Book Review / Yellowface by R F Kuang

 Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena's a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn't even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song--complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang's novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

Published:  16th May 2023 

Publisher:  William Morrow

Goodreads :  Click Here

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

Genres:     Thriller, Contemporary and Mystery

Pages:  336 pages, Hardcover 

MY REVIEW

What I liked about this story...  This was such a fun quick read.  I read this in one sitting, in one afternoon.  I don't think I've come across many novels where I both really dislike and like a main character, at the same time.  Although June knows what she is doing is morally wrong, she does it anyway, so when things start to not go so well she kind of deserves it to be honest but that doesn't mean I don't want things to work out well for her.  There were not a lot of surprises in this book but I still had a really great time.  

Would I recommend...  A fun thriller to read on a rainy afternoon.  Nothing complicated but great.