Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

220 reviews

leechachatotheright's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

3.5

I will say that this book was very thought provoking, a social commentary on racism, diversity, etc. I gave it a 3 as it was a good read in its writing itself and does tackle an interesting perspective but, I don't think I'd recommend this to a friend to read. The first two thirds of the book was very inticing, but the ending felt like

"This, really? Is that all? You haven't learned anything."

and honestly, that may be the point of it. I find the narrative very different from anything I've read before, but maybe that's also why it felt flat at the end. I don't mind endings not having the whole

character learns from their mistakes trope, if anything, it is kind of refreshing to see this perspective.

But alas, the ending did feel a bit inconclusive to me, though I understand the intention of it. I don't know if I'll read it again, but I'll definitely say it was a unique read and I didn't put the book down until I was finished. I basically wanted more from the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and War

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

leiaheenan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

3.25

An incredible book that had a complete and utter lacklustre last 35-ish pages. I was HOOKED from the start up until that point,

why was there a seemingly random turn to ghost stories that are never talked about again for a whole chapter? I just found the intense focus on ghosts towards the end was not at all my sort of thing. Also having Candice be behind everything… was just so meh.

Anyway, I found that it balanced the funny, lighthearted feeling and the incredible dark sections relatively well, and I do applause the author for achieving that as it’s quite challenging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Death of parent

abrielleemory's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

I listened to this book on Spotify, so I’m sorry if the spellings of the names are incorrect. 

I saw in another review that someone described June as a character unlike anyone she’d ever read before. And, I agree with that analysis wholeheartedly. June expresses what I believe is the emotion of a lot of white people I know. We can’t express our irritation or dislike for anyone of color without being deemed a raging racist, while some POC threaten white women with physical or verbal violence online or in-person. I think this book does a great job highlighting and describing reverse racism, a term that I really just started to think about in the last few years. 

Athena was insufferable. I was so surprised she died so early on, but the more I learned the more I loathed her. Do I think what June did was right? Of course not, what she did was straight up theft. But, do I see how jealousy wove this narrative in June’s head that she was in the right? Yes. 

My only dislike in the book is the whole thing with Candace at the end. It made June look psychologically crazy so suddenly, rather than a potential slow trickle into madness like what happened with the Athena’s ghost stuff. 

This was a really interesting book, but I’m so glad I listened to it on Spotify. The reader does an impeccable job of capturing how I would imagine June in my head. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Death of parent

infusionofviolets's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Bullying, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

kiarra_s's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective tense 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

4.0

How far will a yt woman go to claim a body of work that doesn’t belong to her? The limit does not exist! 🥴

I’m still shocked at how hard the main character doubled down on her lies/ played victim to the entire audience. Kudos to the author for delivering a satirical novel that highlights racism, tokenism, and cultural appropriation! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and War

Minor: Death of parent

laurajordensharris's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

elizatess17's review against another edition

dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Sexual assault and Death of parent

hdkroon's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

June is such a raging bigot with a victim complex but that kind of white liberal is sooooo present and visible in the publishing world beyond the dozens of white people and especially white women that have been caught doing digital or literally race faking “to get ahead” the ending in particular reminded me of putlizer prized awarded white women that made Alice Munroe’s daughter Andrea Skinner talked about how her “feminist” mother enabled and defended and denied the sexual assault and pedophilia of her step father to her and how that being a part of her legacy was all she wanted, and this Pulitzer Prize winner made it about joking about how she know has an artist she wishes she could separate from the art—the only thing a victim of pedophilia and decades of familial abuse covering it up asked for us to not do!! And then Rebecca Malaki seeing that she was getting ratioed tried to make it about her own csa story that was completely different and again has nothing to do with her making another woman’s csa about herself and pretends she’s a victim of it or other people especially when skinner literally the literary world especially Canadian media literally protected her mother bc her stepfather was convicted and self confessed pedophile, but Alice is one of Canada’s most awarded literary women. And Malaki is such a liberal white Woman obsessed with cancel culture even when she criticized Pen America for being anti Palestinian she gave excuses or said she didn’t blame authors who associate with them as if she as non Palestinian has that damn right and as that’s not defeating the fucking purpose of criticizing a institution tied to genocide. There’s just soooo many white women from no bodies in publishing (including people who aren’t even traditionally published and harass Latino and black authors on twitter with multiple accounts!!) to Pulitzer Prize and Nobel literature “feminists” fucking obsessed with their reputations and legacies I see in June lol. 

I did enjoy all the prominent Asian women in the story were also fucked up.

I did kinda wish it was Athena stalking her the entire time Ngl

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

celina246's review against another edition

dark funny 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

4.0

sharp as a knife, cutting, witty, shocking, entertaining. reading the protag's POV was like watching a car crash that you can't tear your eyes away from. but the author was quite clever with the whole thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Grief, Death of parent, and War