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A review by saucy_bookdragon
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Shit was absolutely bonkers.
A scathing satire about racism and toxicity in both the publishing industry and the online book community. Yellowface is an extremely blunt novel that asks the reader to interrogate the bold question: am I the asshole?
I'd recommend just reading the book if you're interested as my review goes into detail about the themes, there's a lot to unpack and this review is less me recommending the book and more me unpacking some of the themes. I especially recommend Yellowface to people who are knowledgeable in publishing and/or involved in the online book community.
The plot and characters eerily reflect real life discourse, there’s a few too many people I can think of who I see June Hayward in (off the top of my head, J.K. Rowling, Jean Cummins, Emily A. Duncan, and several influencers, to name a few). Yellowface feels less like a novel at times and more like an essay for R.F Kuang to discuss it all. It paints neither the publishing industry or online book discourse in a positive light, calling out how bestsellers are curated by publishing before readers even get a chance to know they exist and how the discourse is rarely, if ever, productive. As well as calling out how discourse is had over books and representation, questioning how much readers enable these shitty authors and how a lot of criticism is all bark and no bite.
My main critique of the book is that for how much it talked about online discourse, I wish it had gone deeper. Compared to the commentary on racism and publishing, it felt surface level. Like “wow! People on Twitter are really angry! And the discourse is really rancid! Wild ain’t it?” I did like the commentary on how cyclical the discourse is and how change rarely comes of it, but those are pretty lukewarm takes. I’m pretty sure anyone who’s ever even seen grass can come to those conclusions.
Like in her fantasy novels, there are no heroes in Yellowface. It’s difficult to judge anyone given June Hayward is an unreliable narrator in both how self centered and lacking in self awareness she is: caring so much with the appearance of being a good person while putting none of the work in. Particularly in relation to racism as she proclaims to be an advocate for the AAPI diaspora while every single interaction she has with Asian characters are rife with microaggressions.
RFK doesn’t distance the reader from June, rather inserting us deep in her head. So deep that at times she begins making sense and nearly tricks the reader, until that is she does something extremely out of pocket and the reader is startled for ever having considered her points.
It should also be noted that despite the book's title, June never does full yellowface, she never outright lies about being white or stealing the manuscript. Instead she twists her stories and omits truths. If people ask, she’s white, but her author name and photo are purposefully ambiguous. June doesn’t see this as a lie and she wants the reader to believe it isn’t fucked up. She’s a fourth wall breaker in a way, desperately trying to convince the reader that she is the victim in all of this.
Almost everyone around June enables her bullshit, as a matter of fact they have a lot of bullshit too and it’s a cycle of horrendous people supporting horrendous people. Athena Liu who haunts the narrative is put into question as well. I disagree with the take that she’s RFK’s self insert, because though she does get a lot of RFK’s criticisms, they’re criticisms that a lot of AAPI authors get. She’s also far from perfect and it’s difficult to judge who she is from June’s extremely biased perspective.
As Athena is called into question, there is a conversation around who can write what stories. 100% the book was NOT June’s story to tell no matter how she spins it. But was it Athena’s? It’s notable several of the criticisms that are had of June’s stolen book were sections that Athena wrote, though Athena’s version was mostly better, it’s far from perfect and it’s questionable how authentic her representation was and whether she was exploitative.
If it wasn’t Athena’s book to write and certainly not June’s, whose was it? How far out of a writer's own experience can they write to remain creative and original but not be appropriative or exploitative? Is all writing about pain for profit inherently exploitative under capitalism? Is there even such a thing as an original idea divorced from one’s own experiences? Do writers have the right to write about someone else’s pain?
”Once the personal became spectacle, the pain was still there.”
As a writer who’s aspiring to break into the industry in genre fiction, these questions will haunt me like Athena’s ghost haunts the narrative. As will the descriptions of the publishing industry, showing the corruption of publishing and just how many authors slip through the cracks. It doesn’t actually matter how talented or good you are, only how well you can be marketed. How many of the best books of all time are lost to obscurity or never even published because no one cared? How many of us writers will suffer this fate? Especially authors who don’t look like June and who have actual morals?
Themes aside, the book is compulsively readable. Filled to the brim with drama and twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. I do think the ending twist could’ve felt a little less contrived, but I did really like it on a thematic level. I also found the timeline hard to keep up with, however, June notably doesn’t change much throughout the novel. So perhaps the timeline being difficult is simply because successful June is just as vile as pre-success June? Then again, the timelines are also a bit difficult to follow in RFK’s other books where there are more prominent character arcs. I’m thinking she should perhaps shorten her novels from happening over the course of years and instead have them happen over a more concise couple of weeks or months.
Overall, Yellowface is a novel that begs for controversy. It’s in conversation with the reader and asks some very uncomfortable questions while revealing a lot about the greed of publishing and white tears. It’s also a cautionary tale about why you shouldn’t plagiarize.
A scathing satire about racism and toxicity in both the publishing industry and the online book community. Yellowface is an extremely blunt novel that asks the reader to interrogate the bold question: am I the asshole?
I'd recommend just reading the book if you're interested as my review goes into detail about the themes, there's a lot to unpack and this review is less me recommending the book and more me unpacking some of the themes. I especially recommend Yellowface to people who are knowledgeable in publishing and/or involved in the online book community.
The plot and characters eerily reflect real life discourse, there’s a few too many people I can think of who I see June Hayward in (off the top of my head, J.K. Rowling, Jean Cummins, Emily A. Duncan, and several influencers, to name a few). Yellowface feels less like a novel at times and more like an essay for R.F Kuang to discuss it all. It paints neither the publishing industry or online book discourse in a positive light, calling out how bestsellers are curated by publishing before readers even get a chance to know they exist and how the discourse is rarely, if ever, productive. As well as calling out how discourse is had over books and representation, questioning how much readers enable these shitty authors and how a lot of criticism is all bark and no bite.
My main critique of the book is that for how much it talked about online discourse, I wish it had gone deeper. Compared to the commentary on racism and publishing, it felt surface level. Like “wow! People on Twitter are really angry! And the discourse is really rancid! Wild ain’t it?” I did like the commentary on how cyclical the discourse is and how change rarely comes of it, but those are pretty lukewarm takes. I’m pretty sure anyone who’s ever even seen grass can come to those conclusions.
Like in her fantasy novels, there are no heroes in Yellowface. It’s difficult to judge anyone given June Hayward is an unreliable narrator in both how self centered and lacking in self awareness she is: caring so much with the appearance of being a good person while putting none of the work in. Particularly in relation to racism as she proclaims to be an advocate for the AAPI diaspora while every single interaction she has with Asian characters are rife with microaggressions.
RFK doesn’t distance the reader from June, rather inserting us deep in her head. So deep that at times she begins making sense and nearly tricks the reader, until that is she does something extremely out of pocket and the reader is startled for ever having considered her points.
It should also be noted that despite the book's title, June never does full yellowface, she never outright lies about being white or stealing the manuscript. Instead she twists her stories and omits truths. If people ask, she’s white, but her author name and photo are purposefully ambiguous. June doesn’t see this as a lie and she wants the reader to believe it isn’t fucked up. She’s a fourth wall breaker in a way, desperately trying to convince the reader that she is the victim in all of this.
Almost everyone around June enables her bullshit, as a matter of fact they have a lot of bullshit too and it’s a cycle of horrendous people supporting horrendous people. Athena Liu who haunts the narrative is put into question as well. I disagree with the take that she’s RFK’s self insert, because though she does get a lot of RFK’s criticisms, they’re criticisms that a lot of AAPI authors get. She’s also far from perfect and it’s difficult to judge who she is from June’s extremely biased perspective.
As Athena is called into question, there is a conversation around who can write what stories. 100% the book was NOT June’s story to tell no matter how she spins it. But was it Athena’s? It’s notable several of the criticisms that are had of June’s stolen book were sections that Athena wrote, though Athena’s version was mostly better, it’s far from perfect and it’s questionable how authentic her representation was and whether she was exploitative.
If it wasn’t Athena’s book to write and certainly not June’s, whose was it? How far out of a writer's own experience can they write to remain creative and original but not be appropriative or exploitative? Is all writing about pain for profit inherently exploitative under capitalism? Is there even such a thing as an original idea divorced from one’s own experiences? Do writers have the right to write about someone else’s pain?
”Once the personal became spectacle, the pain was still there.”
As a writer who’s aspiring to break into the industry in genre fiction, these questions will haunt me like Athena’s ghost haunts the narrative. As will the descriptions of the publishing industry, showing the corruption of publishing and just how many authors slip through the cracks. It doesn’t actually matter how talented or good you are, only how well you can be marketed. How many of the best books of all time are lost to obscurity or never even published because no one cared? How many of us writers will suffer this fate? Especially authors who don’t look like June and who have actual morals?
Themes aside, the book is compulsively readable. Filled to the brim with drama and twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. I do think the ending twist could’ve felt a little less contrived, but I did really like it on a thematic level. I also found the timeline hard to keep up with, however, June notably doesn’t change much throughout the novel. So perhaps the timeline being difficult is simply because successful June is just as vile as pre-success June? Then again, the timelines are also a bit difficult to follow in RFK’s other books where there are more prominent character arcs. I’m thinking she should perhaps shorten her novels from happening over the course of years and instead have them happen over a more concise couple of weeks or months.
Overall, Yellowface is a novel that begs for controversy. It’s in conversation with the reader and asks some very uncomfortable questions while revealing a lot about the greed of publishing and white tears. It’s also a cautionary tale about why you shouldn’t plagiarize.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Death, Racism, and Rape
Moderate: Hate crime and Misogyny