Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Yellowface

DC heavy book with references that made me quite nostalgic. Thought-provoking and made one consider questions on the meaningful/less-ness of cancel culture, the ultimate harsh reality of people just trying to make it in the world and ripping others to shreds just to achieve it. No saints here, that’s for sure

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annabananadel's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much.

Okay, hear me out. I’m probably not their target reader especially since I’ve been just reading romance nonstop - hence, my rating. I can see why it’s a cult favorite recently but it just didn’t appeal to me as much as it did for other people - BUT, a big but there, I actually enjoyed reading through it eventhough it took me some time. I don’t know what’s up but whenever I read thrillers, there’s usually a writer involved. But this one is a big writer story because it’s how Yellowface came to be, maybe?

I love how R. F. Kuang told June’s story and how she let us dive into her mind throughout the whole story - from her friendship with Athena, her writing process in how she evolved Athena’s story, to how it went downhill for her. It’s actually intense the last few chapters where you’re actually feeling the craziness coming out from the book to real life because she wrote it in a way that you’re going thru it with June. It’s actually mesmerizing just thinking about it. Just the story for me is what let me down a bit or maybe okay, thinking about it now while writing this review, it made me think how we’re in a villain FMC. I just didn’t know it was a thing before this book. Plus points for that. I guess that’s why I’m actually hating June more than any FMC I’ve ever read.

Made me want to read more R. F. Kuang books, tbh. And actually writing this review + thoughts about buying more of her books, made me feel like one of those people online June is reading about…

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gabriellesimpson's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

4.75

absolutely loved this book but found the ending slightly rushed!!!

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alysereadsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.5

Listened to the audiobook of this - and the narrator did an amazing job of capturing the unhinged behavior of the main character. I found its themes to be similar to Disorientation. It sparks an interesting discussion about voices of AAPI and POC, specifically in the literary realm.

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