countingbunnies 's review for:

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

3.5

funny lighthearted tense medium-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

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the first chapter had me sympathizing with junie, miss racially ambiguous juniper song, and then the rest just hit me in the face and i just could not stop fuming!!!
extremely painful but engaging read, super easy to speed through but at the same time every page caused me psychic damage. juniper was so close to having my sympathy at some points, which chances she immediately crushed two racist lines later. the twitter discourse-y parts were especially hard to get through because i closed twitter on my phone just to basically open it again on my kindle.. incredibly funny though
 
the language was a bit too personal to me, i felt like i was reading through some unserious persons private twitter account, but thats also what makes the book stand out from the rest so, alright, fine.

the ending was a bit of an anticlimactic letdown, for someone who isn’t prone to change or self improvement junipers reaction was a huge switch from her usual meltdowns at every small inconvenience and pushback. and honestly, might just be me, but i was anticipating a big reveal that juniper failed to mention to us, that she did intentionally let athena choke to death. was i just reading between the lines too closely or just too dramahungry?? maybe the way it is now is the less predictable outcome, so its not a huge deal. i did like the reveal that athena actually was a bitch, confirmed by others, it made junies troubling actions and excuses even more complicated.

all in all an entertaining read!