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A review by theengineerisreading
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
4.0
I'm going to start this review by mentioning that Yellowface is my most anticipated 2023 release since I'm a big fan of the author's previous works and my expectation's quite high given that this book is pitched as the controversial book that the community should watch out this year.
To start, Yellowface succeeded in delivering the promise of dark, humorous, satirical piece that exploits the messy reality of book industry - from querying to publishing; release dates to reviews - and R. F. Kuang did not hold back in throwing punches to the entire industry, us included.
The story follows the voice of June Hayward, a young white female author with one published book who aspires to write the next big thing, and Athena Liu, another fresh face in the book industry who published some of the bestselling titles ft. stories linked to her Chinese roots. It is clear that the level of Athena and June's friendship is not in the bestfriend tier but they're doing their best as each other's support system through June's bad days and Athena's wins.
Though odds are always in favor of Athena, she was not able to foresee the accident that led to her death as they celebrate the inking of Netflix deal for one of her books. Her death shocked the book industry and everyone was so sad as they lost one of the best writers of new generation - the only one who was able to gain something out of this death is her 'bestfriend' June who stole the manuscript of her recently completed unpublished historical fiction. And from there the story of deception unfolds.
Magnificently messy, the story of Athena and June tackled a handful of topics that are all related to modern day publishing -
Are authors allowed to invade the readers space if they see negative reviews of their books?
Is it morally right for authors to write characters of specific background (race, identity, gender, status) even if they don't share the same background?
Is there a right time for authors (or readers) to engage in social media discourse that shows them in a bad light?
Above questions are some of the majorly developed topics in the book as the story of Athena and June spiraled. I will say that you'll definitely enjoy those parts if you're familiar with the never-ending discourse of the above topics in different social media platforms. And boy was it a delight to read all the sprinkled satirical sentences throwing fires to us as a community since you know that these sentences are inspired by what happened in real life.
Another thing that I enjoyed is how unreliable June Hayward as a narrator. June is white and all her takes about Athena, her critics, and the industry's push towards a more inclusive space are coming from a Western privileged lens. I can't imagine RFKuang writing June's internal thoughts without snickering or feeling disgusted.
RFKuang took the word morally grey and upped the notch that her main character in this book is bordering in between the morally grey and morally dark area.
Though some of June's point are valid, especially those where she touched about how the publishing world is still dominantly patriarchal, her overall thoughts about life and work is still coming from a privileged point of view. For me, June only steps up when a cause is for something that will benefit her but you can easily see her running away when it's for the marginalized voices. I'll just say that June Hayward is a fucking racist and she does not deserve even a cent with her way of thinking.
I also liked how the author explored the contrast between Athena and June as they transitioned from being Yale students to published authors where they got separated because Athena became an instant bestseller while June was not able to achieve such feat. It was a harsh reality check on how cutthroat the publishing industry and if you are not fit for the (profitable) role that they want, then you'll sadly be on the bottom part of the pyramid.
Athena and June showed two different personality when faced with success. Athena as someone who knows how to navigate the world that was given to her while June remain imprisoned by her jealousy and guilt over what she did after her friend's death. It's definitely a wild ride but since we're only getting the words out of June's mouth, it's hard to say whether the character that she shaped out of Athena is true or not. Props to June for filling in the role of an unreliable narrator.
The storyline was fucking great. I breezed through the first 200 pages of the book in one sitting and I highlighted all the humorous or relatable or crazy-as-shit lines. I enjoyed annotating this book which means that the piece itself is engaging, funny, and engrossing.
But I will not rate this one five stars for the sole reason that the ending was not what I expected.
The exhilarating turn of events from Athena's death to June publishing Athena's works to the book industry reading the plagiarized work to reviewers pointing out suspicious things about the book, I was expecting an out-of-this-world finale that will shock June Hayward's life to its core she will pray to gods that she shouldn't have touched that unpublished manuscript in the first place.
What happened is more on a realistic ending - and when I say realistic, it's because we've seen this film before and we didn't like the ending. I am not the biggest fan of the ending because I was rooting for the sickest downfall but well, life happens and sometimes we can't get what we want.
Overall, this is a solid novel that will follow the success of The Poppy War trilogy and Babel. I can see how the book community will devour this one (especially book twitter since it's June Hayward's favorite space) so I highly-recommend this one.
Yellowface is meta and I don't want you missing out on this great novel so once copies hit shelves by May 16, RUN don't walk and do yourself a favor and prioritize this one.
RATING: 4stars
To start, Yellowface succeeded in delivering the promise of dark, humorous, satirical piece that exploits the messy reality of book industry - from querying to publishing; release dates to reviews - and R. F. Kuang did not hold back in throwing punches to the entire industry, us included.
The story follows the voice of June Hayward, a young white female author with one published book who aspires to write the next big thing, and Athena Liu, another fresh face in the book industry who published some of the bestselling titles ft. stories linked to her Chinese roots. It is clear that the level of Athena and June's friendship is not in the bestfriend tier but they're doing their best as each other's support system through June's bad days and Athena's wins.
Though odds are always in favor of Athena, she was not able to foresee the accident that led to her death as they celebrate the inking of Netflix deal for one of her books. Her death shocked the book industry and everyone was so sad as they lost one of the best writers of new generation - the only one who was able to gain something out of this death is her 'bestfriend' June who stole the manuscript of her recently completed unpublished historical fiction. And from there the story of deception unfolds.
Magnificently messy, the story of Athena and June tackled a handful of topics that are all related to modern day publishing -
Are authors allowed to invade the readers space if they see negative reviews of their books?
Is it morally right for authors to write characters of specific background (race, identity, gender, status) even if they don't share the same background?
Is there a right time for authors (or readers) to engage in social media discourse that shows them in a bad light?
Above questions are some of the majorly developed topics in the book as the story of Athena and June spiraled. I will say that you'll definitely enjoy those parts if you're familiar with the never-ending discourse of the above topics in different social media platforms. And boy was it a delight to read all the sprinkled satirical sentences throwing fires to us as a community since you know that these sentences are inspired by what happened in real life.
Another thing that I enjoyed is how unreliable June Hayward as a narrator. June is white and all her takes about Athena, her critics, and the industry's push towards a more inclusive space are coming from a Western privileged lens. I can't imagine RFKuang writing June's internal thoughts without snickering or feeling disgusted.
RFKuang took the word morally grey and upped the notch that her main character in this book is bordering in between the morally grey and morally dark area.
Though some of June's point are valid, especially those where she touched about how the publishing world is still dominantly patriarchal, her overall thoughts about life and work is still coming from a privileged point of view. For me, June only steps up when a cause is for something that will benefit her but you can easily see her running away when it's for the marginalized voices. I'll just say that June Hayward is a fucking racist and she does not deserve even a cent with her way of thinking.
I also liked how the author explored the contrast between Athena and June as they transitioned from being Yale students to published authors where they got separated because Athena became an instant bestseller while June was not able to achieve such feat. It was a harsh reality check on how cutthroat the publishing industry and if you are not fit for the (profitable) role that they want, then you'll sadly be on the bottom part of the pyramid.
Athena and June showed two different personality when faced with success. Athena as someone who knows how to navigate the world that was given to her while June remain imprisoned by her jealousy and guilt over what she did after her friend's death. It's definitely a wild ride but since we're only getting the words out of June's mouth, it's hard to say whether the character that she shaped out of Athena is true or not. Props to June for filling in the role of an unreliable narrator.
The storyline was fucking great. I breezed through the first 200 pages of the book in one sitting and I highlighted all the humorous or relatable or crazy-as-shit lines. I enjoyed annotating this book which means that the piece itself is engaging, funny, and engrossing.
But I will not rate this one five stars for the sole reason that the ending was not what I expected.
The exhilarating turn of events from Athena's death to June publishing Athena's works to the book industry reading the plagiarized work to reviewers pointing out suspicious things about the book, I was expecting an out-of-this-world finale that will shock June Hayward's life to its core she will pray to gods that she shouldn't have touched that unpublished manuscript in the first place.
What happened is more on a realistic ending - and when I say realistic, it's because we've seen this film before and we didn't like the ending. I am not the biggest fan of the ending because I was rooting for the sickest downfall but well, life happens and sometimes we can't get what we want.
Overall, this is a solid novel that will follow the success of The Poppy War trilogy and Babel. I can see how the book community will devour this one (especially book twitter since it's June Hayward's favorite space) so I highly-recommend this one.
Yellowface is meta and I don't want you missing out on this great novel so once copies hit shelves by May 16, RUN don't walk and do yourself a favor and prioritize this one.
RATING: 4stars