Kuang unravels layers of our characters’ histories, complicating the narrative and forcing us to ask: “Who can claim literary authorship over our story?” This industry is built on silencing us, stomping us into the ground, and hurling money at white people to produce racist stereotypes of us.’ It all boils down to self-interest…If publishing is rigged, you might as well make sure it's rigged in your favor.’ The most insidious moment sees June travels to Washington DC’s Chinatown for “inspiration” to “find some good narrative potential” at a Chinese restaurant, accosting an innocent waiter and demanding he tell her something interesting about himself. Utterly oblivious to her imperial, colonialist mindset, this scene made my brain writhe in disgust, perhaps because it speaks so close to reality.

No one is likable, including Athena, but I was glued to the story as I alternately laughed out loud and recoiled in disgust. Overall, this was an average book, definitely not the riveting book, have to read in one sitting book that the world has lost its mind over. It’s just a little too shaky in places, and whilst there aren’t any overt mistakes in terms of grammar and punctuation, I did occasionally find myself being jerked out of the story when somebody behaved strangely or said something unusual. You could tell it was purely for the sake of advancing the moral. And then there was the part where Zephaniah said it was a Friday, and in the following scene it was “the next day” and still Friday, somehow.

What a choice to have the main narrative voice be the plagiarizer (and in first person at that). Both Athena and June are awful people, and I love that neither of them is a saint, but reading the entire thing from June's pov? Insane. She's a frustrating character, not gonna lie, but she's also deliciously realistic as a two-faced, self-absorbed and dishonest manipulator that always has an excuse ready. She goes out of her way to say to the reader that she wants to do something for poc every chance she gets, but the reality is that she's a bitch trying to profit from it all in an industry that lets her do it. Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's not too difficult to miss her slipping into a plain wrong mentality and lol, basic whiteness. You think you're safe as the external reader? Not a chance. I'm not proud to say I fell straight into R.F. Kuang's trap, because was I seriously rooting for such a cheater the entire time? This book brainwashed me into supporting someone who stole a whole manuscript immediately after witnessing the author's death and reaching stardom by publishing it as her own. I got to the point where I was scared she was going to get caught and hoped she would get out of it unscathed. My brain ignored all the red flags and procedeed to scam me until the very end. I mean, of course I ended up wishing she would kill someone to shut them up. Of course I got second-hand anxiety from her messing up with her publishing team and at her events. Of course I cared about her mental health. Am I okay or what? Is it time for me to get theraphy too? and to be clear, this isn't a blanket response to everyone who disagrees with me (i've had interesting conversations with people who do)--just to some people who are determined to take the most uncharitable opinion possible of a frankly lukewarm review. This is not an unfamiliar premise. So, what makes this story different? June’s voice. She’s funny, snarky, and totally without morals. She’s a literary psychopathic Jane Doe/Joe (thriller readers , you know who I’m talking about!) who can justify anything she does. She's unlikable, which is the author's intent. Sounds a bit fake, but I genuinely think R. F. Kuang was the right person to tell this story. No matter how many times she REINVENTS herself, the story always feels like it was made just and only for her. I can't wait to read the Poppy War trilogy. i’ve decided not to include any quotes from the book and talk in general terms with minor details to avoid spoilers (not anything that’s not in the premise, anyway), but i’m still talking about how i felt about different parts of the book, including the middle and end, even though I won’t be talking about what happens in them. so if you want to go in blind, beware. i know this runs the risk of me describing something one way, but then you going and reading it and interpreting a different way, but until it actually comes out and i can drop the ‘extended’ (and hopefully more sophisticated) review, this will have to do.

To June, however, she sees diversity as a problem, thinking she is passed over for authors like Athena because it looks good. Which, if we look at the publishing market, shows that about 75% of published authors in the US are white and a 2020 study showed 95% of all books published were by white authors the previous year. So I don't really feel like we were making progress in this novel because I would not have given any credence to these naysayers. Helio relates his abandonment by Lula. Lula still loves him and does not leave him callously, but nevertheless his condition makes it impossible for their romance to continue, and Lula reluctantly severs the relationship. Continuing his odyssey with the Brazilian medical bureaucracy, Helio is admonished that he should have had his workplace issue a letter of disability immediately after the accident; without this, there is no question of full reconstruction being authorized. Do you know what it's like to pitch a book and be told they already have an Asian writer? That they can't put out two minority stories in the same season? That Athena Liu already exists, so you're redundant?’ so, a little too “real world” for my personal reading preferences, but there is no doubt this is a provocative novel that sheds light on various aspects of the book world.There's a certain Discourse we're supposed to have from this book about Bad White Women, and how publishing serves to silence writers of colour. We also have to discuss who gets to tell certain stories. The problem is, we have spoken about this ad nauseum. So who is this book for? Outsiders who would like to know how it works? Adults who wanted a meta vivisection of this insular world but with Dark Themes?

I also think this book does open up important conversations. Yes, at times it makes its point bluntly/crudely and in an obvious way, though through this satire Kuang raises deeper questions too, such as whether anyone can remain truly ethical or generous in a brutally capitalist publishing industry. I liked how Kuang didn’t make Athena a perfect character because by doing so, she highlights how people of color can engage in problematic and oppressive practices too. it was very heavy-handed, and pretty self-indulgent, but i love three things in this life and those are mean girls, and b*tching with my friends, and books, and this was all three of them in one. Overall, this realistic and thrilling read left me feeling anxious and evoked a multitude of emotions including fear, hate, and sadness. It successfully accomplished its mission of shaking the reader to their core and provoking deep thoughts that linger for days. The essence of a masterpiece lies in its ability to challenge readers and evoke a range of feelings, and this book achieves just that. Yellowface is about June Heyward who steals a manuscript from her best-selling author frenemy. After her friend dies in a bizarre accident, June polishes up the prose and sells the book as her own without crediting her friend.

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The appropriation of history, the historicization of the past, the narrativization of society, all of which give the novel its force, include the accumulation and differentiation of social space, space to be used for social purposes.’

i'm being generous already when i say that it is OK, because i personally do not like these kinds of books. while i appreciate the social commentary and the look inside the publishing industry, i found the tone and execution quite heavy-handed.R. F. Kuang doesn't speak with or to you when she writes, she HAUNTS you. It takes a genius to achieve that. I really wanted to like this book. The cover is good and thought provoking and the concept behind it was really interesting. I feel like if it had been executed better this book could have been brilliant. Unfortunately it wasn't.