What is Yellowface About?
Authors Juniper Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena is a literary darling while June is a 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, stealing Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers 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? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.
But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
My Honest Review
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was my very first R.F. Kuang novel, and honestly? I don’t know what took me so long. Yellowface was one of those books where you spend the entire time absolutely furious and also completely unable to stop listening. I wanted this character to fail so badly, and that’s how I knew the writing was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.
I’ve lived in China twice, and while I’m not an expert in China, I deeply love the culture and the people there. Because of that, this book hit hard. The way Kuang captures white entitlement, delusion, and the need to ride the coattails of someone else’s success—especially in Asian spaces—was painfully accurate. The main character made me angry in a very specific, gut-level way. She enters these spaces without authenticity, empathy, or love, and just takes and takes and takes. Listening to her justify what she’s doing to herself was both infuriating and well-capturing.
I listened to this on Audible, and it was such a fast, gripping experience. The narration was excellent, and I found myself just burning through it. And the ending? Incredible. The level of delusion was so strong that even after everything fell apart, she still believed she deserved it all. That commitment to the character’s mindset was honestly brilliant.
I loved this book. Like, loooooved it. I will absolutely be reading everything else Kuang has written. Babel and Katabasis are already on my list and I can’t wait.
