276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Yellowface: The instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick from author R.F. Kuang

£8.495£16.99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

What does colonialism do to a person? As a non-white person growing up in the States, and disliking it, what made me so interested in the UK as a child? Even now? And even more importantly, as a Vietnamese American, what made me so interested in France? And more so in recent years, China and Japan? It's a hard introspective look, to be sure. Oops. This is very ranty. Anyway, some of the reviewers feel bad for June, but I don't. I think she gets exactly what is coming to her.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang | Goodreads

i’ve decided not to include any quotes from the book and talk in general terms with minor details to avoid spoilers (not anything that’s not in the premise, anyway), but i’m still talking about how i felt about different parts of the book, including the middle and end, even though I won’t be talking about what happens in them. so if you want to go in blind, beware. i know this runs the risk of me describing something one way, but then you going and reading it and interpreting a different way, but until it actually comes out and i can drop the ‘extended’ (and hopefully more sophisticated) review, this will have to do. The ensuing story is told in such an unreliable, insidious way that it creeps under your skin. What’s so scary is that it’s 100% believable. You can follow June’s descent into worse and worse offenses (though she started out pretty damn bad), while at every step the reader is trapped in her head as she justifies why she is the one in the right, the victim.To June, however, she sees diversity as a problem, thinking she is passed over for authors like Athena because it looks good. Which, if we look at the publishing market, shows that about 75% of published authors in the US are white and a 2020 study showed 95% of all books published were by white authors the previous year. Is this book satire? Obviously and not quite so much. What I mean is, it’s clearly satire, but to an extent that these characters are not exact flesh and blood, but the issues discussed in this book are far from farcical. Most reviewers have noticed the central themes in Yellowface rearing their ugly head in the real world, especially in the past few years, so it is refreshing and exhilarating to read a fictional novel encompassing these issues in a way that only R.F. Kuang could create. Writers June Hayward and Athena Liu met in their freshman year at Yale, and became kind-of friends because they were “always in the same place, doing the same things - so it was convenient to be friendly”. On graduating, their literary careers took vastly different trajectories, with Athena now in the enviable position of having “everything… At twenty-seven, she’s published three novels, each one a successively bigger hit. For Athena, the Netflix deal was not a life-changing event, just another feather in her cap”. perfect for: fans of fast-paced, thriller-type reads, readers looking for insight on the publishing industry

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang - Goodreads Editions of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang - Goodreads

and that’s my final problem with yellowface. it has a decent plot, interesting cast of characters, interesting themes and discussions, but my only feeling on the ending was, ‘…that’s it?’ i know i said i wouldn’t do quotes, but im making an exception for the bit where our narrator says, ‘I’ve written myself into a corner. The first two thirds of the book were a breeze to compose, but what do i do with the ending? Where do I leave my protagonist, now that there’s no clear resolution?’ Which is very meta, because based off the ending, i feel that’s the position rfk was in at that exact point. i can somewhat tell she struggled with where to take the ending and i have more thoughts on why i felt underwhelmed by it, but i guess that’ll be for 2023, for when it's no doubt on all the 'Very Important Books of the Year' lists. for now, i can see myself rereading babel and parts of tpw, but i don’t see myself rereading yellowface. LoveReading exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. This book was a fascinating look into the mind of the worst kind of person in the online bookish community. June was unhinged. The kind of unhinged that believes her own lies and thinks she is morally in the right. Girl took delulu to another level. with some personal favourites like ‘the plot,’ ‘a ladder to the sky,’ and ‘kill all your darlings,’ im no stranger to a plot about plagiarism. but what makes this book stand out from the others is its hard hitting commentary about the publishing world.

LoveReading Says

This industry is built on silencing us, stomping us into the ground, and hurling money at white people to produce racist stereotypes of us.’ yellowface by rf kuang was fast-paced, satirical, intriguing, and unique! i've never heard of or read a book with a similar concept, which i found so refreshing. june's internal monologue was absolutely insane, especially in the first half. i didn't even know how she could dig herself deeper into the hole, but she never failed to dig herself deeper and deeper. i was left with my jaw dropped at the end of multiple chapters. Do you know what it's like to pitch a book and be told they already have an Asian writer? That they can't put out two minority stories in the same season? That Athena Liu already exists, so you're redundant?’

Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang | WHSmith

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. This book truly blew my mind. I was unable to put it down, yet also needed to take breaks due to the chaotic and anxiety-inducing experience of living within Juniper's mind. The character evokes strong emotions, including frustration towards her misogyny, blind ambition, and obnoxious justifications for her actions. Will you enjoy a single character? Categorically NO. But you will walk away with a greater understanding of the many failings of the publishing industry and how you might be unconsciously taking part in some of those failings. I wholeheartedly consider this one of the best books of the year, and I urge you not to overlook it or let it languish in your "to be read" list. Grab a copy and immerse yourself in its urgent and captivating narrative. June is asked to speak on panels, go to book clubs, and mentor student writers. When the aforementioned people learn she is not Chinese, heads begin to roll. June does not take this in stride. She thinks she is entitled to write Chinese stories, because she "did research." Do we remember the American Dirt debacle? I do. I won't touch that book with a ten foot pole. It's not a matter of who can tell what stories. (Well, it is, but no matter.) It's that a white woman received a seven figure advance telling the trauma stories of a marginalized group that will never see a cent of that. Where are the stories from actual undocumented immigrants? No one in any famous book club will ever read those.

I really enjoyed being inside June’s head, as morally ambiguous as it was. This worked particularly well on audio as the narrator nailed June. This is clever, smartly written satire, and the author was able to drive her point home in a non-preachy way with snark and humor. The plot, the flawed characters, and the writing - all superb! Read only if you enjoy satire and snark. which was a big thing that irked me with tpw. people would make criticisms of rfk's narrative choices and plot points and the response would be ‘well, rin is an unreliable narrator!’ yes, but there is such thing as framing and context which are important things to consider when trying to figure out what an author actually is saying, intentionally or not. but anyways.) The Top 25 Christmas Cookbooks for 2023: A Smorgasbord of Inspiration for a Happy Foodie This Christmas

Yellowface – HarperCollins Publishers UK

The main character is a depiction of mild mannered racist individuals who shroud themselves in acceptance as long as it doesn't affect them and balk at the idea of racism until directly faced with equality and the loss of superiority it gives them. After this, Hayward steals Liu's manuscript about Chinese laborers forcefully conscripted by the French during World War 1. The caucasity is unsurprising, trite, and racist covering all the beats we experienced every time we covered Discourse about films like The Blindside, Hidden Figures Greenbook, and books like The Help, or American Dirt. The appropriation of history, the historicization of the past, the narrativization of society, all of which give the novel its force, include the accumulation and differentiation of social space, space to be used for social purposes.’

At the most basic of levels, Yellowface is a mash of various genres that follows the passive aggressive “friendship” of Athena and June, two authors in the publishing industry with very different levels of success. Athena has received her big break while June has remained a struggling author. In an absurd (truly absurd if I’m being quite honest haha) turn of events, Athena chokes while engaging in a pancake eating contest with June. After her death, June makes the decision to steal one of her manuscripts and pass it off as her own. What follows next is chaotic descent into the world of publishing and the book community. I usually roll my eyes when people call a book “compulsively readable”, but in this case, I get it.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment