Yellowface

by R.F. Kuang and Rebecca F. Kuang

Book Overview

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 readable.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0063250837
• ISBN13: 9780063250833
• Release Date: May 2023
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

June Is Messyyyyyyy

June is an unlikeable, messy b*tch and tbh I lived for it. She never once learned her lesson no many how many times the people around her exposed her a$$. Delicious, side splittingly hysterical satire. I also obviously read this after the Cait Corrain thing and may or may not have cast Cait as June in my mind. 👀 I read this on audiobook, cleaning house and gasping aloud at every stupid decision June made. I saw a lot of people say they didn’t like this book because June was so awful, and she was, but that’s what I loved about it. I thought this was a sharp, witty commentary about the publishing industry and internet culture as we know it. I will admit this is my first RFK book so the criticisms about the author in other people’s reviews admittedly went right over my head. I don’t know, sue me, I liked it.

Smartly written and funny

Hated the narrator/main character but loved hating her. Interesting book with just enough twists.