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A review by libraryofavirgo
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
- 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
5.0
I already knew I was going to love this book going in, and I was not disappointed. I am a huge fan of Kuang’s writing, Babel being one of my all-time favorite novels.
Yellowface is a satirical commentary on the publishing industry, the tokenism of diverse individuals, plagiarism, and the public ‘allyship’ seen in many companies. Kuang did an amazing job at tackling these hard topics in such a short novel, without leaving the reader with that heavy feeling.
Despite this novel being posed as a critique, there is no teachable moment to be found here. The narrator of the story, is at best, heavily unreliable. She is not an evil genius, she is not a self-aware mastermind, but rather a particularly ordinary brand of terrible. Of course, the narrator is more than just a villain and shows true vulnerability, but Kuang makes sure this does not justify any of her decisions, creating a perfect mix of pity and condemnation.
This is a well-written and extremely engaging story that leaves plenty of topics for discussion and provides much to think about. This novel very clearly calls out our need to have a clear narrative to make sense of things, we need the good person and the bad person — but once again Kuang shows us that is not what this is about. We need to find a sense of right and wrong, even when there there is no 100% good person and 100% bad person to be found, because that is not how life is, we still need a moral compass to navigate it.
Yellowface is a satirical commentary on the publishing industry, the tokenism of diverse individuals, plagiarism, and the public ‘allyship’ seen in many companies. Kuang did an amazing job at tackling these hard topics in such a short novel, without leaving the reader with that heavy feeling.
Despite this novel being posed as a critique, there is no teachable moment to be found here. The narrator of the story, is at best, heavily unreliable. She is not an evil genius, she is not a self-aware mastermind, but rather a particularly ordinary brand of terrible. Of course, the narrator is more than just a villain and shows true vulnerability, but Kuang makes sure this does not justify any of her decisions, creating a perfect mix of pity and condemnation.
This is a well-written and extremely engaging story that leaves plenty of topics for discussion and provides much to think about. This novel very clearly calls out our need to have a clear narrative to make sense of things, we need the good person and the bad person — but once again Kuang shows us that is not what this is about. We need to find a sense of right and wrong, even when there there is no 100% good person and 100% bad person to be found, because that is not how life is, we still need a moral compass to navigate it.