A review by oolawuyi_
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

4.0

I’m going to start by saying when R.F. Kuang said she was in her goblin era when she wrote this book?? She meant it! 

 

I LOVED that the book is just June trying to convince the audience that her intentions were pure and not malicious. There’s something maniacally comical about how intentionally oblivious, vile, and self righteous June is, especially because of how close this depiction is to some of the things you see if you spend any amount of time in the online booksphere (book Tok, booktube, booktwt). You know these white tears, the white feminism, the trolls, the reviews, the fans, the industry. 

 

However, even as I watched June just ignore every single form of common decency and I felt DEEPLY disgusted with her behaviour, I couldn’t help but also reflect on the questions her actions pose about the commodification of race (and racial trauma) in publishing, whether authors should be allowed to tell stories outside their ethnicities, who decides where to draw the line, and most importantly, are there any new stories left to tell? 

 

I truly had a GREAT time reading this book. I did take one star off though just because the story and pacing plateaus significantly around the 70% mark. Also, despite all the time we spend in her head, June does not seem like a real or fully developed person (but I think that was intentional?). 

 

I believe this book is particularly special for those involved in the book community but I would be interested to see how people who have no connection to that world feel about it.