Yellowface-R.F. Kuang
This is a story that increasingly reveals its protagonist to be an expertly crafted villain
Content Warnings: racism, death, blackmail, cultural appropriation, rape, suicidal thoughts
Representation: Chinese, Asian, minor queer character
Favorite Quote: āThis has gone from a dark, literary coming-of-age story to a jumbled, frantic ghost story.ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Yellowface is a dark, and unnerving story in which the protagonist desperately clings to the endless second chances granted to her as she manipulates her knowledge of the publishing industry to redeem her unredeemable actions. In this novel, Kuang brilliantly dissects the mind of a White woman who unceasingly paints herself as the victim as she time and time again destroys her own life.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The main protagonist is June Hayward, a Yale-educated writer who has watched with envy as her old friend from college Athena Liu, a queer Asian-American writer, makes it big in the publishing world. Meanwhile, Juneās own career has been one disappointment after another, for which she insecurely blames on her being a ābrown-eyed, brown-hairedā White woman in an industry that craves ādiverseā creators.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Itās not until after a night out with Athena ends in June watching her friend die violently in front of her does June find a way into the industryātheft. June rewrites the last written words of her late friend and passes them off as her own with fanfare, but not without controversy. Rather than riding out the waves of attention over the subject-matter and authorship of āJuneāsā book, June repeatedly digs herself in deeper. Nonetheless, June is determined to dig herself out each time, despite her perceived enemies watching and waiting to bring her down.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā June Hayward is a truly terrifying character that the reader is granted intimate access to the brain of. We get to follow as she re-spins the narrative that we thought was established, making everything unreliable and unfixed. This is a story that does not need likable characters, but relishes in each of their flaws.