Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

This is a spoiler-free review of Yellowface by R. F. Kuang. I have a lot to say about this one, so grab a drink and a snack. Let’s dive in.

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“This is a great read. Crime, satire, horror, paranoia, questions of cultural appropriation. Plenty of nasty social media pile-ons, too. But, basically, just a great story. Hard to put down, harder to forget.” — Stephen King

About The Book 📚

Title: Yellowface

Author: R. F. Kuang

Publication Date: May 2023

Publisher: The Borough Press

Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary

Pages: 329

Setting: Washington D.C.

Content Warnings: racism, death, panic attacks, toxic friendship, suicidal thoughts, sexual assault, grief, stalking, profanity, violence, alcohol, sexism

About The Author

“Rebecca F. Kuang is the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and Yellowface. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.” https://rfkuang.com/

My Review

› The cover is a yellow face. “Yellowface” is a theatre practice where actors paint their faces yellow to portray an Asian character. This is a racist practice that enabled white people to be hired for jobs that should have been filled by Asian people. This book cover demonstrates Kuang’s courage to tackle racism in the book publication industry head-on.

“Reading lets us live in someone else’s shoes. Literature builds bridges; it makes our world larger, not smaller.”

› The narrator is June Hayward and she is unlikeable, unreliable, and unhinged. She became friends with Athena Liu while studying at Yale. They expect to both become successful authors. Athena was awarded a multi-book deal right after college and now has three published novels at 27 years old, while June is struggling to be noticed. June desperately wants to be liked by everyone. June blames Athena’s success on the publishing industry claiming they chose Athena because she’s beautiful and “diverse”.

“Athena – a beautiful, Yale-educated, international, ambiguously queer woman of color – has been chosen by the Powers That Be.”

› June and Athena are drunk and celebrating at Athena’s apartment when they decide to have a pancake-eating contest. Shockingly, Athena dies choking on a pancake (this is not a spoiler it happens very early in the book). June calls 911 and tries to save Athena, but is unsuccessful. After the police and emergency medical team leave, June steals Athena’s unpublished manuscript called “The Last Front” about the Chinese Labour Corps. She edits the manuscript and submits it as her own, landing a huge book deal. Her publicist and marketing manager suggests that June use her middle name, Song, so the book can be more “authentic”. And so, June published the book under the name Juniper Song.

› And then…someone starts posting things online…“She’s using the pen name Juniper Song to pretend to be Chinese American. She’s taken new author photos to look more tan and ethnic, but she’s as white as they come. June Hayward, you are a thief and a liar. You’ve stolen my legacy, and now you spit on my grave.” Who is posting this? Is it Athena?

June is pushed to her limits trying to discover who’s posting about her online and hide the truth of the book’s true author.

› On her website, Kuang says her last name rhymes with “song”. Interesting, as that is June Hayward’s middle name. Written during the pandemic, Yellowface is a book “of our time”. It uses social media to tell the story. Some say this will date the book and I can see what they mean, however, I don’t think it will make the book obsolete, but rather it will become a book written at a specific time when we were all only connected to each other through the internet.

› We know that June is unlikeable, but Athena isn’t a “good” person either. She loved the special attention she received being the only Asian author in the room and didn’t want up-and-coming Asian authors to steal the spotlight. She is the symbol of bad representation.

› Some reviewers have said they don’t like this book because it feels like a revenge book, but Kuang has said in interviews that this is meant to be satirical and ridiculous. Yes, she has been told some of these things in real life regarding her success being tied to her race, but she says this book isn’t about any particular person, but rather a cathartic way to get it all out. Yellowface does a great job making the reader feel uncomfortable, yet also make you laugh and gasp.

This story conjured many questions for me:

› What is authenticity? How do we know something is authentic? Who gets to decide what is true? Who gets to write what? Are the people who need this message the most going to read this book and understand Kuang’s intention?

› Listening to interviews with Kuang, she’s often asked about authenticity and representation and her responses have changed my mind. I’ve written about authenticity in my book reviews, and I must admit, my view on that has been wrong. How can I love fantasy books written from the perspective of a dragon, yet I’m uncomfortable with a male author writing from the perspective of a woman, or a white person writing from the perspective of a person of colour? Kuang is right – anyone should be allowed to write about anything as long as it’s done right.

At the same time, we also need to encourage publishers to give more voice to people of colour. The following link lists 7 facts that show we still need to be having this conversation: https://www.bustle.com/p/7-stats-about-diversity-in-book-publishing-that-reveal-the-magnitude-of-the-problem-18022153

APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: character-driven, issue-oriented, plot-driven, unconventional
Pace: fast
Tone: angsty, dramatic, reflective, thought-provoking, dark
Humour: dark humour, offbeat, sarcastic, satire
Sinister: disturbing
Writing Style: slang-heavy, attention-grabbing, candid, compelling, engaging, gritty
Character: awkward, complex, flawed, unlikeable, well-developed, diverse

› In the past I have given a rating out of ten and converted that to a star rating, but I’m no longer giving a star rating here on my blog. I will continue to do that on Goodreads and The Story Graph.

› Final Thoughts
• Yellowface is an engrossing and tense contemporary literary novel about racism, cultural authenticity, authorship, and the effect of capitalism on art. Using a despicable, unhinged character, Kuang has forced us to look at ourselves. She is fearless and I can’t wait to read more from her. Kuang has a nonsensical fantasy novel coming out in 2025.