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A review by elaichipod
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
dark
funny
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
5.0
This was my first R.F. Kuang book and I thought it was amazing. Yellowface was an absurd and entirely delusion-fueled rampage. June is absolutely insane and the fact that she is still delusional until the very end is crazy! The first and last quote I pasted go in line with that statement. She's like a dumpster fire escaping down a sleep decline and all you can do is watch open-mouthed, completely in shock and awe. There are times when I could understand where her jealousy first came from, but as the story progressed, she just became more ballsy and distasteful. I love reading about unlikeable characters, especially from their perspective because they end up doing the most unhinged and deranged things, and then they justify their actions with the most bizarre arguments and conclusions. For June it was the whole reverse racism, her belief in her own writing strength, and Athena's behaviors.
I think the whole who can write about who was explored in a very unique way in Yellowface. And the fact that June and Eden decided to make her ethnically ambiguous for the release of The Last Front shows they know what the expected race of the author would have most likely been. There were a lot of surprising moments and I had to force myself to slow down so that I could absorb every pivotal event. I was shocked from the very beginning when Athena choked on a pancake. A pancake?! There were 2 major events that I saw coming and were pretty predictable. First I knew that June would try to write about the whole debacle in her own words so that she could write herself off as innocent. Second, I knew Candice would come back sooner or later as a much more vindictive woman. However, I don't think the predictability of those two scenes changed how much I enjoyed the book. Overall, this was an amazing book. I will definitely be recommending this book to my friends and I plan on reading R.F. Kuang's other releases.
I think the whole who can write about who was explored in a very unique way in Yellowface. And the fact that June and Eden decided to make her ethnically ambiguous for the release of The Last Front shows they know what the expected race of the author would have most likely been. There were a lot of surprising moments and I had to force myself to slow down so that I could absorb every pivotal event. I was shocked from the very beginning when Athena choked on a pancake. A pancake?! There were 2 major events that I saw coming and were pretty predictable. First I knew that June would try to write about the whole debacle in her own words so that she could write herself off as innocent. Second, I knew Candice would come back sooner or later as a much more vindictive woman. However, I don't think the predictability of those two scenes changed how much I enjoyed the book. Overall, this was an amazing book. I will definitely be recommending this book to my friends and I plan on reading R.F. Kuang's other releases.
I feel this hot coiling in my stomach, a bizarre urge to stick my fingers in her berry-red-painted mouth and rip her face apart, to neatly peel her skin off her body like an orange and zip it up over myself.
An act of translation is an act of betrayal.
I'll write about us. Well, no—a fictionalized version of us, a pseudo-autobiography in which I blur fact and fiction. I'll describe the night she died in all its heartstopping, lurid detail. I'll describe how I stole her work and published it. I'll describe every step along my way to literary stardom, and then my horrifying fall. Academics and scholars will have a field day with this text. They'll write entire books about how I cleverly blended the truth with lies, how I reclaimed the rumors about me, subverted the ugly gossip about a treasured friendship into a tale that confronts the reader with their own sick desire for scandal and destruction. They'll call it radical. Groundbreaking. No one's ever refuted literary expectations like this before.