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sorren_briarwood 's review for:
Yellowface
by R.F. Kuang
I recieved an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Yellowface 100% lived up to the hype for me. The only other Kuang work I'm familliar with is Babel, and since I know that The Poppy War is also fantasy, I was curious about how her voice would translate to a contemporary thriller. Kuang absolutely kills it- if I hadn't known this was by her, I would've never guessed (well, maybe the preoccupation with translation would've tipped me off, but I think I would've assumed it was merely a nod instead.) Yellowface was absolutely what I'd call compulsively readable- I was glued to it, staying up far too late to read, finishing it under 48 hours- all of that stuff. I've seen people mention having to take breaks from June's narrative voice, and I can understand that- for me, though, this was a car crash I couldn't tear my eyes away from, and I loved every second.
I can't get over June as a protagonist- she's deplorable, obviously, but I think Kuang did a fantastic job at making her, for lack of a better phrase, believably delusional. If you take June's actions out of contexts, they beggar belief: how could anyone do such a thing to someone they still call a friend? Kuang shows you the insidious rationalistion in such a compelling way, you can absolutely see how our protagonist got herself into this situation, and is still convinced she isn't the bad guy, and even feel for her, despite how absolutely awful everything she's doing is. And she's still a person, and the narrative doesn't let you forget it, which is fantastic. Because it's people who do these sorts of things in real life, too.
Like Babel, Yellowface is thematically rich- some themes are directly confronted and some are explored in a subtler fashion. I personally deeply enjoyed the exploration of the line between inspiration and theft, particularly on Athena's part, as the foil to June, here. I think I could read and reread this and get more out of it each and every time.
I could probably wax poetic about this book forever, but others have said it better, and you could be reading a long review for me, or you could be reading Yellowface, and I promise the latter is much, much better. So: Just go read Yellowface.
Yellowface 100% lived up to the hype for me. The only other Kuang work I'm familliar with is Babel, and since I know that The Poppy War is also fantasy, I was curious about how her voice would translate to a contemporary thriller. Kuang absolutely kills it- if I hadn't known this was by her, I would've never guessed (well, maybe the preoccupation with translation would've tipped me off, but I think I would've assumed it was merely a nod instead.) Yellowface was absolutely what I'd call compulsively readable- I was glued to it, staying up far too late to read, finishing it under 48 hours- all of that stuff. I've seen people mention having to take breaks from June's narrative voice, and I can understand that- for me, though, this was a car crash I couldn't tear my eyes away from, and I loved every second.
I can't get over June as a protagonist- she's deplorable, obviously, but I think Kuang did a fantastic job at making her, for lack of a better phrase, believably delusional. If you take June's actions out of contexts, they beggar belief: how could anyone do such a thing to someone they still call a friend? Kuang shows you the insidious rationalistion in such a compelling way, you can absolutely see how our protagonist got herself into this situation, and is still convinced she isn't the bad guy, and even feel for her, despite how absolutely awful everything she's doing is. And she's still a person, and the narrative doesn't let you forget it, which is fantastic. Because it's people who do these sorts of things in real life, too.
Like Babel, Yellowface is thematically rich- some themes are directly confronted and some are explored in a subtler fashion. I personally deeply enjoyed the exploration of the line between inspiration and theft, particularly on Athena's part, as the foil to June, here. I think I could read and reread this and get more out of it each and every time.
I could probably wax poetic about this book forever, but others have said it better, and you could be reading a long review for me, or you could be reading Yellowface, and I promise the latter is much, much better. So: Just go read Yellowface.