I picked up Yellowface because a Korean stand-up comedian recommended it. I mean.. it felt unusual for a comedian to recommend a novel with serious tones. She said that it was interesting how the author is Asian, yet the main character is white. tbh, I didn’t expect Athena to die so early in the story. 😂 I thought the tension would unfold between two living rivals. However, the novel is less about competition and more about obsession. Of course I didnt like the main character, to say the least. she doesn’t simply envy the Asian writer; she worships her, resents her. At some point, I can imagine the author's ego must have been dissected and worshiped too while writig this story. It feels like the book is playing with that cycle: genius being admired, destroyed
Yellowface
R. F. Kuang
2025
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * EXCERPT TO NEW NOVEL KATABASIS! "Hard to put down, harder to forget." -- Stephen King 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 psychological thriller 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 in the world of literary fiction. 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 from a masterfully crafted unreliable narrator, 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 readable.
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