Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Yellowface

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

561 reviews

the_wistful_word_witch's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

wow, Wow, WOW!!

This descent into madness with echoes of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart grips you by the throat from the very first page and sends you hurtling along a narrative that leaves you not only shocked at everyone's actions and audacity but guessing at the many ways it could possibly end... That is, until the actual ending knocks you right on your ass. Did June just lose her mind after watching Athena die so horribly and the whole book is just a tortured fever dream she's having while on a grippy sock vacation?? Has Athena actually come back as a ghost to haunt June?? You'll have to read the whole thing to find out because Kuang's brilliant prestidigitation in the form of an incredibly unreliable narrator keeps us focused on one thing while the truth sneaks up behind us, just waiting to push us down the stairs.

I pretty much hated all the MCs in this book, which is a new thing for me... But Kuang does an amazing job of capturing what it's like to be a white woman caught up in a maelstrom of her own making, within a cut-throat industry that's all about that superficial diversity. I was going through an array of emotions, getting sucked into June's just as much as my own were taking over. Yellowface just left me shaking my head and muttering, "wtf... why would you even do that??" about everyone in it.

I had a buddy read going on and it was so much fun because not only were we able to riff off each other as we moved through the book at relatively the same pace, but my reading partner really made me step back and look at things differently.

Content Warnings

ajobin's review against another edition

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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

3.0

I'm a big fan of Kuang's writing and I'm glad to have read it, however I can't say I liked it (?) just because June is sooo (intentionally) unlikeable. I did not necessarily have a good time reading it but there was a perverse pleasure in watching how low she would go.

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mjones14's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Very very good. Only reason it's not a 5 stars is I found the ending relatively predictable. The voice in this steals the show - as someone who studied creative writing, I feel so exposed it was terrifying

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capriqueen's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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 was an electric read. Like a train wreck I couldn’t look away from. Masterfully done, weaving in June’s insistence of not being racist with all her microaggressions and stereotyping she’s clearly unaware of. June’s mindset was disturbing and fascinating, with the constant self-aggrandizing, always shifting the blame so she was the victim, the insistence that the world was just stacked against her and what else what she supposed to do?

As the book hurtled toward the end, I found myself wondering what ending would be satisfying. Would June learn her lesson, finally feel regret as she crumbled away. Would she end her life from shame, would she flee to a foreign country. All I knew was that it wouldn’t be a happy ending. And it wasn’t, and she didn’t learn, she just cling to the narrative she’s been telling herself, and I honestly think that’s the perfect ending. I pity her, her inability to self-reflect and process, and I think that causes the reader to look inward. Am I like her? How do I not be like her?

This is going to be a book I’ll think about for a long time

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abbysingh's review against another edition

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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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gandalf_a's review against another edition

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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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bubski_mcboo's review against another edition

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dark funny 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

Watching the protagonist dig herself into a deeper hole at every turn was hard to follow, but I did so with morbid and rapt attention. Perhaps it's because I see a version of myself in her that I slapped down at eighteen and have kept firmly in check for over a decade. Is there a shitty Juniper Song in me? Is she in all white women? What a dark thought.

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marissasa's review against another edition

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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

3.5

This book is the definition of unlikable main character, to the point of being a horrible, racist, narcissist, entitled, crazy, dumpster fire of a character. The premise is interesting and hooked me because it genuinely could be something that happens in real life given the state of the traditional publishing industry and all the book twitter and booktok drama that happens nowadays. While it was fun to read along and cringe and gasp at how the narrator continuously gets herself into deeper and deeper shit, I do wish there was deeper social commentary and more objective points on how Athena wasn't a perfect person nor a good person at times. Since we only get to hear about her flaws through the biased eyes of the main character, some of the nuance about Athena being a very privileged, pretentious, rich kid with connections at the same time as being a well-loved talented author giving much needed representation in the industry is lost. I also don't think the book needed to be as long as it was, it did drag in some parts where the main character was trying to figure out to write next or was being paranoid. Overall, this felt like watching ugly drama that you can't look away from unfold so you end up staying for the whole thing with popcorn in hand.

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sareidle's review against another edition

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dark tense 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

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purplemuskogee's review against another edition

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dark lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I had wanted to read this book since it came out, and I am so pleased it did not disappoint. Rebecca F. Kuang is incredibly skilled at weaving many, many themes - cultural appropriation, representation, plagiarism, friendship, internet trolling, cancel culture, intellectual property, the publishing industry, theft... - without making the book feel too cluttered or trying too hard, which is sometimes a risk with books that feel very anchored to their era. This one is definitely anchored - the themes, the Twitter messages, the fear of being cancelled - but it felt light, compelling, engaging. I loved the characters being all unlikeable, including the victim of the story, beautiful and talented writer Athena, a vampire who steals everyone's traumatic experiences to turn them into her next bestseller; and I liked its commentary on cultural appropriation and intellectual property: when is inspiration plagiarism? (Probably when you have to steal a manuscript from a flat where your friend just died). Many authors of the past are incredibly problematic and it is brushed aside - we still love Virginia Woolf despite the antisemitism, we still read Poe despite the child marriage. Authors nowadays being online and reachable more easily means they are somewhat more accountable - it is also "easier" to ignore past authors' problematic stances when they were usually government policy, although I am not convinced that makes them excusable.
I loved this novel, and I loved its themes and tone, and I am so glad I read it.

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