Yellowface
Yellowface
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • EXCERPT TO NEW NOVEL KATABASIS!
“Hard to put down, harder to forget.” — Stephen King
White lies. Dark humor. 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 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? 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.
Content Warnings: Racism, Death, Cultural Appropriation
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4 Comments
I read Yellowface recently and did not find the subject to be all that interesting. Written for authors interested in getting into the industry, more so. Sheds light on the challenges of their work, however, I did not find the book engaging or interesting. Quite slow.
I agree. It seemed to be about the publishing industry and the perils of social media. It didn’t seem to have much to do with race. I found it pretty boring.
I too am struggling with this book. It is a slow read and I just can’t get into it.
I enjoyed reading yellow face, even though I did not connect with any of the characters and I think that was never the authors intentionIt was a real eye opener into the cutthroat publishing industry and how impactful and hurtful social media can be.