Reviews with content warning for Murder - Yellowface

Way too wordy and overwritten. The prose suck. The plot is meh. The characters exist. The ending is stupid. The story seems confused and conflicted on what message it's trying to send and it doesn't give the reader enough clues to fig re it out and judge for themselves. I was still going to give it 4 stars for being entertaining at least but the last 30% is not even that. The first 70% was fun though. I do like it enough to recommend checking it out if you're bored.

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theglossreview's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.25

You will not be able to put this book down! “Yellowface” compels you to read or listen to it in a single sitting. First of all, I want to send an acknowledgment and huge THANK YOU to the German translators and the German audiobook narrator. They did an outstanding job, making every term inclusive of all genders. The linguistic and social background to that is that the noun that denotes groups of people (the readers = die Leser, the critics = die Kritiker, etc.) used to be in the male form, which implied that everyone in the group was male or that every gender other than “male” was erased. “Yellowface” is the first audiobook I heard in which groups were named in an inclusive way: Die Leser:innen, die Kritiker:innen, etc. = readers, critics, etc. of all genders. This happens on the meta-level and isn’t addressed specifically in the book. I can’t verify whether this aspect is present or absent in the English version.

Yet, the topic of diversity and inclusion is a central theme of the book. Specifically, the author handles the topics of racism, cultural appropriation and the representation of the Asian-American diaspora masterfully. The main character’s insidious biases, micro-aggressions and transgressions are revealed slowly throughout the story. The main character, June Hayward, is wholly, completely unlikeable. In fact, there isn’t a single lovable and morally upstanding character in “Yellowface”, which SOMEHOW STILL WORKS. Wouldn’t you expect a story about greed and immorality to be FILLED with greedy, morally grey characters?

Another topic that was handled well was mental health, especially in connection with social media addiction. June Hayward was made neither more or less likeable by the state of her mental health. It is portrayed well - neither as an excuse for her actions or a sympathy card, nor as a flaw or defect. What was strange was how unaware June seemed of the impact of the mental health issues on her everyday life. I think that she could have been more self-aware and asked for help sooner and with more confidence. Instead, the lack of help doesn’t even seem to bother her that much. When 2020 comes around in the timeline of the book, the lockdown isn’t even mentioned. Juniper Song Hayward is so lonely, isolated and chronically online that the lockdown made no difference in her everyday life. And even though that’s terrible, June is such an unlikeable person that I can’t even have sympathy with her for that. Her “friendship” with Athena Liu made me recoil. I’m telling you, that is a whole new brand and intensity of hatred.

“Yellowface” offers a lot of wisdom for everyone to take away from it. One of the lessons I have learned that, if you are going to become a published author, DON’T DO IT LIKE THAT. June is an example of what NOT to do. Once, her mother tells her that writing isn’t everything. She thinks: “But writing IS everything to me.” That obsessive tunnel vision is a problem. We all love books very much, but if books are EVERYTHING to you, you have doomed yourself to a state of dependency and despair. There must be more that one single thing in your life that is important to you.

“Yellowface” is incredibly layered. It keeps breaking the fourth wall, seeping into our world. The cynical portrait of the American publishing industry makes me wonder about R. F. Kuang’s experience in the publishing industry. The constant mention of Goodreads makes me wonder if authors really do read their Goodreads reviews — like the review I am writing right now. It sends a shiver down my spine… It’s almost as if I’m trapped in the story.

The writing is fresh and modern. The present tense and first person narration are intriguing. The book contains elements of horror and suspense, and I wish it would’ve leaned more strongly into those at the end. There were three points in the book where the story could have come to a clearer and sooner end. The main problem was that a few heavy topics were not dealt with the appropriate sensitivity and depth. In that case, they should have been left out entirely. For this reason, the book loses half a star. My final rating is 4.25 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

It reminds me of the first season of “You” (the typewriter, the sacrifice, the struggles at university and in the publishing industry, the price of becoming a New York Times bestselling author). A recommended read is “The Carls” by Hank Green.

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kittykitkat's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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kirstensbabel's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

i think this book is very weird. it tries to do A Lot. there is so much commentary, coming from so many different people (including the authors own voice) thats it sometimes hard to figure out whos opinion is whos and as someone who has no experience or knowledge of these kind of things (i am very white ha) there is no relating.
I think personally, that it kind of launches on what Babel was doing, very centered around words and writing, except in a contemporary setting and about plaigerism (on a very unserious note, this is what we were afraid of when our teachers in middle school said we couldn’t plagiarize off of wikipedia). I do think that Babel is a wayyyyy better book, which i think also is a bad thing for yellowface. it was never going to be able to live up to her magnum opus.
The main character is not…. good. Shes rude, arrogant and very racist. Which is how she is supposed to be. Except the narrative is also very manipulative, so sometimes i almost found something she said relatable. None of the characters were very likable though.
The third part was probably the best, because of the

slowly going insane and seeing ghosts

. It is very clear that this book is half autobiographical, which only plays on the paradoxical aspects of this story.

Especially with June writing her own story and then not and then in the end actually writing a fake story, like a book in the book

This is probably the most meta book i have ever read. the references where very dated, some even from her previous novels

the act of translation is always an act of betrayal quote suddenly being there

On the other hand, I am a writer and a reader. i watch booktube and booktoks, and dream of participating in the world of publishing one day, so i loved all the anecdotes about publishing and writing. I have anxiety, but didn’t relate to the way that it was written in here, but thats my problem.
The book was divided in three parts:

1. stealing manuscript and deluding that it is hers 2. twitter comments 3. going insane

But, staying with my truth, i was just there for the drama. finished half of it in one day lol.
3.5

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ellacostello's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.75

As a whole I loved the book
Unsure about the ending I would have liked to see more into the possibilities of this new published book and the outcomes of the drama… although I’m sure the rounds of both good and bad would have been the same as throughout the book

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