A review by haileyrt
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

After finishing this book, I finally know now why so many people thought that Juniper was very insufferable. I still really have no clear way how I feel about this book, especially since it's satirical, and being used to reading books where the character is purposefully created to be very flawed and have a weird "feel bad for me" thing about their characters, this book is definitely different than most of the books that I typically read. 

Usually a lot of books are made for the main characters to be incredibly well liked, or purposely created to be the unlikable MC. Or, no hate to any authors, they make a character to where they try to make the character likable, but they really aren't, or you have a character that everybody likes or everybody hates, there is no in between. This book kind of in the middle ground of the likable character and the unlikable character. 

In my opinion it wasn't necessarily hard to read, it was hard to root for Juniper for some of the things that she did and how she's portrayed throughout the book. Even though I I understand how it feels to get limelight stolen from you from somebody who better than you all the time, but I think it was really weird that she was trying to reclaim herself multiple times and especially at the end. I also thought it was really childish of her to "clap back" the student commented about what was happening between her and Athena and embarrassed her by commenting on her writing and digging into a literal teenager. 

I also thought that she was feeding into some of the stereotypes a lot, and really played the victim multiple times throughout the story. I also thought it was really weird that the only way she was able to get inspired or finally write about something was if: 1. she got her writing or it was inspired by one of Athena's stories, 2. she was inspired by the kids that she mentored, and 3. she wanted to redeem herself from what had happened to her at the end. She calls herself a talented writer yet she can't really even have her own ideas without having to write a story based off of what someone else around her wrote, which is super annoying because there's a difference between being inspired to write a story and completely ripping off someone else's work and putting your own spin on it and calling it yours. 

I also think it was really weird that after she came out with the novella and someone who will rename nameless because I don't want to spoil the story, release the book based off of everything that happened between her, Juniper, and Athena, and then instead of just coming out in the open, which usually always goes wrong for her, she decides to write a book about her redemption and clearing her name, which I think is incredibly unnecessary and unrealistic. Like nobody is reading multiple books to catch up on author drama that really doesn't matter??? Like I get the idea of where she's coming from but she also has to understand that when she comes out with something it's really boring, unoriginal, and lacks any real substance. 

The problem isn't the fact that nobody cares about white people's stories, it's just that sometimes they lack representation and deep understanding between their characters, or have already been written about. More people want to hear stories from people of color nowadays because the way that they express their stories is a lot more interesting and impactful. Seeing authors and characters that look like us make it easier for us to relate to their stories and enjoy what we're reading. 

I see the way in which Athena was wrong for what she did but let's be honest, this book is one of the books where it's really hard to pick between who's right and who's wrong, and I really don't think that there is a right or wrong answer. It all just comes from different peoples perspectives and it's a really interesting thought peace on how people are treated in the publishing industry racially and provides a decent way to express how a lot of people feel about upcoming diverse voices and how a white woman's perspective relates to this take of only wanting diverse voices to be heard. 

This book is definitely very different from the books that I usually read, and it's unfortunate but I do understand why so many people stopped reading it and it's solely because of Juniper's behavior throughout the book that made it very hard to want to read it more. I feel like this book isn't necessarily supposed to be a literal context, it's supposed to be a satirical take on what's going on in the diverse publishing industry and how a white woman author is dealing with her more successful friend who is an Asian woman, is dealing with the fact that the diverse people around her are becoming more successful than she is, and what she does to redeem herself in a world that is quick to make her seem like a bad person, whether she really is one is the reader's choice. 

Let me say this, I don't condone any of the things that Juniper did throughout the book, but taking account to what's going on in the world right now and her experiences I do understand where she's coming from but I don't agree with her or her beliefs, if that makes sense. This book is unlike a lot of the books that I've ever read from Kuang but I did think it was quite interesting despite how some parts were a little bit boring and hard to get through