Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

187 reviews

grunbean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

If I had a penny for every time I’d read a book by an amazing Asian author about yellow face this year, I’d have two pennies, but it’s cool that it has happened twice! 

I don’t think I’ve read a book where I’ve been so invested but so revoked by the main character at the same time. This isn’t a story of heroes, and every character can be viewed as shitty in some way. Which ultimately ties in to where this book goes!

This is a unique kind of horror, and I would really recommend trying it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Islamophobia, War, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Mental illness, and Grief

abbysingh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Rape, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Islamophobia, Medical content, War, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and Vomit

gandalf_a's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Toxic friendship, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Grief, Bullying, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Racial slurs, Classism, Cursing, Alcohol, and Colonisation

issy_jacob's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Death of parent and Self harm

jenniferbowman's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Cursing, Gaslighting, Vomit, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Racial slurs, Alcoholism, Violence, Alcohol, Classism, Sexual assault, and Stalking

Minor: Genocide, War, Medical content, Classism, Abortion, Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

gena10's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Death

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Mental illness, and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Death of parent

dbb523's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Racism

basil_touche's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-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

Such an engrossing read that's a biting satire on authors, racism in the publishing industry and the isolation of social media. This is fantastic example of an unreliable narrator that, while awful, feels like a she's a real person who's lack of acknowledgement of her white privilege and bigotry makes her dig herself deeper into her own pit. It becomes a trainwreck that you can't look away from. 

The ending is going to stay with me, how it dawns on you as it reaches the end that

Juniper has doomed herself to an endless spiral of delusion, blaming everyone but herself. Trapped in isolation and irrelevancy.

It's sad in a way and feels very true to life (there were several online scandals of recent memory that this book reminded me of) but also doesn't beat around the bush that all of this is her fault. Not to mention that she really doesn't have talent and keeps plagiarising asian authors

(a part where she tries to come up with new pitch ideas only to realise that she's copied her asian high school students made me break down with laughter)

I do wish that we could have learned more about Athena, there was a lot about her family history that is mentioned briefly but I suppose that's part of the narrative; her voice was stolen from her, we'll never truly know her, mostly only how June saw her. There's so many layers to this book I'll be thinking about for quite some time. I will absolutely be checking out Kuang's other novels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Violence, Mental illness, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Sexual assault, and Racial slurs

Minor: War, Suicide, and Death of parent

bookishevy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

This book deserves a higher rating on Goodreads. 

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars, but Athena leaves June in the dust as she quickly becomes the literary darling. Realizing she's too basic to outpace her so-called friend, June swipes Athena's manuscript, a novel about the Chinese laborers who went uncelebrated for their contributions during World War I, after witnessing Athena die in a freak accident. 

While June is honest about being white, she allows her publisher to rebrand her image by changing her name to Juniper Song and taking new author photos that make her appear racially ambiguous. June doesn't see anything wrong with editing and  passing Athena's work off as her own. She believes the story should be told regardless of the storyteller's race. When evidence of her thievery threatens to shoot June's star down, how far will she go to remain relevant? 

How dare Kuang tackle cultural appropriation, racism, diversity, and tokenism in the publishing industry with such biting satire. And to write it in first-person? To allow the reader to delve into June's obliviousness to her prejudices and justifications for stealing Athena's intellectual property? To have her mental health symptoms be exacerbated by the guilt that haunts her following the social media fallout? 

This read shows how cutthroat the literary world is. For Athena to become so successful at such a young age, she had to do some questionable things because she was pigeonholed into writing about Asian experiences and trauma. But does that make what June did okay? Or is she just a mediocre writer who believes she deserves the success of her more talented Asian counterpart simply because she's white?

This book is brilliant. Kuang gives a middle finger to the publishing industry and bookish communities who feed off of BIPOC stereotypes and trauma. Many reviewers on #goodreads are proving her point.

TW: death, sexual assault, panic attacks, suicidal ideation, racism

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Racism

Minor: Violence

alphabetmafiamember's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, Stalking, Grief, Gaslighting, Bullying, Alcohol, Rape, Sexual violence, Mental illness, and Vomit

Minor: Islamophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Murder, Death of parent, and War