Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Content Tags: Yellowface, Racism, Anxiety, Mental Abuse

Description from Storygraph:

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, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts 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 takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable. 

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I hate this book... in the best possible way. R. F. Kuang did an excellent job at making me fucking despise June/Junie/Juniper. The book was fully from her perspective and all of her justifications are straight out of the Agents of White Supremacy Playbook and White Woman 101 Manual. She was unbearable and the book was a brilliant portrayal of this dynamic by presenting it in this perspective.

I saw a review of this book before I was able to read it and the reviewer said that they enjoyed that both the main characters - June and Athena - were not great characters, so it created an interesting dynamic. But I don't know that I agree with that assessment. The only real perspective or information we get about Athena, since she dies at the beginning, is from June or other third parties. It's not really a fair representation of who Athena really was. The narrator is very untrustworthy since the entire book is her spinning the justification for plagiarism and stealing Athena's manuscript... yet I'm expected to take her word about who Athena was as a person? Or an ex boyfriend? Or a competing author? Or a random book reviewer? Nah. Athena might have been those things or made questionable choices, however public opinion isn't always the truth. However, we see all of June's thoughts and actions throughout and she is verifiably trash.

One common thread that stuck out to me was all of the comments from June about how Athena was rubbing her face in her brilliance or stuck up or overly confident and rude about her success. But... was she actually doing that or was June's jealousy coloring how she interpreted Athena's behaviors? Was it the cultural difference of actual community and friendship compared to the utter lack of community that white people share? (There was one comment from June about how she didn't know what she "offered" to Athena for her to still be friends with her, as if friendship is transactional.)

It was difficult for me to not be angry reading basically the entire book because June was the woooooooooooorst. The writing was brilliant and the message was worth all that anger.

Oh also, the design of the book was equally brilliant. Someone in the comments of a TikTok video about the book pointed out that the book itself is a white hardback with a yellow dust jacket. Clever.

Book Reflection Wrap-up:

Did the book strike you as original?

1000%. This is the first book I've come across that takes on such an important issue and presents it fully through the lens of the oppressor.

What do you think happens to the characters after the book's official ending?

I don't want to spoil the ending, but I think what happens is what always happens. White people continue to profit off the voices, energy, and experiences of those they marginalize and colonize.