Although June and Athena went to school together, Athena has found major success as an Asian-American novelist while June struggles to get a foot in the door, probably because she's just another basic white girl. When June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she impetuously snatches up Athena's unfinished work. Publishing it as her own, June rebrands herself as a racially ambiguous Juniper Song and becomes an instant bestseller. Yet as the truth threatens to come out, June must decide how far she is willing to go to keep her secret.

Yellowface is a bitingly clever look at the hypocrisy of the publishing industry, and our society in general. Kuang's satire was over-the-top and yet nuanced at the same time, hitting on so many deep themes - gatekeeping, racism, plagiarism, reverse discrimination, and cancel culture, just to name a few. Using June as the first-person narrator, Kuang leads you into June's morally grey mindset, forcing you to consider what your own thoughts are on the topics discussed.