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charlotteturt's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic friendship, Cultural appropriation, Mental illness, Xenophobia, and Gaslighting
audreading's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
- 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
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
hanngigi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts
h3ymelissa's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Racism
ninahuynh's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
mayze's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This all changes when a freak accident kills Athena and June unethically gets access to her next story's drafts and appropriates them to publish a book under her own name.
If you are willing to suspend disbelief and ignore the multiple plot conveniences, then this is a really funny (audio)book. I think younger millennials and Gen Z readers will totally understand the inside jokes peppered throughout the book and can see a bit of themselves in how much importance we give to social media and our increasingly worries of not coming across as culturally/socially insensitive.
The book gets really melodramatic at times and I wonder if having
Graphic: Racism, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Death, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
latida94's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Bullying, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Death of parent and Gaslighting
likeagilmoregirl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I love reading from the point of view of an unreliable, anti-hero narrator. There’s just something so fun about it.
I flew through this book so fast. It was well-written, captivating, and thought-provoking.
I’m not quite sure how I felt about the last two chapters, but overall I enjoyed this book a lot. I can’t wait to read more by this author.
Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Cultural appropriation, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Stalking
thatswhatshanread's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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