Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

154 reviews

sophiestbr's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Such a well written book that had me squirming and uncomfortable with how I felt about the characters, situation, context and choices. Was it an easy feel good read? Not at all. Was it meant to be? Not at all, and that’s why it was so good. 
Not a full 5* in my opinion because it started to drag a little with repetitiveness towards the end, and 
*not a spoiler but if you don’t want to go into the ending with possible preconceived notions stop here* 
the direction the penultimate chapter goes in felt oddly out of place and served cliché soap opera vibes that didn’t feel like it matched the caliber of the rest of narrative. 
It was, overall though, a memorable read that I think will stick with me for a long time to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Cursing, Racial slurs, Rape, and Colonisation

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

neonblaze's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

navayiota's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Brilliant, like everything else she writes. I felt pulled to continue the story at every second of the day. 
Kuang inspires me to write, every word she lays on the page is like a string pulling at my heart, urging me to follow along. Her work makes me believe, for a second, that I too, could create something amazing. And at the same time I feel unbelievably silly and inexperienced. That's all I have to say. A Must-Read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Stalking, Alcohol, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation

ninajune's review against another edition

dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Cyber bullying

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Racial slurs, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lillelow's review against another edition

dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

singalana's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Oh boy, this book was a rollercoaster, but the ending knocked the rating down.

Yellowface is a contemporary literary novel about diversity in publishing. In this novel, June Hayward, a failing white author, witnesses the death of her former classmate and a successful Chinese-American author Athena Liu. On an impulse decision, she steals Athena’s manuscript and decides to present it as her own. 

The novel explores the publishing industry, calcel culture, plagiarism, racism and diversity in literature. The main character, June, or Juniper Song, as her publishers market her, is so oblivious to her racial biases and the fact that what she’s doing is wrong that it beggars belief. But the thing is that every single character in this book is more or less unlikeable. And all of them are fleshed out almost as caricatures of the people they are representing. On the plus side, all the characters get the same harsh treatment, but it renders them so unlikeable that it was painful to get through this work.

This book displayed the worst side of people, especially on social media, and I feel that there were interesting discussions to be had there. However, I felt that Yellowface almost condoned the lynch mentality and cyberbullying that is so pervasive in our current climate. Yes, the main character is shitty, and yes, what she did was wrong, but does it REALLY justify sending death threats to her through social media? 

The main character showed a glimmer of awareness in the last third of this book, but the ending ruined that. I suppose this book was meant to criticise the publishing industry, but the ending shifts the tone into something resembling a crime novel and feels a bit like a cop-out. This book could have been an excellent discussion about racism, stereotypes and cancel culture, but in the end, it ended up lacking nuance. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

leiaheenan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

An incredible book that had a complete and utter lacklustre last 35-ish pages. I was HOOKED from the start up until that point,

why was there a seemingly random turn to ghost stories that are never talked about again for a whole chapter? I just found the intense focus on ghosts towards the end was not at all my sort of thing. Also having Candice be behind everything… was just so meh.

Anyway, I found that it balanced the funny, lighthearted feeling and the incredible dark sections relatively well, and I do applause the author for achieving that as it’s quite challenging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Death of parent

infusionofviolets's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Bullying, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

ariana_m's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was so irritating but I couldn't put it down.  I liked the satire and the little mystery, thriller thing at the end. I loved the writing style, it felt like diary entries. I also liked how the fourth wall gets broken many times.  The fmc gets -1000 points. I hate her but that's the point. She was unbearable, delusional,  annoying, racist and simply awful. The way she tried to justify all of her actions was interesting to say the least. She acted as if she was the victim of something when she literally plagiarized a book, changed her name to sound racially ambiguous,  leeched off of Asian culture but hated certain aspects of the culture all at once. She also called her own eight year old niece a "basic bitch in training" which is crazy. The fmc was insufferable but again, that's the point.

I also think while this book is work of fiction, things like this unfortunately do happen in the publishing industry all the time. They have happened for years and are still happening right now in current time. This book highlights all of these issues and topics really well in a way that easy for people to take in. This was my first time reading a R.F Kuang book and it won't be my last!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, Stalking, and Toxic friendship