Yellowface is two excellent books, that combine to make one very good book.

On the one hand, we have a thriller. June, a relatively unsuccessful author, steals a manuscript from her college friend Athena’s house the night she dies, and publishes it under her own name. Mostly set in the echo chamber of book Twitter and the cut-throat publishing industry, it’s a page-turner of a mystery as you are desperate to know if June gets away with it, or gets her comeuppance.

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On the other hand, we have a commentary on the commodification of diversity, and the ongoing debate on who can write what. For the most part, this is tied together brilliantly with the thriller aspect. June exploits both Asian American individuals and community groups to boost her credibility, alongside an ethnically ambiguous pen name and author photo. Her fear at being discovered as having stolen her friend’s book is inseparable from her rage at being criticised for being too white to publish a book about the historic struggles of a marginalised group, which makes her an incredibly compelling character.

All of the characters are deliciously unlikeable. Everyone is duplicitous, power-hungry, and desperate for the spotlight. The relationship between June and Athena was particularly compelling, a one-sided, obsessive friendship built on jealousy and envy. In June’s mind – and therefore to us, the reader – Athena exists purely in relation to her, and her complex feelings towards Athena are her motivation for much of the book.

The ending was where the book didn’t quite come together as I’d have hoped. With so many layers to the story it felt a bit cut-and-dry, like June was told what-for and then we’re told what happened next in a matter of paragraphs. Just one more chapter, to take a little bit longer on the fallout of what happens and to savour it, would have made a huge difference for me.

I thought long and hard about my rating for this book. I’ve definitely given worse books a higher rating. Ultimately, though, this book did not quite deliver what it promised. It is still a great book, which keeps the reader gripped and discusses lots of interesting, timely and often difficult themes. I will be interested to see how well this book does outside of Twitter and Goodreads, as the chronically-online aspect of book Twitter is almost a character in its own right. Either way, this is a book that is going to spark a lot of discussion and will be talked about for years to come. 

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.