Yellowface

A Novel

By: R. F. Kuang

Narrated by: Helen Laser

Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

“Hard to put down, harder to forget.”—Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author

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 novel 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. 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, 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 enjoyable.

©2023 R. F. Kuang (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

The caucasity of a culture vulture

Let me tell ya about this book. The meta narrative on the publishing industry with its power as gatekeepers to determine which stories are told and altered whitewashed palatable for profile. On to June, June is racist that's not up for debate. Her casual racist is rampant throughout the book. Yet I haven't seen such an honest depiction of the delusional state of reality white people create. The identity as a "I'm a liberal", "I'm not a racist", "I voted for Obama" people." While spiraling into self prescribed victimhood and full blow racism is absolutely wild and yet just another tuseday. June like many individuals rather believe they're being targeted while refusing to understand that "cancel culture" are just consequences of my actions. Our narrator is the villain. She'll never believe it tho.

Disappointing

I was excited to hear this because of the reviews, however I was very disappointed. I found it boring and the character only portrayed as being interested in her gain. The performance was excellent.

Thrilling and thought provoking

This is definitely whatever the audiobook equivalent of a page-turner is. The emotions experienced were so real and relatable and exquisitely articulated. The performance was spectacular. I really loved that the protagonist was problematic. You always get where she's coming from, but that doesn't make her right. The author leaves you to wonder with the characters in the novel what you should think about Juniper Song.

As infuriating as intended.

wow! this book is as infuriating as the author intended it to be. incredible read, it's not the author's normal genre, but they nailed it.

Yellowface meets Cancel Culture

I found this book to be interesting at times and very annoying at other times. I wanted to like the main character, but the whining was just too much. And both June and Athena were self-absorbed children trying to be adults without having the skills to handle the real world. The book centers around “cancel culture” which for me is laughable. The ending missed the target.

Wasn’t sure how it would end

I wasn’t sure how it would end and wasn’t expecting it to be a long ramble of junes thoughts the entire time. It was so different than what I thought but I loved it and wasn’t bored. Narration was great

Important and compelling

This book touches on so many points that are obvious to women of color but invisible to white people. And some white people get very defensive, just look at the reviews! I’m in awe of how talented and young this author is. I hope that what she describes in her book happening to women of color in the publishing industry does not happen to her. We need to cherish and protect brave creators like her. This book will either comfort you or insult you. Read it and find out.
Question for the author: are you obsessed with the untamed too?

Should check correct pronunciation first

For a book written by a Chinese author about Chinese authors, the narrator really should look up the correct pronunciation of Chinese words mentioned which are actually not that many.

5-star to support R.F.Kuang but it wasn’t that good.

AMAZING

I love this book so much! It’s so hard to put down, and the narration is so compelling

Fantastic, as per usual.

This is definitely different from her other work, but it’s still high quality. Gets a bit weird at the end though. I feel like it would have been more interesting if we got more information about Athena’s parents, but regardless it was still a fun read. I’d give it a 7/10