During a busy weekend, I hurtled through the narrative in a matter of hours. As a writer, I was tricked into not analysing the text for dramatic devices, and instead stayed on the edge of my seat as the story unravelled. Talk about a thrilling ride.
‘Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.’
The premise was utterly compelling- a mediocre author, June, steals her bestseller friend draft manuscript after she dies in front of June’s very eyes, and submits it as her own under the name Juniper Song. The book becomes an instant success and catapults June into a tantalising bestsellerdom. But, when somebody questions her sources, and even her right to write such a book as a white, non-Chinese person, the book takes a turn for the unpredictable!
Bookish people around June begin to behave suspiciously, and it’s suddenly questionable whether June will get away with such bad behaviour! Not only that, June has been vulnerable for years now, following a significant episode at university, and her mental health is precarious at best.
This books includes incredible insight into the publishing world. Any securities you’ve ever had WILL come to the fore, and they’ll probably escalate and multiply into a thousand others after reading this!
The loneliness
The pressure to submit to the powers that be
The competitive pressure
The deadlines
The expectations
The treatment of a midlister compared to a bestseller.
Not to mention the culture around cancelling authors, sensitivity readers and cultural appropriation!!!
It’s got so much of what the publishing world has been fraught with over the last few years.
And Kuang doesn’t shy away. She’s gets into all of it.
All. Of. It!
The End of the Story- SPOILER ALERT!
I love how June is so unhinged by the end of this narrative, that she partly believes that she might possibly be haunted by Athena’s ghost and we, as readers, even question whether she may even be a cold-blooded murderer! We speculate on her speculations, and are thoroughly invested in the ride as we struggle to work things out.
I, for one, am so glad it didn’t go down the speculative route. Who wants to find out the narrator’s been haunted by Athena’s ghost the entire time??
The ending is weirdly satisfying. I would’ve hated it if she’d been totally defeated. Instead, June rises from the ashes, and plans a rebuttal against the accusations and allegations made against her by one of her former colleagues and the ‘antagonist’ of the novel. She’s adament that ‘justice will be done’ and even though her confession has been caught on video(!!!), she vows to fight until the end.
This is the author’s triumph.
We are put in position where we empathise with the anti-hero.
Fantastic stuff!
How does Kuang do it?
It’s all in the telling:
It’s current.
It’s clever.
It’s compulsive.
It’s unpredictable.
It’s original.
It’s utterly enjoyable,
And well worth a read.
So, are you tempted yet?
(If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear what you think!)
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One response to “I just read Yellowface! And here are my thoughts…”
I read it yesterday and loved it. I’d never read anything by R.F Kuang but I plan to read more of her work. Like you said, her ability to make you route for a character like June is amazing. I too was happy with the ending.
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