Review: Yellowface - RF Kuang

Review: Yellowface - R.F Kuang - May 2023

This book is one of those that has been sitting on my bookshelf staring at me, it's one of those books that I was almost scared to read as I had built this book up so much in my head and I was terrified that it would crash and burn and not meet the expectations I had created. It was actually in my mind a good read and touched several aspects of strands and issues that have been over the past few years floating around the book world. The biggest one is the race of authors and whether an author of one race can write about another race. To be honest, I have seen many non-whites writing about white characters and there not being an issue, but then you flip the script and it is an issue that I have seen authors attacked for. In Yellowface, we have two frenemies June Hayward and Anthena Liu. They were both great writers but June was just another white female and became part of the sea of faceless average white writers whereas Anthena was Asian-American, Bisexual, and an amazing writer who got every opportunity thrown her way which she snapped up. She became a successful figure but then one day she died. June was with her when she died and saw this as an opportunity as Anthena had just shown her a draft manuscript she had been working on. June took it and started playing with it, editing it, adding her twists, and submitting it under the name Juniper Song. This book took off and June starts experiencing the world of publishing and becoming a big name. What happens though when someone thinks they know the truth and threaten to reveal that she stole the manuscript and she is set to lose everything? Find out in this thought-provoking and powerful novel by RF Kuang. I have a couple of her others to read - Babel and The Poppy War. Reading Yellowface and the book within the book The Last Front made me think of her book The Poppy War and I could imagine some of the crossovers and her writing style.  If you are a bookish person, then this is a book that every bookstagrammer and reviewer or author needs to read as it is an eye-opener with the current world state of publishing.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3qpB0bR