Well, I don't know what I was expecting from this book. I always loved the concept, but wondered how Kuang would be able to pull off such a topic in a believable way. And she does it almost flawlessly.

Yellowface explores a few things. Authenticity in writing, racism in the publishing industry, publishing as a whole, plagiarism, online bullying, the twitter author community, and more. If you are at all into books about authors and writers, this book will be right up your alley.

I loved how this book portrayed the current state of publishing in such an honest light. I could tell some of these came from personal experience and recent events that have happened in publishing, and that made this book feel so authentic and real.

June is a white author and when tragedy strikes and her successful writer friend Athena dies she takes Athena's unpublished manuscript as her own. Not only is this stealing, but it opens a whole other can of worms. Because Athena is Chinese, and her book is about the forgotten Chinese soldiers who fought alongside allied armies and were badly mistreated by them.

The book becomes a huge success and garners a lot of praise, but also criticism. People start questioning whether June, as a white woman, has the right to tell this story. She's always quick to defend herself, but any defence is almost laughable to the reader because we know that, in fact, a white writer could not have written this book and done it justice.

I went into this book expecting to outright hate June. What she does is terrible and unforgivable, right? Well, what Kuang does so cleverly is have June absolutely convinced that she did a good thing. She took a rough first draft of a book her friend wrote before she died before anyone could see it. She edited it, rewrote parts, made it a completed novel and turned it into a book that thousands would read.

In her mind, she's done Athena a good service. And because this book is told from June's perspective, her delusion and audacity seeps through the writing, to the point where I was at times convinced I should be feeling sympathy for her.

Yellowface was so nearly perfect for me, but I found I didn't like how Athena's mother was written. I felt she was a little too passive, especially when she was holding the ammunition that could have blown June's cover to smithereens.

Other than that, this book is expertly written from beginning to end. Kaung absolutely hit the nail on the head with this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang was an interesting read. It is a book about female friendships and rivalry with a look into writing, producing and putting your writing out into the world plus the good and bad that comes with this.

The characters are not particularly likeable, however, that makes the book enjoyable. There’s a degree of wanting the main character to work everything out and get away with things whilst also being like JUST WRITE YOUR OWN BOOK.

This is a story of identity, rivalry, writing and it has a real breaking the fourth wall feel to it — telling us everything about the industry that makes the lucky individuals the rich ones.

I really liked the book, I have never read something alike!
A book between the genres with tension, insights into the book industry and its chances and problems and the struggles and problems authors may to face.

Because of how super hyped Yellowface has been, my expectations were very high when I started reading it. Happily, I can confirm it more than met those sky high expectations. Yellowface is sharp, uncomfortable, smart, compulsively readable and spectacularly incisive. I was glued to the story from start to finish, darkly fascinated by the audacity and sheer lack of self awareness in main character, June. She is not likeable in the slightest, and yet, she is incredibly compelling in the sense that, as a reader, you won’t be able to look away – fascinated by her justifications for what she has done. Yellowface looks at cultural appropriation, white privilege, ownership, cancel culture and jealousy with a steely wit that is at times darkly funny and at others, harsh and unflinching. It is supremely well written with a reassuring confidence that makes it a complete joy to sink into and be swept away by. Rarely do hyped books exceed my expectations for them, but Yellowface one hundred percent did. Highly recommend putting it on your TBR if you haven’t read it yet!

This was really well written - the narrative was great! I loved the voice but the plot didn’t have me in a headlock like I wanted it to. I have this 3.5/5 stars - I’d love to read more from RF Kuang but this left me wanting just a bit more from the pages.

This book was so enjoyable to read, with it's fascinating plot and sassy writing style. It has such an inventive storyline - I know I've certainly never read a book about writing a book, and nothing with such great levels of deception, whilst also covering important topics like cultural appropriation. I felt immersed in all the situations posed in the book; it managed to make me feel the emotions of the main character, even though she made many serious mistakes and questionable decisions! The book covers important moral dilemmas, such a greed and guilt, in an exciting manner. I have recommended this book to my friends who are interested in language and story-writing, and I think it's a great read for those who, when they are reading, find themselves interested in the process of publishing book, as well as of those who solely read for escapism or just pick up a book every now and then.

Another fascinating read from Kuang that will have you questioning notions on ethics when June finds herself stealing the words of Athena Lui after an horrendous accident. She reworks the novel and releases it as Juniper Song. The decision creates an unsettling tension that continues throughout the book. Questions about race, racism and cultural appropriation arise which makes for great discussions. #yellowface #rebeccafkuang #netgalley

An extremely readable novel about Juniper Song, who steals her dead friend Athena Liu’s manuscript and passes it off as her own. Song is an unlikeable, unreliable and at times unbelievable narrator – with the effect of distancing the reader from the sequence of events that rapidly develop.

Yellowface lives up to all the hype. It's an incredibly written book - unsurprising from R.F. Kuang - and I read it in one sitting because I couldn't bear to look away. At no point could I guess what would happen next. I love the fact that because of the unreliable narrator POV, at moments I'd find myself having a moment of fear that June would get caught - before remembering that's exactly what I did want! It made for a really emotive reading experience as I was constantly torn between what I wanted and who I was supporting - leaving me ultimately heartbroken for Athena more than anything else. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in contemporary fiction or thrillers - and anyone else should give it a try too.

Thank you to netgalley for giving me an e-arc copy in exchange for an honest review (I am sorry it took this long to get to) This book was amazing. I have never read Kuang's works before but I do own many of them. The satire in this book was perfect. June really saw nothing wrong with anything that she was doing and continued to try to justify her actions throughout the book. I do believe that this book does open the conversation about the publishing industry and how complicated it is for authors to succeed and not be put into a box. I would 100% recommend this to others.

I know a lot of people loved this one, and I know the point was satire, but I HATED the main character so much, I just couldn’t see past it. Maybe satire books are not for me.

So many delicious and horrifying accurate portrayals of the worst inclinations of the publishing industry and its participants. The main character is undoubtedly a sociopath, and not all of the industry is like this, thank god, but sometimes it is, and Kuang depicts these systems with glee and delight and comedy to show how paying lip service to diversity creates a quagmire that sucks in even those with the best and most noble intentions.
If you aren’t intimately acquainted with the publishing industry, this is still a ripping yarn about talent, ego, and social media mobs and their pilloried sacrifices.

This was my first time reading a book from the author but I am delighted to say I thoroughly enjoyed the story and I look forward to reading more books from the writer in the future

Yellowface is a wild ride of a book - and I enjoyed every second of it. I loved the fact that there was an unlikable main character, she was SO out of touch with reality and completely delusional and I also found it super interesting to read about the publishing industry. I think this book is supposed to be satire in some way, but I also believe that some scenes showed the reality of certain aspects of publishing a book. I found myself being extremely annoyed by the main character and having to roll my eyes, and some scenes were very uncomfortable to read - as they should be. R. F. Kuang is so good at evoking emotions in the reader and she really never dissapoints! I am so excited and ready to read every single thing she ever publishes.

As usual, RF Kuang never fails to serve with any of her releases. Although this is a step back from her usual fantasy books, it is just as mesmerising and addicting as any of her other books. Yellowface is a deliciously scrumptious novel which deep dives into the publishing industry giving us a view of the good and the bad. Reading this is like reading from Kuang's POV, we are showered with the prejudices, discriminations and small but not insignificant microagressions one might face when working in the publishing industry. Our main character is someone who is struggling but the way she handles failure and the success of others as well whilst spiralling out of control makes this an intriguing read.

A 4.5 star read, it was definitely interesting reading a contemporary / thriller from Rf Kuang but I would definitely LOVE to read more. Although not yet to poppy war/ babel standards, it is nonetheless one incredibly amazing book !
Thank you thank you thank you net galley for an ARC of this book despite the late review hehe

I have The Poppy War and Babel on my shelves waiting to be read but I’m a little intimidated to start them so Yellowface seemed like the perfect introduction to R.F Kuang’s writing and I wasn’t disappointed.

I actually went between reading the physical copy I own and listening to the audiobook (which I really enjoyed) when I was busy. It pretty much had me hooked from the first chapter. I throughly enjoyed the writing and the plot. There weren’t any likeable characters, but that was the point, although at one point I did start to feel a tiny bit sorry for Juniper but that quickly passed.

My only slight negative was the ending. As I said I was hooked throughout but the ending was a bit of an anticlimax for me, I actually said to myself ‘was that it’. So for that reason I’m leaning between 3.5-4 stars for my rating.

Yellowface is a book I wish I'd read so much sooner than I have - mostly due to book tours, which I'm now cutting back on to read more books I've already got and never get the chance to read.
We follow June, who's not had the breakthrough into the publishing world that she dreamed of having with her first novel. When an accident happens and she sees the opportunity to draft someone else's work into becoming that of her own, she jumps on it. June is white, and the author she plagiarises is Chinese American. But although June takes off into the publishing world with this stolen book, not everyone believes she's written it and after a class with someone on her team, she ends up landing herself in one situation after another. If this was a film, I'd have been peeping between my fingers at certain scenes, but because it was a book, I was shouting 'No. Don't do it', all the way through, then holding my breath for the unfolding of the fallout from her decisions and choices.
I loved the use of social media within this story too which made it that more believable and on point with the reactions of others, how opinions differ and people take sides too. I'm also very intrigued now about the publishing industry as a whole from some very interesting information and issues raised within this book.

I honestly don't know why it took me so long to read this book. Maybe I was afraid it wouldn't live up to expectations. It was absolutely amazing. I know a lot of people didn't like this book as the protagonist was unlikeable but that's the point. Really can't wait to read more from the author.

Yellowface is rather different for R F Kuang, who has previously only written fantasy books, and is now trying her hand at a sort of literary thriller. I've read both The Poppy War trilogy and Babel in the past, and would highly recommend both of those books.

Now onto Yellowface. It has the exact commentary that one would expect given how Kuang has previously portrayed topics like war and colonialism. Some may critique her depictions for being too on the nose, but in my opinion it does what it needs to do while leaving some things up for interpretation by the reader. I don't always mind when authors hold my hand to guide me through the mindfield that analysing books can be -- as long as they let me go eventually. She seems to make a habit of writing about morally gray characters -- although June in this book should fall into the "fully detestable" category -- and I enjoy it every time. There's something fascinating about watching a train wreck, and Yellowface pulls that whole idea and crafts a critique on the publishing industry around it. I was very compelled to keep going, and once I passed the 50% mark, I couldn't stop.

Would definitely recommend.

Really fantastic book, with an interesting premise and gripping writing style. And an amazing cover!