Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

741 reviews

alyxandrathegr8's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.0

wow. I was tense the whole
Book in a very new way. Gripping. I knew nothing of the book before a tube ad in London a few months ago. Got a copy from the library and wow. The plot is complicated and at the same time not. Like we all know the whole time what is right and wrong and also you can follow the justification turning into “truth”, what ever that is, and feel uncomfortable with going along with the justification. Ahhh so good.

Content Warnings

ashlislibrary's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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

4.0

Content Warnings

uncica's review against another edition

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dark funny informative reflective 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

3.5

I wanted to love this book soooo much, especially because Kuang is an amazing writer.

It started off as a 5-star read - very unique and different - but I liked it less and less as the book progressed. I'm not sure if it was the book's fault, but I entered a massive reading slump, so I struggled to finish it over the course of a whole month, even though it was a fast-paced read.

What I liked:

I liked that the MC is straight up immoral in a sea of morally questionable characters. Her constant ability to find an "excuse" in order to "justify" plagiarizing her friend's work

(over and over again)

through blatant racism made Yellowface very thought-provoking. Kuang definitely made me reflect on my own biases.

Another intriguing aspect of the book is that it shows us how the writing and publishing process works on the back end, and just how competitive it can be.

Yellowface made me chuckle a couple of times, though the humor was mostly dark.

What I didn't like:

After a while, the book became repetitive, in my opinion, and I could pretty much predict what was going to happen next. That being said, I still don't know how I feel about the ending - don't love it, don't hate it. Since Kuang decided to go with

Athena's ghost

in order to expose Juniper, I almost wish she leaned fully into the narrative and made the book more

fantastical. (Note that I have a high preference for fantasy books, so I'm very much biased here.)

I just find the ending a bit anti-climactic given all the build-up.

Another thing that poked my eyes was that Kuang used the same quote about translation in Babel. Yes, the quote did fit in Yellowface, but I just did not like the recycling.

Otherwise, I do recommend you read Yellowface if only for Kuang's brilliant writing style.

Content Warnings

basil_touche's review against another edition

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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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amybartoli29's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

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befrazzledenby's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious 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

5.0

Juniper Hayward is one MESSY bitch and I ate every bit of it up (& listened w Am and even she didn’t see the ending coming)

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ieotter13's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-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

1.5

i understand that this is supposed to be satire, but that doesn’t excuse lazy and ruthless writing. i found this book annoying at best, but more often it was irritating, frustrating, and just exasperating. it gets 1.5 stars for my need to read the whole thing just to leave a storygraph review and the very occasional times i laughed over how dumb some of the writing sounded. i had no care for any of the characters and no real motivation to finish the book besides the cost of purchasing it. maybe it’s an experience in learning i don’t appreciate satire.

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lauren625's review against another edition

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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

5.0

Content Warnings

veelaughtland's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny 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

4.0

Content Warnings

headliner's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Berawal dari keisenganku waktu berkunjung ke Perpustakaan Cikini. Saat itu aku udah berencana untuk pulang, tapi entah kenapa rasanya masih mau ngelilingin rak favoriteku dan nemuin Yellowface berdiri dengan anggun di sana, sisa satu-satunya.

Aku lantas mengambil buku itu dan mulai baca. WOI gila gak kerasa karena page turner banget. Terjemahannya juga enak dibaca, asik banget karena beberapa kali diselipkan kata gaul, terus alurnya untukku matang dan jelas. Premis yang disajikan juga sangat menarik!

Kepergian Athena yang terjadi tepat langsung di hadapan June, lantas tidak membuatnya takut atau khawatir. Yang Ia lakukan adalah mengambil naskah buku baru buatan Athena dan mengubah isinya, lalu mengirimkannya ke penerbit. Berkat itu, June menjadi terkenal dan karyanya yang termasuk ke dalam best seller. Popularitas yang Ia miliki kemudian terancam menurun bahkan rusak karena banyak yang mencurigai June.

Aku akui karakter June dan Athena dalam cerita ini, sama-sama ngeselin. Aku gak membenarkan sikap mereka, tapi ya namanya persaingan dan iri dengki itu huh melahirkan masalah baru yang lebih kacau.

Lewat buku ini aku jadi dapetin beragam insight terkait industri penulisan serta penerbitan. Aku juga jadi tau nilai-nilai sejarah yang berkaitan dengan peperangan meskipun tidak dijelaskan secara detail. Isu yang diangkat dalam buku ini juga gak biasa buatku karena berkaitan dengan plagiarisme dan rasisme. Buku ini juga menyajikan unsur horror yang cukup bergidik ngeri karena June kerap kali dihantui arwah Athena serta halusinasi lain yang dialami. Ditambah unsur-unsur mistis lain yang membuatku penasaran siapa dalang di balik peneroran.

Sayangnya, aku ngerasa closing konflik dan akhir dari cerita ini tuh abu-abu dan gak dijelaskan secara jelas. Jadi bikin bingung dan berasa terjun payung. Still, buku ini tetap menarik untukku karena aku bisa menyelesaikannya dalam kurang dari dua jam dan dibuat greget!

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