Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

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I absolutely loved Babel when I read it earlier this year.  While Yellowface is a very different novel – a thriller rather than fantasy – I couldn’t wait to read it as soon as I heard about it.

From the very beginning of the novel June Hayward is quite an unlikeable character.  She comes across as being bitchy and two-faced in her acquaintance with Athena Liu, although she doesn’t mind taking advantage of Athena’s generosity when it comes to going out for drinks.  That said, her journey is utterly fascinating as she is propelled into the limelight after taking Athena’s manuscript, editing it, and publishing it as her own work.  And it initially seems as though she might get away with it, but as certain things start to come light and as the rumour that she stole someone else’s work begins to spread, we start to see exactly how far she’s prepared to go.  While most might at some point decide that the game is up, June doubles down repeatedly, digging herself ever deeper into a hole.  It is fascinating to see her scheme and manipulate, and I found this to be an incredibly compelling narrative despite the main protagonist being unsympathetic.

As the novel progresses, we see June deal with the fallout of her split-second decision to take Athena’s manuscript.  Initially lauded, it doesn’t take long for the social media trolls to appear once the rumour begins to spread about the true authorship of her novel.  This causes June to spiral into paranoia, even believing that she is being haunted by Athena.  Through this, Kuang successfully tackles the capricious nature of social media – the good, the bad, and the downright ugly as we see the way in which comments and accusations spiral out of control, with June receiving death threats amidst the pile-on.  Even I felt sympathy for her at times, as no one deserves that, however shitty a thing they’ve done.  

While I didn’t take to June – and I don’t think the reader is meant to – I did feel sorry for Athena initially.  Her accident is so utterly mundane and it’s shocking to see a literary darling brought low, her talent wasted.  I think that we all know the type – the young, attractive writer who just happens to have an incredible natural talent, so much so that they are picked up for a lucrative publishing deal straight out of university.  It’s rare, but you know about it when it happens.  As June relays her tale and shares some of her background and interactions with Athena, I did find that initial opinion altering.  Athena, as we get to know more about her, seems manipulative, using other people’s experiences – even those relayed in confidence – to fuel her writing, putting a different spin on a character who is initially presented as being utterly perfect. 

But now, I see, author efforts have nothing to do with a book’s success. Bestsellers are chosen. Nothing you do matters. You just get to enjoy the perks along the way.

By its very nature, Yellowface includes a lot of detail about publishing and the process of getting a book out to market.  As an avid reader, it’s fascinating to walk through the process and while that sort of detail shouldn’t be fascinating, it is.  I found the view of publishing, as presented here, surprisingly scathing – although that may say more about me and my rose-tinted glasses than it does about the publishing industry!  Kuang highlights here that it is a business at the end of the day, and portrays a surprisingly cut-throat world that can be a minefield to navigate.  

Yellowface is a brilliant and insightful novel that had me absolutely gripped throughout. I loved the first-person narration, which allows the reader to understand exactly what June is thinking – something that becomes increasingly fascinating as things start to go wrong for her.  As you’ve no doubt discerned from the title, this novel does look at the issue of cultural appropriation and the importance of sensitivity readers alongside the themes of jealousy and plagiarism, and I thought that this was handled brilliantly throughout. Yellowface is an unusual thriller and one that I highly recommend, unless you’re seeking a publisher, in which case you might want to avoid this one…