Ostensibly the story of an author (Juniper Song) who takes the latest manuscript from a recently deceased friend (Athena Liu), completes it, and publishes it as her own. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable. Yellowface by RF Kuang (Literary Fiction) Writing: 5/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 4.5/5 This book never goes where you expect it to go. Kuang’s latest book, Yellowface, delves into what happens when one strays from this golden. 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. The first rule that one learns in college is quite simple: Don’t steal work from others. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. 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.īut June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her.
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. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.Īuthors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. 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.
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