Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

127 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

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This is a narrative about personal jealousy, racism in publishing and interrogating race politics 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, Racism, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Murder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual content, Eating disorder, Medical content, Dysphoria, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, War, Drug use, Grief, Biphobia, Classism, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, and Rape

The entire narrative of this book is about a White American woman excusing and justifying her actions against a college friend and writer colleague who is Chinese American plus the varying moods and swings in action to conceal what she is doing. We are in the mind of the white woman character the whole time and it’s intentionally uncomfortable to be in this character’s head. Pace yourself if you need to though this novel isn’t that long.

machenn's review

tense fast-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

Moderate: Sexual violence, Cultural appropriation, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

willow1113's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Cultural appropriation, Death, Mental illness, and Racism

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Grief, Gore, Rape, and Alcohol

btrz7's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Rape, Cultural appropriation, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

audreading's review

challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

R.F. Kuang does not miss!! You are going to HATE June Hayward, but you are going to love this book. It almost reads like a mystery where you’re in the mind of the criminal, waiting to see whether she will get caught (and hoping she will).

I actually started noticing so many stories like this one coming up on Twitter while I was reading. We always wonder, with these celebrities who go off the rails with bigoted rhetoric, how their thought process works and how they get to such a place. Yellowface shows you just that. I can’t tell you how many times I was screaming at the page and wanted to type out an argument just like I would online.

The book also shows an interesting peek into the publishing world in almost a meta way (except we would never want to relate R.F. to June). This is a struggle we readers don’t have to think about too often! We just lap up the books with no real appreciation for the fight that goes into getting honest work onto the table.

I only take off half a star for this book because the ending wasn’t my favorite.

Candice’s actions felt hard to believe and out of nowhere. I truly thought Athena’s “ghost” would just be June descending into madness in consequence to her own choices and struggles.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Cultural appropriation, Mental illness, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Violence, Rape, and Alcohol

winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Violence, War, Rape, Sexual assault, Addiction, Murder, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Biphobia, Bullying, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, and Sexism

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

daisyfont's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Murder

kristinj1's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

So, here's the thing about this book. I think it's a really interesting story I just could not stand the main character by about 10 pages in, and that never really changed. I think I also wanted the reveal at the end, because there were reveals throughout the book, to be a little more unexpected or surprising, maybe? I guess there was so much that could have been totally unexpected, and we actually did start to dive into the world of the supernatural, that the reveal at the end was a very normal thing. Or maybe that was the point? That the main character spun herself up into believing in a ghost, and it turned out just to be a human? I don't know, I always have a really hard time thinking that this main character, June hayward, was just so idiotic about her racism. She never investigated her own thoughts, and her reactions to people were sickening. So all in all, I did not dislike this story, I just maybe wanted something else? This could be having to evaluate my own privilege and prejudices, for sure. I understand that my reaction is fed by that part of me. I just couldn't believe that we got to see her in her dialogue and that there was never really any education that happened for her. I think that's actually what it is, she clearly needs to dig out and unpack her own issues, but she was never really confronted with having to do that.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Death, Racism, Alcohol, Blood, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Stalking