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A review by littlelionslibrary
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
2.0
2.8/5
I feel very weird trying to write this review due to the incredibly meta content in this novel in regard to book reviews and reviewers that lean towards negativity/negative reviews.
I understand that this is dark satire. I understand that I am supposed to dislike Juniper and Athena (or I hope so, because if not….hm.) I understand that all of the reasons I feel so “??” about this were more than likely purposeful. I understand that this is a deeply cutting discussion on the commodification of authors and the capitalistic disintegration of the publishing industry and the works it churns out. HOWEVER COMMA I have some opinions on these two on the little…trip…I just went on in the past 8hrs.
At first, let me just say that I genuinely cannot stand Juniper. She is a self-pitying, self-righteous, “woe is me my friend is more famous than me” ball of jealousy & justification. She spent the ENTIRE book trying to justify her lack of morals with bullshit platitudes and affirmations of ‘I deserve this life.’ Athena is equally miserable. She is a self-important, narcissistic, manipulative, and deeply pretentious character who exudes the very specific flavor of ‘my shit don’t stink’ that seeps from the pores of the “new money rich” and poisons the water supply. I will take this moment to say, if you want to use a typewriter to draft your novel, by all means, please do. Whatever floats your goat. There is nothing about this that warrants it becoming a) a personality trait or b) a signifier of status and success that differentiates you from all other authors who use a laptop. These characters (mainly Juniper, as she narrates the story and Athena merely haunts it like a wraith in the night) made this story incredibly difficult to get through. I was maybe about a third of the way through the second act before I was mentally begging whatever deity would lend me an ear for the strength to not DNF because of it. I understand writing characters for the purpose of being u likable but, at some point, you do actually have to give them a redemptive personality trait to ensure your readers have something vibrant to latch onto that makes them want to continue reading.
The plot had so much promise at the beginning of the first act. I was interested and captivated by the prose, underlining and highlighting and annotating every three seconds, but that all fell apart in the second act. The middle of this book dissolved into and endless barrage of twitter discourse and repetitive and monotonous justifications of Juniper’s actions which lead into her not learning from her previous mistakes and repeating them in a completely asinine way...and then having a total meltdown when it, inevitably, blew up in her face. The third act, however, kept my interest. It was snappy and fast-paced and really pulled on the thriller thread that was buried deep within this story. There is a touch of predictability to the “mystery” of this story, but it was obviously not the focus or main goal of this novel, so I’m less inclined to complain about it. I will say that I feel that RFK’s editor did her a massive disservice by not pointing out/catching some very glaring issues with pacing and characterizations, but seeing as there’s an entire discussion of editors putting their hands on your words and messing up your vision, perhaps it was purposeful?
Alternatively, I will say that I did enjoy how much relatability there was in the internal world of an author. It was nice to see that I, as both an editor and an author, am not alone in my feelings of jealousy and worthiness (or lack thereof) and the thoughts of writing being everything. The only thing, even. There were several times that I paused to text friends “this feels like being forced to look in a mirror and I don’t like it.”
Overall, I’d say that this is a decent, and deeply satirical, meta novel that would have been better served by leaning more heavily on the thriller aspects and less on the introspective litfic aspects. My feelings are muddled, and a little jumbled, but I’d say that my final assessment is “meh ??” with a heavy dose of disappointment and dissatisfaction. Not every novel needs to try so hard to be a NYT best seller or a deeply poignant take on the world around us. Sometimes, they can just be fun.
I feel very weird trying to write this review due to the incredibly meta content in this novel in regard to book reviews and reviewers that lean towards negativity/negative reviews.
I understand that this is dark satire. I understand that I am supposed to dislike Juniper and Athena (or I hope so, because if not….hm.) I understand that all of the reasons I feel so “??” about this were more than likely purposeful. I understand that this is a deeply cutting discussion on the commodification of authors and the capitalistic disintegration of the publishing industry and the works it churns out. HOWEVER COMMA I have some opinions on these two on the little…trip…I just went on in the past 8hrs.
At first, let me just say that I genuinely cannot stand Juniper. She is a self-pitying, self-righteous, “woe is me my friend is more famous than me” ball of jealousy & justification. She spent the ENTIRE book trying to justify her lack of morals with bullshit platitudes and affirmations of ‘I deserve this life.’ Athena is equally miserable. She is a self-important, narcissistic, manipulative, and deeply pretentious character who exudes the very specific flavor of ‘my shit don’t stink’ that seeps from the pores of the “new money rich” and poisons the water supply. I will take this moment to say, if you want to use a typewriter to draft your novel, by all means, please do. Whatever floats your goat. There is nothing about this that warrants it becoming a) a personality trait or b) a signifier of status and success that differentiates you from all other authors who use a laptop. These characters (mainly Juniper, as she narrates the story and Athena merely haunts it like a wraith in the night) made this story incredibly difficult to get through. I was maybe about a third of the way through the second act before I was mentally begging whatever deity would lend me an ear for the strength to not DNF because of it. I understand writing characters for the purpose of being u likable but, at some point, you do actually have to give them a redemptive personality trait to ensure your readers have something vibrant to latch onto that makes them want to continue reading.
The plot had so much promise at the beginning of the first act. I was interested and captivated by the prose, underlining and highlighting and annotating every three seconds, but that all fell apart in the second act. The middle of this book dissolved into and endless barrage of twitter discourse and repetitive and monotonous justifications of Juniper’s actions which lead into her not learning from her previous mistakes and repeating them in a completely asinine way...and then having a total meltdown when it, inevitably, blew up in her face. The third act, however, kept my interest. It was snappy and fast-paced and really pulled on the thriller thread that was buried deep within this story. There is a touch of predictability to the “mystery” of this story, but it was obviously not the focus or main goal of this novel, so I’m less inclined to complain about it. I will say that I feel that RFK’s editor did her a massive disservice by not pointing out/catching some very glaring issues with pacing and characterizations, but seeing as there’s an entire discussion of editors putting their hands on your words and messing up your vision, perhaps it was purposeful?
Alternatively, I will say that I did enjoy how much relatability there was in the internal world of an author. It was nice to see that I, as both an editor and an author, am not alone in my feelings of jealousy and worthiness (or lack thereof) and the thoughts of writing being everything. The only thing, even. There were several times that I paused to text friends “this feels like being forced to look in a mirror and I don’t like it.”
Overall, I’d say that this is a decent, and deeply satirical, meta novel that would have been better served by leaning more heavily on the thriller aspects and less on the introspective litfic aspects. My feelings are muddled, and a little jumbled, but I’d say that my final assessment is “meh ??” with a heavy dose of disappointment and dissatisfaction. Not every novel needs to try so hard to be a NYT best seller or a deeply poignant take on the world around us. Sometimes, they can just be fun.