Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

133 reviews

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

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

metanav'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: Bullying, Death, and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

1010sheehy's review

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A fast paced book about a white woman passing off an Asian woman's work as her own (and the inevitable fallout). I didn't expect to be so hooked by the cringey narrator, but it was like a trainwreck that I couldn't look away from. The pacing makes it feel like a thriller. I couldn't put it down!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Colonisation, Racism, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Panic attacks/disorders

em_of_swags's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.25

pretty much all the characters were insufferable but I'm digging it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol, Violence, and Stalking