This is genius, truly genius. I haven't savored a book in a while and this was fantastic. Kuang tackles themes other authors would not touch with a ten foot pole. From the shallows of twitter, cancel culture, all the way down to the depths of what defines history and who can and should tell stories of the past and present. What does today's author experience look like amid tokenization and cut throat world of publishing? Best book of the year.

I could not put this down! I read it in a train journey and I will definitely pick it up again once published and I receive my hard copy. A smart, insightful, and dark story with an infuriatingly racist main character. The characters are definitely not loveable by any means, and I found myself rooting for the main character’s downfall. It’s definitely a story that makes you think. Highly recommend!

I am a big fan of Rebecca Kuang so I was very excited to be approved this arc. I really enjoyed it! The themes are so incredibly important and I think Kuang does a really good job in bringing to light the pressures of social media and being in the public eye. I realise Juniper was a problematic but I jut couldn't bring myself to dislike her and was constantly rooting for her which I think shows the talent of Kuang.

I always adore R.F. Kuang's writing since it grabs my attention from the start until the end and it keeps me awake. This book doesn't have loveable characters yet I wanted to know what happened to them and just enjoy the words she crafted to be presented here.
Yellowface spoke the reality especially what happens online when there's a hot controversial news nobody knows the truth yet. This book is here to remind you that nobody is 100% saint nor 100% devil, there's always complicated stories and behaviors everyone bears. There's always the "side effect" of every decision we make as an individual or collective. When we have decided this A is the best for the majority of us, there'll be some people feeling left out. The story in this book about writing and publishing world told from a perspective of June/Juniper touches many sensitive topics. The way it's told is putting the readers above the story to witness what will unfold next. However one part of this book sent a chill up my spine as if I was there with the main character.

Yellowface has such an interesting premise. And even though there were a few things that made this quite a slow read, I still enjoyed it.

It feels weird reviewing a book that goes in so much detail about book reviews and gives such an insight into the publishing industry.

It’s dragging in parts and the dark humour just didn’t work for me in parts. I didn’t really see the point of getting so many details about Athena’s original draft. However, the little glimpses into just how far June is ready to go to protect herself are captivating.

I had a stressful time reading Yellowface by R. F. Kuang and gave it an overall rating of 3.75 stars ✨
As a story I would rate it 4 stars - the book is intense, uncomfortable at times, and exposes an aspect of publishing which is usually brushed over and forgotten. The main character is unlikeable (as are most characters in the book) and there is very little sympathy to be had for her, which Kuang writes well. It is hard to put the book down as you watch someone clearly in the wrong keep getting into worse situations as they try to justify it to themselves.

As a reader I'm not drawn to thrillers (though I'm not sure this reads quite like other thrillers) or the limited number of characters (everything is very intimately about June and her decisions; she has only a few friends and spends most of her time reading reviews online) so I'd rate it as 3.5 in terms of personal enjoyment but would still recommend it!

✨ Yellowface is out May 25 2023 ✨

Thanks to Netgalley for an early e-arc for review!

Athena Liu is a brilliant author.
Athena Liu is so successful.
Athena Liu is dead.

Her friend June Hayward, herself a struggling author, witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident. June decides to steal the only copy of Athena's just finished novel and is determined to have it published as her own work. The book is about Chinese labourers during World War I and June has it published under the name Juniper Song....... Will she get away with stealing the words of her one time friend or will her plagiarism come back to haunt her?

I devoured this book within a few hours. The premise is clever and engaging. I was fully immersed in the world of June Hayward to the point where I could feel anxiety in the pit of my stomach at some points. (I don't want to spoil anything!)

The characters in 'Yellowface' are awful people - narcissistic, manipulative and selfish. The only character who could be described as likeable would be Athena's mom but she doesn't appear often enough to have any impact beyond assuaging June's guilt at stealing her friend's work.

Some parts of the story felt a little too unrealistic but overall, it was sharp and thrilling.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Honestly, I love R F Kaung's work. I read Babel last year and was super excited to hear about Yellowface coming out this year.

I finished this book in under 24 hours and struggled to put it down and go to bed - in fact I woke bolt upright at 2am and my mind was already thinking over the parts of the book I'd read the evening before. I think my favourite part of Kuang's writing is that none of these characters are particularly likeable, they seem to sit very firmly in that morally grey area and yet the intertwined stories of the 2 main characters are strangely compelling.

This is a mystery/thriller but I also feel like it's more than that - it's a revealing insight into some of the more toxic behaviours within the publishing industry, especially the level of racism. It also got me thinking about allyship, white feminism and, the notion of ownership - from written works to our own personal experiences. I think this would make a brilliant book club read for adults and probably young adults too! Certainly lots of questions raised and ideas to dissect.

I enjoyed this smart, funny book - but it feels a bit 'meta' to be reviewing it online (not least bc Goodreads reviews get such a mention).

.This started sooooo well. The premise was really cool and I was excited to see where it would go. I think the start was rushed, the middle was slow, and the ending was really weird.

This book gave an interesting insight to the world of publishing, I learnt about the CLC and reminded me why I hate Twitter so much.

The main character is not likeable at all. Felt sorry for her once or twice but these were ‘pre’ The Last Front.

It gets probably a 3.5-3.75 as I did like it and I couldn’t stop reading as I wanted to see what bad thing would happen to June next and I wasn’t disappointed.

Wished the ending was different. I wanted her to publish the ‘truth’ and then everything come crumbling down, rather than Candice tricking her into thinking she was going mad and seeing ghosts and confessing.

I’m sure this will go through another round or two of edits. Sole grammar/spelling issues and a few continuity errors (I felt like time had moved on but everything was ‘2 years ago’ like Geoff moving on from Athena when they had broken up well before she even died and the book had been out for a year or 2 at that point.). Also mentioned ‘Diane’s agent’ when we were talking about Candice near the end. Just minor things

This was a wild ride! I genuinely felt sick to my stomach about the situations the protagonist found herself in. June is obviously a despicable character but I don’t think loving or empathising with the main character is a prerequisite for an enjoyable read. She was very much a ‘love to hate’ character. I loved the insights in to the seemingly cut throat world of publishing and the very raw and real look at the toxic world of social media. I couldn’t put this down, just loved it and will be recommending it widely!

The premise of this story was interesting and looks at issues such as the expecting of majorities to pander to the American audiences. I thought the booked looked at such issues well although I had a sting dislike to the main character. The writing is fast paced and was good to read something different

Really enjoyed this book. Kuang's biggest achievement here is that she makes spending time with such an off putting - and often appalling - narrator so enjoyable. She does this while at the same time we never letting us feel sorry for her. That is an astonishing thing to pull off.

This review was a 5 until the last 50 pages or so when I felt having to read another crisis experienced by June was tedious and repetitious. The final confrontation also left me cold, it felt almost separate to the the story that came before - it didn't feel like a satisfying conclusion to the story I had been invested in.

All in all I will gladly be picking up a copy of Yellowface when it is published and seeking out R.F. Kuang's other work in the mean time.

There’s a lot I could say here. But since I’m keeping this review brief and spoiler free - this was imaginative and super fun. If you’re going into this book thinking you’ll get the poppy war and babel kuang, you won’t. But you’ll still see the same charm and wit shining through nonetheless. I really enjoyed this. I always love it when authors go out of their typical genre and write something fun. This was it. I can’t wait for everyone else to read this.

The best book of 2023? I know it's the first week of the year, but I'm calling it. RF Kuang does the unreliable (and unbearable) narrator flawlessly, it's absolutely sublime.

June Hayward is a published author whose debut novel barely made a ripple. Athena Liu is a literary darling that the publishing world just can't get enough of. They are friends but June thinks that she is as talented as Athena, if not more. All readers want these days are "marginalised stories" and "diverse voices", white women with stories like hers are a dime a dozen, right?

Athena dies in a freak accident while June helplessly stands by, in a rush of adrenaline she nicks Athena's unfinished manuscript from her apartment. A manuscript about Chinese labour migrants in WWI that nobody else knew she was working on. June publishes the book under the racially ambiguous name Juniper Song and becomes the next literary superstar. While riding this great wave of success, she is simultaneously haunted by Athena's ghost in true Edgar Allan Poe fashion.

This is an unsubtle exploration of racism and all its branches, not only at the individual level with June's narration, but also the publishing industry at large. I absolutely loved that most of the events take place in the Twittersphere, highlighting how much of some people live their lives exclusivey online, while the world trods on obliviously. I won't go into more detail because this book tastes better going in blind. And it is scrumptious!

RF Kuang craftfully unpacks a lot in this book, but it never drags or dithers. It is simply, dare I say it, just perfect.

Thank you @netgalley @harpercollins for a review copy of this book. Hardback will be out in May 2023.

#bookstagramuk #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #yellowface #rfkuang #bookstagram

3.5
Out of the three books by Kuang I’ve read, this is my least favourite so far. However, this does not mean I didn’t like it. On the contrary, I found it to be compulsively readable and it only took me two days to finish it. I am not the biggest literary fiction reader, so this might have influenced my enjoyement of the story — even though I want to say that this book does a great job at mixing a lot of different genres, including thriller and horror, with litfic.
Before we dive into the proper review, I want to say that I found the six references to J*KR and her books completely unnecessary. It’s something that bothers me even if done just once, and I really do hope that they are going to cut them out from the final version.
Now, this aside, my favourite thing about the book was definitely how meta it was. I’ve come to discover that meta fiction is something I really resonate with, and it was interesting to read this book as someone who’s starting to work in publishing and has been studying how publishing works for the last five years or so. You can definitely tell that the author has drawn inspiration and knowledge not only from her own experience, but also from that of her fellow authors, and she has painted a pretty comprehensive picture of the industry.
The main character was horrible, but she was supposed to be, and she was really well crafted. She is one of the most unreliable narrators I’ve ever encountered, and I loved how she tried to justify everything she did, and almost made you feel sorry for her for a few seconds at times. Then you realised what she was actually doing and sat there to ponder for a bit. The part about all the Twitter discourse was one of the best instances of this duality, because no one deserves death threats, no matter how awful they are. At the same time, some people deserve to be called out on their behaviour, but how much is too much? I think some readers are going to find this particular section of the book to be boring, but to me it was one of the most engaging and interesting ones, especially as I have been using Twitter for years.
What I feel like was not as strong as the rest of the book, and it’s indeed what made me lower my rating a bit, was the section before the very last pages. I enjoyed immensely the ending itself, but the last forty-ish pages felt a bit off. I said in the beginning that the book did a great job at mixing genres, and I stand by that statement. However, I think that at a very specific point, which I won’t be spoiling, of course, there was something lacking. It is a litfic book, in the end, so I did not expect it to handle all the other genres as well as its main one, however it put me out of the story a little, especially seeing as one reveal was very predictable. I don’t know if the aim was to make it a sort of shock moment, and I don’t want to come across as saying that the “plot twist” was bad, because then again it’s not a thriller or whatever, but personally I would have written something a bit different.
In general, if you erase from your mind the references I mentioned above, and if you don’t care about the predicatability thing, I think you are going to give this book 5 stars, because the discourse it brings out and the issues in publishing it underlines are really deep and meaningful. I would highly recommend reading this book, especially if you are unaware of how publishing works (taking into account the fact that it’s slightly different everywhere in the world, and that every experience has its peculiarity). I am really curious to see what people think once it comes out, because so far the consensus is almost all positive.

*I have tried my best to keep this spoiler free since the book is not out yet*

“The truth is fluid. There is always another way to spin the story; another wrench to throw into the narrative.”

Yellow face follows the story of two very unlikeable and morally grey protagonists. We have June Hayward who has stolen Athina Liu’s manuscript after Athina dies from choking on something rather obscure.

I’m all honesty, this was my first ever R F Kuang book. I had come to know of the author after Babbel.

This book is contemporary fiction + a mystery thriller. The narrative style is truly thrilling and absolutely pulls you in. I was gripped from the first chapter and couldn’t put the book down. It gives a satirical insight into the publishing industry, whilst also delving into the darker side of plagiarism + exploitation of traumas for writing purposes.

I can imagine a certain demographic reading this book and feeling highly uncomfortable as they may be faced with their own biases. I found both characters to be morally grey, but my sympathies are with Athina. June absolutely frustrated me, especially as I could associate her with people I know in real life. There are June’s in every profession. Seeing June constantly reassure herself of her actions was so frustrating because I did just want to slap her to knock some sense into her. The first person present tense prose really made reading this an exhilarating experience. I enjoyed the way ideas of race, trauma and racial ambiguity were explored.

This book was a very interesting insight into the publishing world and how writers exist amongst eachother.

I really enjoyed it overall and was hooked, however I’m giving this 4 stars because of the ending. It felt very unsatisfying to me. I do think this would make such an interesting book club read to discuss and see where people stand and who they sympathise with.

She's only gone and done it again.

I fell for every single trap Rebecca set for me. Early in the book, I even found myself thinking that June was too one-dimensional, an exaggeration, a charicature. I found myself disappointed that there was nothing redeemable about her. Letty (Babel) was sympathetic in comparison. But, as I continued to read, the characterisation of June felt entirely purposeful. June is an utterly contemptible character, and it is important that she is irredeemable. It makes the realisation that you are actively looking for something to compensate for her faults all the more ridiculous.

Yellowface is an exercise in manipulation and necessitates introspection into your own (perhaps unconcious) biases. Yellowface demands that you do the work. Yellowface forces you to address your internalised racism. This book was an education. I was unable to remove myself from this level of reflection in the same way that I was with Babel.

It was also so well-written and gripping that I couldn't stop reading and felt compelled to write a review at 2 in the morning.

*received an ARC*

Yellowface is not typically a book that I would pick up, but I’m absolutely committed to reading anything that R.F. Kuang writes. And I’m glad I started to read it, because once I did, I could not put it down. Yellowface is made to be read in one sitting. The narrative moves quickly and pulls the reader along, although it’s choppiness disengaged me at certain points. It reads like a breathless and unhinged journal entry, the voice is gossipy, cutting and so very insecure.

“She’s jealous. They’re all just jealous; that’s where this vitriol is coming from.”

And that’s the theme that glues the book together, that keeps readers engaged even when you’re disgusted by the characters: the desperate insecurity of the narrator. June Hayward, or Juniper Song, is a character many women of colour will recognize. It’s every friendly white woman who you’ve ever disliked, every white woman who’s ever made you into a villain. But Kuang’s talent is writing complex villains and morally gray characters, which means no one in this novel is truly likeable, but you can’t write anyone off either. June is a thief and a liar, but her justifications ring true. Not in a way that allows the reader to agree with her or absolve her, but at least you can understand the anguish that leads her down her spiral of jealously and victimhood. At its core, this is a book about ownership. Who owns our stories? What do we owe each other? Is Athena a thief? Is June? Is everyone?

“We owe nothing to the dead. Especially when the dead are all thieves and liars too.”

Many reviews of Yellowface have scathingly attributed much of the book’s conflict to Kuang’s personal experiences in the publishing industry and her desire to write off her detractors as jealous and untalented, but that was not my interpretation of the story. Of course, at points, I saw similarities between the fictional The Last Front and Kuang’s Babel, and at one point June’s rewriting of The Last Front seemed eerily similar to many of the bullshit attacks on Babel as too heavy handed in its attack on white people as racist or “unbearably sanctimonious,” but beyond that, June Hayward reads as a personification of the white resentment many feel at the success of “diverse” people. She’s a classic bitter white woman. She has “no intention of becoming a white supremacist barbie,” she’s an ally, she’s liberal… but she knows that she isn’t succeeding in her writing career because she’s a straight white woman from Philadelphia.
This book is probably as far from Babel as you can get, but it shows Kuang’s flexibility as a writer to switch tones so deftly. I’m going to end this with one of my favourite lines from the book:

“But the living are burdened with bodies. They make shadows, footprints.”

3.5 stars. This writing style reminded me of Ottessa Moshfegh. With an unreliable character. at some points you don't know whether you're supposed to agree with her outrage at her treatment by the publishing industry or not.