparisons to Moshfegh and other popular author's works, which is fair, but the precise way in which Kuang uses the publishing industry as the backdrop for the rise and fall of her protagonist is honestly stunning, and provided a reading experience that I haven't had in a while. I was dumbfounded by the subtleties of racism and privilege invading Juniper's thoughts, and became completely engrossed by how these layers got deeper and deeper until it invaded her very sense of self. Your instinct is to hate her because of what she does, and yet you can't help but Marvel at Kuang's handiwork and how it is presented through Juniper. I'm always a bit wary of reading a new release, especially when it comes with so much praise surrounding it, but this deserves it all and more.

Yellowface is very different to Kuang’s other books such as the epic fantasy series The Poppy War trilogy and I definitely think readers need to know that before diving in. Kuang’s previous books (not including Babel as I am yet to read that) are very gritty, intense novels whereas Yellowface is more of a satirical literary fiction.

I enjoyed Yellowface but literary fiction/contemporary are not usually the types of books I reach for often, so it doesn’t rank as high as the fantasy genre.

Yellowface read really quickly as is relatively short compared to Kuang’s previous books. It is humorous and highlights just how toxic the publishing world can be.

The main character Juniper was exhaustingly exasperating. Reading about Junipers thoughts, feelings and what she did I just wanted to hit my head against a wall at times but I also think this is what Kuang intended. Juniper was supposed to be unlikeable but I couldn’t help feel bad for her at points, even though everything that happened was down to her actions. It just goes to show that some people will do literally almost anything to achieve what they want.

There are definitely references within the book to real world books/items. For example, there was reference to signing tip in pages for book boxes and even to other popular books which I quite enjoyed.

Overall, Yellowface was an enjoyable read that you’ll find yourself laughing along to and watching the main character dig herself deeper into her situation which slowly brings her to her demise but you will enjoy watching it happen!

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena's a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn't even get a paperback release. Nobody 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.

OMG this is a masterpiece. What a work of contemporary of art!

Especially if you are part of bookstagram or book twitter: grab yourself some popcorn and plonk down to DEVOUR this book.

This was such a good book to see the dualities of publishing industry and how it works for BIPOC people and it definitely terrified me a bit, being a brown person hoping to publish their own books sometime in the future.
I just love Rebecca at this point, I was (and am) thoroughly obsessed with Babel but didn't know what to expect from this satire on publishing industry that's also a thriller but it delivered!
The middle was a bit of a slog to get through and I felt at times that the author's voice got mixed in with the white-character-trying-to-come-off-as-right-at-all-costs sometimes which hindered my enjoyment.
Highly recommend if you love Kuang's work, thrillers or knowing more about the publishing's underbelly!!

Last summer R. F. Kuang’s fifth novel Babel took readers by both lapels and shook them hard. This gripping speculative fiction thriller set in a dystopian version of the 1830’s challenged perceptions around language and colonialism, and it was – correctly – impossible to enter a bookshop without encountering its stark monochromatic cover. This year will undoubtedly see the citrus-bright cover of Yellowface, the newest book from this star author, similarly deservedly stacked high across the same shelves. Yellowface takes a turn into yet another subject for the writer, but it’s not entirely surprising that someone with first-hand experience of the maelstrom that often accompanies publishing success would turn their attention to the world of books, and authors, and creativity itself.

The story follows June Hayward, a struggling writer and friend of Athena Liu, the current literary it-girl, who is three novels deep in a multi-book deal which she signed “straight out of college”, a Netflix deal, seventy thousand Instagram followers yet very few other acquaintances in the real world. June and Athena met at Yale, and though June’s career has stalled – a reduced print run on her debut novel, a vastly diminished book tour and an editor who’s forgotten she exists – Athena’s has sky-rocketed to stardom, making their complicated relationship a shimmering, heady mix of envy and admiration. One night, during drinks at Athena’s apartment, she asks June to read the solitary hard copy of the first draft of her new novel (it’s brilliant, of course) just before a late-night drunken pancake-making session results in Athena’s tragic accidental death. In the flashing-light frenzy of paramedics, the manuscript – the one which no-one else knows exists – ends up in June’s bag.

After wrestling with her very real grief, and the flattering-yet-hollow attention of the media when it’s revealed she was with Athena at her death, she starts to work on Athena’s novel. One thing leads to another: the edited manuscript secures June a huge publishing deal under a new pen name – June Song – and the stardom she’s always craved is finally hers. But is it – really? This is a fantastic book: it’s fiction, yes, but it’s a fascinating look at the process of writing, and editing, and publishing – and also a challenging, wryly satirical take on creativity, and ownership, and how we justify our actions to ourselves. Not to be missed.

Reviewed in the June issue of Cambridge Edition – thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC
https://online.bright-publishing.com/view/284400817/24/

What frustrates me about reviews of this book is that most call June Hayward and "unreliable narrator" - this is incorrect. We would describe a narrator as unreliable if we, as readers, could not trust the accuracy of their accounts. As far as the events in the book are described from her perspective, it seems we can absolutely trust June's accounts. What we cannot trust is her judgement.

June operates on unchecked victim mentality while plagiarizing her way towards literary fame (and later infamy). What Kuang does very right with this protagonist is making her unbelievably unlikable and yet keepung us readers on the edge of our seats waiting, praying, for June's downfall.

More so than a critique of discrimination within the publishing industry, Yellowface holds a mirror up to "liberal white feminism" and the microaggressive, patronizing talking points it uses to distance itself from conservatives while also bathing in willful ignorance about the harm their own behaviour causes. Even still, I believe the book could have said more on the topic. I found myself wishing for more resistance against June's beliefs, a more hard-hitting counter voice to her lack of common sense. Sure, there is the dreaded and much memed Twitter mob but that barely makes a splash in the grand scheme of things.

June is never sufficiently challenged. And if this is the point - to show how impenetrable such a person's way of thinking is - then I would have wished for her to actively lean more into the overtly right-wing fanbase she garners after her plagiarizing ways are credibly uncovered. As it stands, June does not undergo any tangible character development and is not more or less of a p.o.s. than at the beginning of the book despite the incisive events she has lived through.

Something I was not a big fan of either: the pacing. The first half went by in a flash and reached what I initially believed to be the critical point too quickly. Little build-up, barely a hurdle for June to overcome or slither by on her way to national literary stardom, and, all things considered, only the smallest amount of pushback. In the second half we are forced to maneuver at a snail's pace through weeks of writer's block and more proof June is a terrible person. None of it moved the story along, none of it mattered.

The logical progression after soaring heights of success would be the protagonist's fall from grace. Instead, however, we got a lot of filler content and only THEN some harsh criticism. Though, still no serious comeuppance and retribution for her crimes. Instead the story stumbled into an out-of-the-blue hallucination/ghost plotline and a character (who was barely in the story at all and had only the flimsiest of stakes in any of this) amateurishly tricking June into shouting her deepest darkest secret in public from the top of her lungs. There are other characters who would have been far better suited as executioner and whose contribution to June's possible career death whould have had a vastly more satisfying emotional catharsis, not only for us readers but also for June.

This book feels important as part of a larger discussion. But as it stands, it is too timid to shake publishing out of its prejudiced comfort zone.

Tl;dr, I wish Yellowface was a helluva lot more scathing.

Is there anyone out there doing it like R.F. Kuang?? I don't think so! Absolutely stunning, I could not put it down, and I think this firmly cements R.F. Kuang as a writer who is here to stay (if Babel didn't establish that already for you). She effortlessly moves over to a different genre than her previous work, but her voice shines through so clearly, that for someone who never reads litfic, I had a great time!

I have not stopped thinking about this book - when I wasn't reading it, I was wondering what was going to come next in the story and I couldn't wait to pick it back up again. If I hadn't had a busy couple of days, I would definitely have read this whole thing in one sitting. It's such a bizarre reading experience, because I couldn't get enough of this book, but I actively DESPISED the main character. She felt so genuinely real, it made me scared that I would open Twitter and see news about her in real life, she felt like she could actually exist. R.F. Kuang also captured the massive bubble that is booktwitter perfectly - the discourse, the bandwagoning, everything, it was surreal.

R.F. Kuang is just an absolute genius. This was the perfect analysis of the publishing industry, and how white authors are still prioritised even when the publishing industry is promoting diversity, how obvious unconscious racial bias can actually be and how the publishing industry is completely complicit in allowing this - honestly, I don't think anyone other than R.F. Kuang could have written this. Her writing style was perfect, with satirical moments that on second thought, make you actually see the true pain and discomfort behind them... I have nothing but praise for this book and this author.

Yellowface is completely unforgettable, and a true work of art.

What could I possibly say about Yellowface that hasn't already been shared on every review platform? June and Athena were rising stars in their schooling, however, Athena was quickly picked up by publishers. Following a string of hit novels, June can't help but be jealous of Athena's success. When Athena dies in front of her, June does what any sane person would do, and steals Athena's new manuscript. Passing it off as her own, June then changes her name and takes new author photos crafting a more ethnically ambiguous persona. However, not everyone believes her lies.
Yellowface is so well written I simply could not put it down, I wanted to find out what idiotic decision June made next. Full of racism and microaggressions, Yellowface is a scathing thriller about the publishing industry from an insider.

Yellowface is an enthralling thriller that explores online culture, the publishing world and the modern landscape of cultural debates about racism, privilege and appropriation.

June Hayward is a mediocre US white writer who has struggled to get any marketing heft behind her recent debut novel. Her friend Athena Liu, who is of East Asian heritage, is in contrast seen as something of a literary darling. We will discover that the two women have history - through the book there's a progressive unveiling of their lives, their histories, their rivalry and most of all, the hidden places of their "friendship". For Athena, it is thought too late as the event that sets everything moving is her sudden and tragic death. This is witnessed by June - who takes the opportunity to steal the first draft of Athena's next book, a harrowing story of Chinese labourers working on the Western Front in the First World War.

June feels she's owed something (exactly why, is one of those discoveries) but she also thinks she can improve the draft and she gradually persuades herself as she does so that it's a joint project, that she's honouring Athena by bringing her last novel to the world as it really should be. First, though, a few things need to change. There's an, actually quite funny, sequence where we begin to see the seeds of June's later downfall as she makes those "improvements" - for example, replacing Chinese names heedless of the cultural context or introducing incongruous elements to the story (and that's even before the publishers get their hands on it).

"June's book" is at first a great success, selling by the cartload and earning her unimagined wealth, but it can only be a matter of time before questions are asked, especially since she's been ambiguously repackaged as "Juniper Song". When it becomes clear that she's white, critiques begin to appear - followed by rumours about who really wrote the novel. The resulting online controversy is of course painfully redolent of several recent literary scandals - you can supply the names and details if you've spent any time hanging around book Twitter - and the moves and countermoves, the attempts at justification and positioning, the consequences, will be very familiar too.
As things got worse and worse, I did have some sympathy for June. What she's done is of course indefensible, but it is also clear that she is very vulnerable - rather alone in the world, and suffering from poor mental health that leaves her ill equipped to cope with her situation: rather she retreats to bed and scrolls in horror through the online rage, unable to turn away. Through all of this, she does though come across as very naive. It's not only that she should have realised that what she was doing was wrong, and how things were likely to go, but she has a complete inability to read the room, as it were. For example, pressed by her publisher for a further work to publish, to demonstrate that she can write for herself and so underpin her credibility as the author of The Last Front, she's out of ideas. Despite the obvious pitfalls, she treks off to Washington's Chinatown and plops herself down in a Chinese restaurant to interrogate the staff about their ideas (after all she's already accumulated so much background on China and Chinese people, she might as well put it to good use, right?)

It's as though June is incapable of learning from what has happened - and indeed she compounds the situation, leading to situations which were actually quite painful to read: relationships destroyed, reputations ruined. But through all this, it's not, in the end, those aspects which get through to June. No, what begins to nag at her is the sense that Athena isn't gone, that she might be trying to get in touch... and of course she's not happy. This is where June really begins to go off the rails, and where the thriller element of the book comes to the fore...

Yellowface is an engaging, entertaining book that dramatises the kind of notorious public debate that seems to be occurring more and more often. In portraying things from the inside, there's room for a degree of nuance - for example Kuang is able to show how despite her celebrity, things were far from rosy for Athena, her heritage pigeonholing her in the eyes of her publishers and dictating her material even when she might want to write about something else. (They're more able to accommodate June, as a white woman, writing about Chinese themes than they do Athena wanting to broaden her range).

If you were thinking that, as there's almost a script for this sort of controversy the book might seem too predictable, then be reassured, Kuang keeps the surprises coming, both rooting what happens in June's, and Athena's, earlier relationship and also in June's current, rather scatty, network of family and friends. The fact that June is rather a heedless person, acting without thinking, produces some positively toe-curling situations (as when she takes it upon herself to mentor an upcoming American-Asian writer), the more so because at times she seems utterly unaware of herself and of how she might be seen by others. (At others, though, she certainly does know what she's about - I think there might be a touch of unreliable narrator in places with the text we read reflecting her self-justications and rationalisations).

A thought provoking and, to me, often eye-opening book with I'd strongly recommend.

honestly i’m really sad this turned out to be my least favorite rf kuang book :( i liked the prose and the writing as always but i just could not connect with any of the characters and the story dragged a lot in my opinion. i got very bored halfway through i had to force myself to finish it.

An amazingly satirical book on the unglamorous and harsh realities of the publishing industry. June was a fabulously chaotic character who made bad choices and had to deal with the consequences but never really learnt her lesson.

Some plot points were predictable and it was slightly difficult to distinguish where the book ended and the author's personal experiences began but other than that, this was a highly recommended book.

This book was genius!
The main character is extremely unlikable but that is what makes this a fun read. June is prejudice, racist and entitled but continuously paints herself out to be the victim.

It’s definitely a character based book with not much going on in terms of plot but it was still enjoyable to watch someone be so delusional.

The trick with this book is that at some points you might find yourself agreeing with June and have to check your own biases. It was also genius of Kuang to not make the Asian main character Athena a saint, she too has problematic behaviours but it was hilarious to watch June try to claim she was not really a minority because she essentially “made it”

Overall I definitely recommend this if you know how to read between the lines and have done the work to fix your own biases otherwise it might go over your head