Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena's a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn't even get a paperback release. Nobody 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 to the British and French war efforts 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 takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang's novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
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 to the British and French war efforts 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 takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang's novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
My Thoughts
This book is very popular so of course I jumped in and picked this one for my Goodreads Book club pick (Between The Pages) for the month of July. Yellowface was very good indeed. Very interesting. In the story we have Athena Liu a very popular Asian American author who is looked at among the writing community as the next big thing to come to the literary world. Her friend (perhaps only friend) June Hayward who is also a writer but not as successful.
When Athena suddenly dies June steals Athena's manuscript for her latest work "The Last Front". June edits the manuscript and publishes it with resounding success. But soon she begins getting negative social media posts, describing her as a thief.
I found that this was a really good look into the life of a writer and the publishing industry. This author was really descriptive of June and Athena's lives as writers and it was skillful how she went into detail of the pros and cons surrounding this industry. I have always been curious myself as an avid reader about what goes into writing a book and publishing it.
What was also interesting was how Juniper was viewed by the book community as a Caucasian person who was writing about the Asian community. I found that very exciting about the book no wonder this is a best seller. After reading this book maybe I could become a writer myself hahaha. Who knows.
I highly recommend this. It was very good.
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