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A review by looseleafellie
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
fast-paced
R.F. Kuang’s first contemporary novel follows June Hayward, a white writer who witnesses the death of her Chinese American publishing rival Athena Liu. She steals Athena’s last manuscript, a historical novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I, and publishes it herself. What follows is a bonkers spiral of cover-ups, backlash, and lies, all centered around an exploration of racism in publishing.
Yellowface was like a train wreck I couldn’t look away from in the best possible way. It’s hard to pull off a horrible protagonist and still make the reader interested in being in their head, but Kuang does it brilliantly. June’s choices become incrementally more terrible, but she isn’t an unrealistically bad person because it’s easy to track why she makes all her decisions (because she’s insecure and racist).
The book tackles questions such as, who has the “right” to tell certain stories? What does authorship mean? Are some story inspirations off limits? Some have more concrete answers than others, and things are complicated because Athena wasn’t the most ethical author herself.
Something that might throw readers off is a plot element introduced about halfway through that makes the book more of a thriller. I loved the mystery it created, but I think it could have been seeded more in the first half of the book to make the story more cohesive. That said, I’m a sucker for thrillers and would love to see Kuang write a pure thriller in the future.
The ending wasn’t as decisive as I expected, but that felt like the point — that racism in publishing is a cycle that won't be broken without deep changes to the system. Overall, this is a sharp, smart read that will give all members of the book community food for thought, and help reflect on how we might be complicit in publishing’s racism.
CWs: Racism, death, mentions of rape and suicidal thoughts.
Yellowface was like a train wreck I couldn’t look away from in the best possible way. It’s hard to pull off a horrible protagonist and still make the reader interested in being in their head, but Kuang does it brilliantly. June’s choices become incrementally more terrible, but she isn’t an unrealistically bad person because it’s easy to track why she makes all her decisions (because she’s insecure and racist).
The book tackles questions such as, who has the “right” to tell certain stories? What does authorship mean? Are some story inspirations off limits? Some have more concrete answers than others, and things are complicated because Athena wasn’t the most ethical author herself.
Something that might throw readers off is a plot element introduced about halfway through that makes the book more of a thriller. I loved the mystery it created, but I think it could have been seeded more in the first half of the book to make the story more cohesive. That said, I’m a sucker for thrillers and would love to see Kuang write a pure thriller in the future.
The ending wasn’t as decisive as I expected, but that felt like the point — that racism in publishing is a cycle that won't be broken without deep changes to the system. Overall, this is a sharp, smart read that will give all members of the book community food for thought, and help reflect on how we might be complicit in publishing’s racism.
CWs: Racism, death, mentions of rape and suicidal thoughts.