Book Review: Yellowface
Ladies Who Lit enjoyed Yellowface as our August book club read.
Yellowface follows the story of Juniper, a struggling writer looking to catch a break in the publishing world. Juniper’s ‘friend’ Athena is having an entirely different experience and seems to be jumping from success to success. In an absurd turn of events, Juniper witnesses Athena Liu die in a freak accident, and in a moment of madness, Juniper steals Athena’s manuscript and publishes it as her own. What follows is a chaotic story within the publishing world and a trial by social media. This is a story of racism, plagiarism and serious secondhand cringe and embarrassment in the best way possible.
Despite seeing countless criticisms of this book, I couldn’t disagree more. Never have I met a character that I love to hate more than Juniper, and this is intentional through Rebecca Kuang’s writing. Whilst I think as readers we are usually led to side with the protagonist, Kuang flips this notion on its head and leaves us a fantastic look into the mind of the worst kind of person.
Juniper is unhinged to the point where she believes her own lies and rearranges reality with a series of nonsensical decisions. The legitimacy of Juniper’s voice is a testament to Kuang’s writing. Hat’s off to her! Whether you like this book or not, it’s one you can’t look away from and the writing will sweep you up into the controversy. The themes of social media scandal are throughout, and the book feels very of the time. It’s a stark reminder for all that there is a person who reads those comments about themselves, and the impact hate comments can have is huge.
The storyline following a writer’s experience within the publishing industry is incredibly eye-opening, thought-provoking and immersive. It’s an excellent look into how deep-rooted racism is, not just within the publishing industry and Kuang writes it in a way that you can’t ignore it.
A fantastic choice for a book club read as this book sparks plenty of discussions and will certainly get your members talking!
