I think Yellowface left me more confused and baffled than anything else. I genuinely do not know where I stand on it.

Firstly, I would read RFK's grocery list. I would read three words jotted down on a napkin, so long as they were hers. I would read her middle school poetry and do it happily. When I read The Poppy War, I went so entirely feral I accidentally drew blood in my arm-flailing, mind-losing reaction. When I read Yellowface, I was just confused.

The book, as it's been pointed out a million times already, is over the top meta. Probably heavy-handedly meta. It references The Untamed and TikTok and specific pitch events on Twitter. And by God, does it talk about Twitter a lot. I understand there's a large book community on Twitter, but the entire middle section just going on and on about Twitter for pages at a time was the point where I almost put the book down entirely.

But RFK also does some really interesting things. The subject matter, for one, is deeply, incredibly interesting. I've never read about a character having a negative experience within the publishing industry, and I could see how this book might make waves among her colleagues and potentially (apparently) directly point at experiences she's had. RFK is also the master of morally grey (and purposefully unlikeable) protagonists. June and Athena were SO unlikeable! I disliked both of them mere pages in, and by the time they were calling slam poets not "real" poets, I was ready to crucify both of them - but that's somewhere RFK excels. She can write an unlikeable character who's still relatable, who you still find yourself rooting for nonetheless.

And I commend her for trying something outside her wheelhouse. I just don't know if it landed right or if I, as a white reader, am not going to get all of the complexities of this narrative. Was it too heavy-handed or am I just lacking awareness? I have no idea.

In all, I think it was fine. It wasn't what I was expecting and I would not, by any means, call it funny - but I think it did exactly what RFK wanted it to. She's written a book that makes me feel like I'm taking part on some weird, meta level, for writing a Goodreads review. I love the premise, I enjoyed the ending (although the climax felt almost cartoonish), and I wish the unravelling had been brought in stronger, earlier, but otherwise, it's fine. It's okay. It's good.

I think I'll stick to her fantasy stories in future, though.

Yellowface is a novel about literary plagarism, diversity, and the cutthroat world of publishing, as a white woman steals the unfinished manuscript of her dead friend. Juniper 'June' Hayward is a struggling writer jealous of the success of her sometime friend Athena Liu, who she went to college with. Athena is the next big thing, with a Netflix deal and hype for whatever she writes next, but she's very secretive. When June is there when Athena dies after showing her the manuscript of her next novel, June takes the book and makes it her own. But when she finds runaway success, she is plagued by people questioning if she should have written that story and if it is even her book in the first place.

From the summary, you immediately know this is going to be a book about literary drama, and as the book at points highlights, this will particularly appeal to the minority who do spend a lot of time on Twitter caring about said drama. The book is from June's perspective, which is a clever way to give the reader a perspective that is often unlikeable, and Kuang builds up an almost parodic portrait of her, with a whole host of "red flags" that give the reader insight into June's attitudes about things. This means that the book is really not for people who want a likeable voice or character in a novel, and the satirical tone makes it not really about real characters at all, but figures that can stand in for ideas and viewpoints.

The plot is as you'd expect: success, and then things get complicated and messy. There's lots about both the realities of publishing (snide comments about book boxes and giveaways) and then about book Twitter drama and how a lot of this drama doesn't have any proof (even if, like in the book, it is actually true). The ending was a little inconclusive and lacked a hard-hitting final image that would underline the satirical point, but I did like that it kept things messy.

The whole book feels full of reality, but also is painted as an exaggerated version of what it is attacking (presumably most authors called out for things haven't actually stolen whole manuscripts off dead people), and I liked the outrageousness of it and how meta it felt, though it will be interesting to see if that works for people who aren't interested in internet drama about books. I've seen reviews pointing out that it is too close to the author and real drama, but as I've not read any of Kuang's other books or have seen this drama, I can't comment on that. It's always going to be a book that perhaps hits differently for people depending on whether you know much about book drama or not and if you know much about Kuang's own online persona and other books, and that may bring different readings of it.

Yellowface takes the world of online book drama and turns it into a darkly comic satire that reflects a lot of reality. It will probably divide people, particularly as it is full of in-jokes and unlikeable characters, but it is a fun rollercoaster of a book.

June is an unsuccessful author who is bitterly living in the shadow of her old college friend Athena Liu. She is pretty much everything June wishes she could be careerwise.
After celebratory drinks with June, Athena suffers a terrible fatal accident in her apartment. While waiting for paramedics, June does the unthinkable and steals Athenas latest work. After a few tweaks June passes it off as her own.

What follows is a long anxiety inducing journey of June being pretty racist and just a terrible person, the people on her team being generally not very nice, some awful twitter encounters, and just a pretty negative portrayal of the literary world.

I personally found the whole thing very uncomfortable because you knew there's no way she'd get away with it, it will always be exposed. So I just felt really on edge until it finally happens.

June is just not a very likeable person. She is very defensive and unapologetic. Even when she can see that the things she does are totally wrong, she still justifies it to herself and feel very sorry for herself. Even to the very end. This, however, made her quite an interesting character to read about.

It was overall enjoyable and memorable.

(posted on goodreads and bookstagram)

Wow.

I've not read anything of Kuang before, so perhaps this is why I loved the book even if it is not of her 'typical' style of writing - this is a fantastically written novel with a very intriguing subject matter. One that is very delicate, and I appreciate how well the author handled it.

The narrative perspective is one that I'm noticing more and more in books around me, one that is cynical and spiteful, and one that comes from an unhappy woman who will do anything to gain validation (in whatever form). I found it impossible to like June Hayward and I don't think she's meant to be likeable, but you do see where her vulnerabilities come from. I enjoyed how Kuang put a lot of effort into understanding the headspace of someone like June, who is a type of racist that is difficult to pinpoint because their racism is covert, well hidden behind a 'woke' front, and that heavily stems from a type of envy towards East Asian women. I have noticed this type of racism from white women toward east Asian women online, such as through 'Asian fishing' aesthetics; it is fetishistic in branding EA women as 'natually' more attractive and desireable, and being envious of that and feeling like they are at a disadvantage for being white. It's not like the stereotypical racist who yells slurs and doesn't want racial groups to mix, but it is still racism. It is the same with people who are against employment schemes for BAME groups because they feel that their whiteness has denied them something.

Athena herself is not perfect, and I was obsessed with the dynamic between her and June. Both writers, one significantly more successful, and with a lot of jealously between them. But they are more similar than you would think since Athena also struggled with finding original ideas due to her tendency to take stories from other people, like June's kind-of-rape incident in college. It added a degree of sympathy for June, almost making you forget how terrible she is.

Lastly, I loved the commentary on the publishing industry. How bestsellers are not born from the author's talent but an experienced team of editors and marketers; how 'woke' books are put out to grab an audience even when there are ethical issues behind those works; how difficult it is for authors with a shitty debut to make end's meet - all of it.

Overall, a very self-reflexive novel and one that I enjoyed a lot.

I’m an Asian woman, and I work in publishing. I don’t know how I can be expected to give Yellowface anything less than a glowing, 5-star review.

Fresh off the high of finishing Babel, I think I was suitably primed to feel every emotion Kuang was trying to evoke. While Babel brewed rage, Yellowface incited a glee that I almost (almost!) feel guilty about. It was bold, it was meta, it was a book that only RFK could have pulled off. As another reviewer said, I felt like I was joining in on an inside joke.

While Yellowface and Babel both explore strong themes around race, culture, and colonialism. Babel is clear and direct - you can point to the bad guys and empathise with protagonists. You know what side you’re on, which is helped by the historical setting. But Yellowface, oh god, it makes you work for it. Yellowface really challenged the way I think about race and political correctness when it comes to cultural appropriation. I think we’re all used to a certain narrative, about who can and can’t say what, and anything beyond this melts into a pool of grey that nobody wants to touch with a ten foot pole. Kuang took that pole, and mixed the grey goop into a tasty, discursive soup that I took great joy in dipping bits of toasted bread into.

I’ve never wanted to witness the downfall of a protagonist as much as I craved the moment everything would unravel for June. I was hungry for it. I turned every page hoping the sudden, catastrophic violence I consider signature to Kuang’s work was right around the corner. I do admit to a slight twinge of disappointment about how the book ended. But of course, no spoilers. You’ll have to read the book.

I’m very, very morbidly excited to read the reviews after Yellowface is published.

Absolutely fantastic read. A great idea for a story and so well written. Really struggled to put it down at any point, found myself sneaking away at work to read more of it!

Spoilers Ahead!

Juniper is such a well crafted main character. I seem to switch continuously between sympathising and hating her. Just as she herself seems to switch between feeling sorry for herself and hating herself for her actions. She continuously tries to justify her actions and her behaviour to herself and to the reader, but you can tell that deep down she knows she is in the wrong. However she keeps spiralling downwards and finds herself far too deep in to see any way out rather than doubling and tripling down.

The way the story approaches racism in media is really well done, outside of the obvious overall premise of the story, there are smaller nods to it too. The meeting with a production company that does it's best to try and whitewash the book for it's movie adaptation, the intentional decisions by Juniper to use an Asian sounding pen name and take ethnically ambiguous author photos, and the pigeon holing of ethnic minorities all being key examples.

I also really enjoy all of the nods to the publishing industry in general, the talks of book tours, signings, readings, and panels. Special book box editions with sprayed edges, book clubs, Goodreads reviews and Buzzfeed lists. The social media hype and buzz when things are going well, and the destruction and tearing apart that occurs when things are going badly!

The book also takes a look at the modern obsession with social media and popularity. The need for likes and interactions to provide a daily dose of serotonin, and not being able to face a future without it once it has been experienced. The hatred that people can spew from anonymous profiles sat behind a screen without any regard for the damage it can do to a real life human being on the receiving end of it. Social media can be a tool for good, it can bring the world closer together. However it can also bring out the very worst in people as seen here. Whether Juniper was in the wrong is not up for debate, however the treatment she receives does make you sit back and think about how we all use social media.

R F Kuang is a phenomenal writer and is as close to a 'must read' author as there is in my opinion. I don't want to say it is impossible to not enjoy her writing, but it is highly improbable! I have been highly anticipating the release of her next novel Babel for a long time now, but at this point I think I would real just about anything she puts out!

Okay, okay…

From the moment I read Kuang’s The Poppy War trilogy, I knew she was a special author. I knew that she crafts her stories so cleverly that those feel so gigantic in ambition. I think R.F. Kuang is the kind of author that just does it. Yellowface is a satire book about an industry filled with sabotages and lies.

To really start off, let me give a brief summary about this book. Yellowface is about two friends, Athena and June. Both were at the same college, both became authors but one of them succeeded and the other one failed miserably. Athena is a half American half Chinese author whose books have been adored by the readers, she IS the moment. June is a white author who can’t even have a proper release of her paperback. One night while the girls are together, Athena dies by a freak accident and June finds herself stealing Athena’s manuscript and later publishing this masterpiece under her own name. And then the story takes off into critiquing many bad things in the industry of publishing. So y’all, this plot was soooo meta. I’ve never read a novel focussing so much on writing, reading and reviewing like this. It felt almost as if I was falling into this dimension of meta that I literally wouldn’t have been shocked if I saw my name on the page. That meta aspect was done immaculately, I loved reading about reviewers reading and reviewing. But there is one thing that overachieves the meta aspect and that is simply the writing. This plot is so dramatic, scandalous and satiric and so was the writing. If you’ve read my reviews about The Poppy War trilogy then you know that I really enjoyed Kuang’s writing as I found it simplistic and not trying to be too colourful. That happened with Yellowface as well but add in the taste of dramatic dialogue and funny satiric descriptions. It was such a good mix, I was flying through the pages while appreciating every single word used. And here comes a little problem I had; I couldn’t for the life of me separate June’s voice (this book is written in June’s pov) from Kuang’s. It felt sometimes as if Kuang was forgetting herself and letting too much of her drip in the pages of the book. Even some words used in the dialogue were getting used many times by the author herself in interviews. And that is not necessarily a problem, but I just wanted to see the complete June and her thoughts and be able to separate her from the author.

When it comes to the plot I found it sometimes really good and engaging but some other times boring and too slow. The pace was definitely not consistent on this one. It was like sitting in a train and waiting for that one sprint but the train kept on slowing down and then that one moment when all you want is for the train not to sprint, you hit your head so hard against the windows by how fast the train sprinted. And that definitely affected the plot for me, it was at times interesting and so so good but at times nothing was happening and I was trying to skip parts. Had it not been for the good writing, I would’ve definitely have skipped some paragraphs. By the way what was it with those big plot holes? This book was filled with many plot holes that I found to be irritating (uhm uhm looking at you Patricia Liu). I was waiting for something to happen to give those holes some clarity but nothing. Those were just plot holes and I had to just accept it but I couldn’t. Those holes were big and I couldn’t just ignore them, so that definitely weakened this plot for me.

But the biggest problem I had was the ending. Don’t worry I will give no spoilers. When I had read The Poppy War trilogy, I adored that ending, so good and professional. But this ending was not it. It was so underwhelming, boring and weak. I expected so much from the ending after reading ‘the climax’ which also felt weak and cartoonish, especially the dialogue which was not on the same level as the plot before that climax. I had thought so much is happening, this is bad, surely Kuang will blow me out with a perfect ending. I guess I was blown out … by disappointment. Such a plot should have a gut punching ending that leaves the readers shocked and wanting to know more, but after reading that ending I genuinely don’t want to know more.

Let’s look at other positives; June as a character was actually nicely written. Apart from not being to separate her voice from Kuang’s, I was hating June more and more. She is sick in the head, she wines and wines, she would find an excuse for her faults within two seconds. Yet I found myself wanting her to be safe?! Whenever she would be almost revealed to be a selfish sick thief, I would be hoping for her to find a way out. Why?! Maybe because I wanted this book to go on and on or maybe because Kuang has done an excellent job at making me root for a character that was exactly what I would hate at the book industry. June is definitely a character I would not forget easily. And then there is the beloved Athena Liu. I have no idea who Athena really was. The book is written in June’s pov and she is weirdly jealous of Athena so we shouldn’t believe any word she says about her, right?

As a last note I would love to read the books written in Yellowface as they all sound fun and interesting. After reading and thinking about this book for a long time, I’ll give it three stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I would love to thank NetGalley and Harper Voyagers for granting me this e-arc. So thanks!

It’s very well written and definitely worth a read. Wow!!! Started this book and could not stop reading it until I'd finished!! Every time I thought I had things sussed, along came another surprise!! So rare for a story to catch me out, so well done to the author.

YELLOWFACE is a tense, taut and merciless thriller.

When Juniper’s talented, successful frenemy Athena Liu dies in front of her one night right after showing Junie her new manuscript, Junie does the most logical thing she can think of: she steals the only copy and passes Athena’s work off as her own. What could possibly go wrong?

I read YELLOWFACE over the course of a day, squirming – and occasionally, actually shrieking out loud – at some of the things Juniper said and did (no spoilers, but the micro aggressions are strong in this one). Kuang has expert control over every single syllable in this book. There are no caricatures of villains, only the real truth of the story in contrast with what Juniper believes is true. I urge fellow white people in publishing (and white people in general) to read this one: not only is it just brilliant, but it is a mirror to the white privilege that permeates the entire book industry.

Thank you to @harpercollinsuk for this Netgalley ARC!

[social media post link to come]

Thank you Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for honest review!
Yellowface was a book that pulled me in from the first page and I couldn’t stop thinking about until the very last. And then for a few more days. It was also my first read of Kuang’s books, and I’m very excited to see how different style the rest will be, and after looking at other reviews I think this might be why I liked the book so much.
I see a lot of comments how this book is basically twitter drama and they could as well open their TL, but… isn’t that the point? Yellowface feels fresh, feels on time, feels real. This book isn’t for everyone, because not everyone will like how deep into industry and everyday-writer issues it reaches, but I loved all the details of it. The characters might not be going through some deep changes or complicated arcs, but it just brings them closer to reality.
From the first chapter I knew that this will be one of my new favourites and as soon as it comes out, it will have to land on my shelf.

Was really excited to read this because I'd seen some fantastic early reviews. I also love books set in the publishing world as I have friends working in Publishing so always think it gives me a different perspective and things to quiz them on if it's really like that.

I raced through this book finishing it in a day, it was just so addictive to know what's going to happen next! I loved and hated the characters and thought that was so cleverly done.

Another reason I adored this book was because it reminded me so much of Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne who is one of my all time favorite authors! Adored it.

This book has a very interesting premise and was a quick read. There were no likeable characters and the character arcs were very flat but I felt that lent itself to the storytelling. This was quite an uncomfortable read highlighting issues with tokenism in the publishing industry and the lengths people will go to to try and convince themselves and others their poor actions are acceptable. I didn’t mind the mid section being mostly repetitive twitter discourse, I think it was necessary to highlight the cyclical nature of internet drama that snowballs from one small action but inevitably doesn’t change the root problem. Overall I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of RFK’s work.

'Yellowface' is a scathing look at the publishing industry, and how easily art can be commodified and misused. The plot follows Juniper Song, as she publishes- and faces the consequences of- her dead "friend's" book.

Overall, I really enjoyed the novel- it was gripping and hooking. I read the whole thing in a single sitting. There's no doubt that the book is engaging, and RFK's discussions of race, rights and representation shines through, as it does in most of her novels.

However, I do feel that the writing style is extremely different from what I expect of this author (which is likely due to the change in genre). The style is by no means bad, but I would argue the writing style here lacks the originality that characterises most of RFK's work. I also think some of the structure is jarring, but that's likely due to the fact I've read a fairly early ARC.

Despite my qualms with these aspects, I overall thoroughly enjoyed reading it (and certainly found it much quicker to get through than her other novels). The characterisation for main characters is strong and I feel her characters as a whole serve as vessels for the message she intends them to. The plot is hooking, and her social commentary largely convincing. A very good read!

Rebecca F Kuang has established herself, within a short span of time, as one of world’s top Fantasy authors and I am thankful to HarperCollins, UK for the e-ARC of her first Literary thriller—Yellowface—through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.

Juniper Song Hayward’s dream of becoming a successful writer is going nowhere, not the least because she is a basic white girl with nothing unusual in her blood or background. Athena Liu, on the other hand, is everything that June isn’t: she is as diverse, as attractive and as exotic as they come, and a terrific writer to boot—a surefire bestseller. June and Athena are friends for quite some time, albeit not too close, probably due to the unbridgeable contrast between the two. One fateful night, they both are alone in Athena’s posh home—June’s first visit there—when Athena dies, in the silliest of all the ways to die. Having just read an impressive sample of the first draft of Athena’s latest magnum opus only a few minutes ago, when the author was well and alive, June carries it home in the chaos that follows Athena’s death. As she reads it, June convinces herself to appropriate the novel for herself, and for once, live Athena’s life—a life she could only look on with jealousy so far. Circumstances such as Athena’s reticence about her works in progress make sure that the duplicity stays hidden and soon, June becomes the most sought after, rising young star in the literary firmament.

But fame is fickle—more so when it is measured by the number of followers one has on the unreliable, unpredictable platforms of social media. It does not take long for the faceless populace hiding behind social media handles to throw someone from the loftiest of pedestals to the rubbish heap and, exacerbated by her own guilt, June’s life becomes a living hell where she begins to question her own sanity. But she can’t let go of this new life—even with all its evils—and gets herself more and more entrapped in the quagmire. Will June be destroyed by the unrelenting, multi-pronged attacks or will she be able to control the narrative and come out on top?

Through the unreliable, oftentimes annoying voice of June, Kuang narrates the story of the American publishing industry: how bestsellers are manufactured and how big a part social media—purportedly ignored by all writers—plays in making or breaking a book, and its author. The plot moves forward at a nice pace as June unwraps layer after layer of her relation with Athena and her own past all the while explaining all that it takes to write, sell and publish a book, and promote it, in a darkly humorous, satirical vein. Neither June nor Athena come across as likeable characters—perhaps as intended by Kuang—and the novel isn’t any worse for it. In fact, June’s eloquent rationalisation of her actions, through which she tries to manipulate everyone around her including the reader, is as amusing as it is infuriating. Yellowface also doubles as a scathing commentary on the Americans’ obsession with the exotic and the wickedness of social media that is capable of driving someone to the extremes. As much as I liked June’s monologue, it does get a tad repetitive at places.

But there are more things to like than dislike with Yellowface and I enjoyed it a lot. Having read this—my first taste of Kuang’s writing—I am now eager to get to her fantasy bestsellers as soon as possible.

It was entertaining but not exactly engaging. I like Kuang's writing, self absorbed as it is. I had fun while reading but I never wanted to pick it up again once I'd put it down so it was also a chore to finish.

The second half especially feels like a drag where it gets repetitive and the story almost stops every so often just for the main character, whose name I've already forgotten, to wax poetic about the publishing industry and it just got to be too much. The ending was almost comical and left me unsatisfied.

I understand the project and I appreciate what it was trying to do but it would've worked better for me had it been a tad more subtle. That being said, reading this has made me realise that while I love reading I simply don't care enough about the publishing industry to read a whole book about it. At least not when its a published version of the latest twitter drama.

The more I sit with Yellowface, the more I don't like it. Does that mean it's a bad book? No but I feel like Yellowface wanted to do two different things at once: Be a Culture Critic Novel about racism in publishing — mainly the rhetoric of diversity sells, who can write whose story, ownvoices, diasporans exploiting homecountry trauma for success, etc (but we can sum whole thing up witb REPRESENTATION)—and also a Character Study into this racist white woman who thinks she's a progressive. It achieves neither.

Before I critique further, a disclaimer is that I'm a huge fan of the author, especially her The Poppy War trilogy, so I obviously had high expectations when diving into this.

Lets see what went well.

- Yellowface is a block hammer that smashes against the rainbow/diversity capitalism deeply embedded publishing industry culture. It explores how publishing fosters diversity sells rhetoric while leaving its marginalised authors without any safeguards, its willingness and eagerness to embrace whitewashed narratives of history and culture of BIPOC by white people over choosing marginalised voices, and the whole PR game. No one can misinterpret this novel.

- The prose is much simpler and accessible than most litfic, swiftly flowing to match the relentless pace of the book.

Now to trace back to what went to hell

- Over half of the book is twitter discourse. I could scroll through my TL and get the same info without spending hours reading it and most of what's presented is something we already know. We know Twitter thrives on harassment, the performative public apologies that come up after every discourse, the GC deserting. The whole spiel.

- The book felt very fractured in its exploration of representation. Again, nothing new. RFK's bold writing style is not a good fit for the more subtler demands of litfic and while it works very well in SFF, in Yellowface, it just felt very loud. There is no room for interpretation.

-I could feel that RFK drew deeply upon her experiences as a POC in publishing to write this but I often struggled in differentiating voice in this book.

Yellowface was not exactly what I wanted and that's fine. I also read a very early arc, so things can be subject to heavy changes before the final copy is pubbed next year.

Best wishes to RFK and would definitely be reading whatever she writes even though Yellowface missed the mark by quite a bit.

And shoutout to team at HarperFiction for yeeting an earc via Netgalley me after my feral screaming on twitter in exchange for an honest review. You guys are amazing

HOLY SHIT.
I bet any other author could have tried with a premise like this and would have inevitably failed. No one writes morally grey like R.F. Kuang and I'm saying this because my anxiety skyrocketed the more I read + I'm still haunted by these characters days later. It basically was like a trainwreck from beginning to end, where you know things are only getting worse but you're still so weirdly fascinated with it you can't stop looking.

I'm positive I've never read something so meta in my entire life. This one is for the publishing industry nerds, and honestly I foresee this being very difficult to market outside of such a niche community. It was so in-depth into the industry it made my heart sing and despare at the same time (as a publishing post-graduate first and then as a compulsive reader part of the online community). It managed to highlight a slew of things that make publishing not such a great place to be at in very few pages and I'm amazed. To me this book kind of felt like a very long article but with twists and turns. Now I know why they released arcs so early (looking at you, HarperCollins 👀). Book twitter will have a field day with this one...

What a choice to have the main narrative voice be the plagiarizer (and in first person at that). Both Athena and June are awful people, and I love that neither of them is a saint, but reading the entire thing from June's pov? Insane. She's a frustrating character, not gonna lie, but she's also deliciously realistic as a two-faced, self-absorbed and dishonest manipulator that always has an excuse ready. She goes out of her way to say to the reader that she wants to do something for poc every chance she gets, but the reality is that she's a bitch trying to profit from it all in an industry that lets her do it. Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's not too difficult to miss her slipping into a plain wrong mentality and lol, basic whiteness. You think you're safe as the external reader? Not a chance. I'm not proud to say I fell straight into R.F. Kuang's trap, because was I seriously rooting for such a cheater the entire time? This book brainwashed me into supporting someone who stole a whole manuscript immediately after witnessing the author's death and reaching stardom by publishing it as her own. I got to the point where I was scared she was going to get caught and hoped she would get out of it unscathed. My brain ignored all the red flags and procedeed to scam me until the very end. I mean, of course I ended up wishing she would kill someone to shut them up. Of course I got second-hand anxiety from her messing up with her publishing team and at her events. Of course I cared about her mental health. Am I okay or what? Is it time for me to get theraphy too?

On the other hand, Athena is harder to grasp. You really need to have the whole picture with her, which you only get by reading the book till the end. I loved the way RFK slowly built her character. You only read about her from June's perpective when she's already dead and still she comes through as the main character, not less because June is literally obsessed with her. Well-written toxic friendships are my bread and butter and the one in here was one of my favorites. The way it was dealt with: nothing less of spectacular. I found June's morality to be the most interesting aspect of this book, but the relationship between her and Athena comes in second for sure.

Much care went into the secondary characters too. Even when they only fully appeared once or twice, they always had a well-rounded story behind them. I can apply that specifically to the publishing team and Geoff. From that last one it's again apparent and so on-the-nose how me and RFK's morally grey characters just work together. What can I say? I'm fascinated with them. Geoff reminded me of so many white male authors on twitter but he just had a pull. I loved that he was so pathetic, that I never knew what he was going to do and then, when I least expected it and as naturally as possible, he showed a completely different side to himself.

There are a couple of things I didn't completely enjoy, mainly the pop culture references (way too many, half of them were necessary, the others not so much), and the ending. Overall the ending itself wasn't bad, I loved how it wrapped up, but that final showdown bordered on cartoonish and because of that it was hard to take it seriously. I also feel like the final chapter is missing, although I understand what this novel is actually supposed to be (have I said meta already?).

In conclusion, an amazing foray into general fiction by R.F. Kuang. I swear this woman can do no wrong. Give her whatever topic to write about and I bet she can create something incredible out of the most boring premise. I think it's impressive how she took these modern controversies and wrote them into a twisty unputdownable story. It seems to me like it's a new experiment from her but at the same time a really smart jab at publishing too.
I wouldn't say it's a perfect book and I'm unsure if I would reread it like The Poppy War trilogy; however I can't exclude it won't live in my mind rent free as I still catch myself heavily thinking about it.

This was such a good read !!! Its a fast-paced and seriously addictive book to read.
Yellow face examines some unsettling truths and draws your attention to the numerous racial concerns that exist today.
It focuses on June, a racist white woman who is perhaps the most despicable and unlikeable character I have ever encountered!! She steals an unpublished manuscript of her recently deceased Chinese-American friend and publishes it as her own.
All in all, this is a fantastic book and well worth a read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harpercollins uk for this riveting ARC

I loved the premise of this book and it really highlighted the prejudices and inadequacies built into the publishing world. A great twist and really funny, in a dark way.

I'm a sucker for novels set within the publishing world, and you through in a Ripley-esque twist... my dream book is born. I read this in one setting and loved how scathing, dark, funny and compulsively readable it was. I'll be recommending this one in a big way!