Yellowface

A Novel

By: R. F. Kuang

Narrated by: Helen Laser

Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

“Hard to put down, harder to forget.”—Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who 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 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 grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently enjoyable.

©2023 R. F. Kuang (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Biting commentary, great satire, and flawed protag

Awesome read :D

I’m not sure if everyone can enjoy this book but in my opinion for readers familiar with R. F. Kuang’s general career and previous works, Yellowface is a must read!

Highly entertaining and infinitely thoughtful

The ending is so interesting that I have no doubt I will immediately spend an ungodly amount of time discussing, debating, and dissecting the story

Will likely start my reread today even

I highly recommend checking out interviews, lectures, and talks featuring the author on Youtube. I think, specifically for this type of work, readers should hear from the author herself explain her intentions and interests since this type of work is primed for misinterpretations (Poe's Law and all that)

SO GOOD!

I loved it! It was clever and fun, couldn’t stop listening. The narrator was very good. You won’t regret this credit!

Wanted to love it

Great writing, but just kept going and didn’t get to the point. Just expected more meat to it.

I hated all of the characters

But I loved this book! Performance was Top Notch. I loved the sarcasm and funny parts. And I very much appreciate how the author showed that Twitter is toxic and stupid, no matter who is there or who owns it.

Fantastic!

Really interesting story and great reading performance. Enjoyed this one by RF Kuang a lot

Good but irritating

I was looking forward to reading this book and I felt it started off strong. As the book went on I found myself irritated with the main character so much so I almost didn’t want to finish it. The writing is amazing, the story defines the younger generation, neurotic unable to cope in normal society and self centered. Again, I would say read it, the writing is fantastic, but I think the hype is overblown.

Could have been shorter

An Asian author writing a novel from a Caucasian narrator who stole a novel from an Asian author… I’m appalled at the dishonesty of the narrator and the way she continues to tell herself she had the right to plagiarize. So in that kudos… the author got me to feel. But as for sympathy for the narrator, I had none. And the story carried on too long.

Terrible narrator

This novel presents very complex issues about identities, authors, voices, the living people behind those voices, cultural appropriations, and the corruption of the publishing industry.
Such complexity deserves a more serious narrative voice so that the reader-listener can reflect upon the issues at hand, rather than being distracted by a narrative voice that sounds like a jealous and catty teenager.

Incredible

Show stopping. I'm in awe of R.F. Kuangs voice. A truth on how everyone can act a little bit better. Perception will always be fluid. Wow.

Heavy Topic, Lightly written

The 1st account writing style was compelling, and the plot intriguing, some elements of the plot were a bit cliche, which is why I give it 4 stars [SPOILERS AHEAD].

Primarily, the physical altercation at the end. Junie does draw parallels to how the scene felt like a movie plot, but I still came out of it thinking "..... really?"

I think the subject matter is important and compelling, specifically the topic of whether a white author should write about the history of other non-white cultures. We enter the territory of literary political correctness, which is a topic worth exploring.

I do recommend this book, but it's not in my top reads for the year.