Book Review: Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

‘Yellowface’ by Rebecca F. Kuang was published in 2023. It was Kuang’s fifth novel, and is a fantastic critique on the publishing industry as a whole. It won the 2023 Goodreads’ Choice Award.

I really enjoyed this book, as I felt that Kuang was able to poke fun out of the sheer ridiculousness of some of the critiques of an entitled white person in a world that is tailored for us, and where doors effectively always open for us.

This story follows June Song Hayward, who, having met her friend Athena Lieu at Yale, establishes a long-suffering companionship, where June has to put up with her friend’s audacious and ostentatious wealth and success.

After the harrowing ordeal of watching her friend, Athena Lieu choke to death, June steals Lieu’s unpublished manuscript and edits it, attempting to pass it off as her own. However, instead of admitting to being a co-author, June attempts to pass off Athena’s manuscript as her own and, in doing so, manages to achieve publishing acclaim and success, but it is short-lived.

June destroys many people’s lives, confidences, reputations etc. throughout her story, from Candice Li, who was fired from her job in publishing over a Goodreads review, to Skylar Xiao, a pupil at the Young AAPI Writers’ Workshop in Massachusetts, whose work June decimated after this teenage girl uncovered the controversy about June’s plagiarism of the late Athena Lieu.

Throughout the book, June is established to be entitled, angry and snide. Her vanity, frustration and anger at the industry, the internet, and her friend’s successes truly encapsulated how in a competitive and fierce space, people can find themselves keeping their friends close and their rivals closer. At the start of the book, Athena is a nuisance, by the middle, she is her best friend, and by the end, she is haunting her, driving her mad and leaving her frustrated and vengeful.

This book was fantastic, and its commentary on racism, cancel culture, white saviourism and entitlement was fantastic. I loved this book. Kuang is a fantastic storyteller and I cannot wait to read more of her books in the future!