Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

39 reviews

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Stalking, Classism, Death, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, Sexism, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

ninahuynh's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Ok. How do I start?! I have so many feelings about June and how the book ended. I found it funny with the

ghost elements (with Candice, the hallucinations and social media accounts

. Is it trying to comment on how out of touch she is with reality? All I know is Juniper Song Hayward needs help ASAP, especially before she taps into another novel.

Overall, I like the book. There were just some parts where the writing was a biz clunky for me and I had to re-read the sentence several times to understand it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Bullying, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Death of parent, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Cultural appropriation, Grief, Medical content, Racism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and War

thatswhatshanread's review

dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Um, this book??? IS SO CRAZY. This story takes “delulu girly” to the most insane level. GIRLY!! IS!! DELULU!!

Although my review may be full of basic bookish rambling about the perpetual spiral of the so-called delulu in regards to the main character who is a writer, the writing in this book by the witty R. F. Kuang is so sharp, timely, and addictive that you certainly feel like you’re delulu too. (Okay I’ll stop using that word now.)

So this novel is basically a ridiculously well-written reddit thread of “AITA for stealing the manuscript of my dead Asian friend and passing it off as my own since I’m a woman, but I’m also very much a cishet white woman?” 

GIRLLLLL. Kuang crafted such a punchy, visceral novel about race, loneliness, envy, and the pros and cons of the publishing industry. I was glued to every page, almost like watching a train wreck. It’s like, chapter after chapter, our white MC (June) goes deeper and deeper into her web of lies and you’re like “there’s no way she gets away with this” in a non-Scooby Doo villain kind of way, and then SHE DOES!! She just keeps at it!! The secondhand embarrassment and utter frustration was so real, especially in the way that could absolutely happen in real life, which is messed up but also shows the reality of diversity in today’s society—not always as advanced or progressive as we perceive it to be when it’s not directly related to us. This narrative was such an interesting piece on how far someone will go to save their reputation, when said reputation is a fabricated construct in and of itself. Fascinating.

Parts did remind me of “American Fiction”, which is another great example of the assumptions made about POC writers, just in a sort-of opposite form. In any case, I highly recommend both. 

TL;DR June Hayward is kind-of the Hannah Horvath of this story, but somehow even worse. If you liked HBO’s “Girls” for the writing and not for the characters, this book is for you.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Racism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Hate crime

Minor: Alcohol, Self harm, Death of parent, Abandonment, Murder, and Suicide

rashaloves2read's review

funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

jayden_314's review

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was an incredible read! Rebecca F. Kuang perfectly writes such a hateable main character, and by hateable I mean that this insane white woman goes off the rails by the end. Kuang gets you to sympathise with her for a chapter or two before throwing right back in your face that June is completely unhinged. This way of writing is so similar to emotional abuse and gaslighting in real life and the quality is unmatched. You get to see the way that June justifies her actions and how she positions herself as the victim. I have not read anything like it and it was amazing. If you are reading this novel, be prepared to be gaslit out of your mind and just remember, June is a psychotic racist who will go to any lengths to cover up her plagarism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Rape, Racism, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Stalking, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Murder, Alcohol, Infidelity, Medical content, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and War

emmarhian's review

reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The ending felt lackluster and unsatisfactory . . . While I loved to hate June, I feel as if the ending let me dissatisfied.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Xenophobia, Death, Gaslighting, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, and Stalking

rubellaface's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Talk about an unreliable narrator... 
This book is triggering, fascinating, and has messed me up for the foreseeable future. 

Highly recommend to anyone who has been vilified by white fragility or would like to be taken on a wild ride by an unreliable narrator. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Toxic friendship, Racism, Violence, Rape, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, Sexism, Mental illness, Cultural appropriation, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Colonisation, Stalking, Sexual assault, and Hate crime

laguerrelewis's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This has been a much-anticipated read for me, and I am happy and unsurprised to say that R.F. Kuang absolutely lives up to the hype. My skin was crawling throughout, and yet I couldn’t look away. It reminds me of the show You (or at least its good seasons), where you get a front row seat into the mind of someone who you somehow hate, fear, and yet find compelling in the same way as watching a train wreck. A scathingly accurate satire of cultural appropriation and cancel culture that I simply could not put down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Rape, Stalking, and Sexual assault

annaitlj's review against another edition

informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If I could write a more heartfelt review, I would. But I don’t want to. Juniper Song Hayward is crazy, entitled, ambitious, and terribly addicting. I don’t like her as a person nor do I like her motives. She makes Athena sound like the worst person ever while downplaying her own character. She STOLE from a dead person. Before the EMTs could even pronounce her dead. And then she had 2-3 years of profit off of it. Plenty of opportunities to come clean and even claim it as a collaboration but no. Selfish. Entitled. Juniper. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Bullying, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Classism, Death, Racism, Grief, and Cultural appropriation

46jjsg's review

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I would rate this 4.5/5 simply because although I liked this book and would recommend it to others- I will admit it did lag in the middle (refer to: June’s doom scrolling). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, Sexism, Racism, and Hate crime

Moderate: Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Death, Violence, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, and Misogyny

Minor: Sexual assault, Eating disorder, and Rape