Yellowface by R. F. Kuang (Review)

Yellowface by R. F. Huang

Blurb

White lies. Dark humour. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel. 

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese labourers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

Review

This is another book that I bought because of the hype I saw on social media and the blogging world but surprisingly it did not disappoint like so many of these hyped books usually do. To be honest I am surprised I decided to read this as I really struggled with Babel but I am so pleased I decided to pick it up and give it a read. 

I really enjoyed this book and found it really interesting especially all the information regarding the world of publishing. Yellowface really gets to grips with the world of publishing and the question of authenticity. The book features around June Hayward, a struggling writer who has so far spent her life in the shadow of the author Athena Liu. Athena has everything that June wants, she is a successful author who has sold millions of books and is known worldwide. June has managed to publish one book that barely sold and nobody has heard of. June and Athena do have a form of friendship though and after a night out goes wrong June steals Athena’s latest manuscript and edits it so she can palm it off as her own work. 

From the moment June makes that decision to steal and claim Athena’s work as her own she also has to protect herself and constantly keep the lie from being found out. Her publisher rebrands her as Juniper Song and makes her publicity shot seem very ambiguous and all this June allows. June argues her book is a story that needs be told so why can’t she tell it even if it isn’t her past. However, there a lot of people who disagree with this. 

There were so many times during this book that I wanted to shake June and tell her to stop digging the hole deeper and deeper and to come clean but it was fascinating to see just how far June would go to be successful, to get out of Athena’s shadow and make a name for herself. 

I really liked the character of June and her first person narrative and I loved seeing her character develop, devolve and develop again. This book was superbly written and a joy to read and I give it 4 out of 5 Dragons. 

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Purchase Links

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About the author

Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, translator, and award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy and Babel: An Arcane History, among others. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.

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