Thanks to @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the #gifted copy of this book.

After witnessing the death of her "friend" and fellow author, Athena Liu, June Hayward begins her shift into Juniper Song. She steals Athena's completed manuscript about Chinese laborers in WWI, edits it, and publishes it. June's feeling pretty good about herself and her impending success - after all, Athena wanted to know how her works would do if written by a white author, and it's basically reparations for what Athena owes her anyway... but June can't seem to escape Athena's ghost as the popularity of the book skyrockets and things don't go quite as smoothly as June hoped.

Yellowface is absolutely brilliant -- R.F. Kuang's mind is just a masterpiece. Told entirely from June's POV, we follow the story of a white woman trying to pass as Asian American to finally find success in a "diversity-focused" industry by stealing. The satire is absolutely on point as we watch June rationalize all of her (very cringe-worthy) decisions and digs herself deeper and deeper into this scenario she's created for herself. We also see the multitude of issues within the publishing industry that perpetuate exactly what June's doing. Having June's POV written by an Asian woman really drives the satire and entire experience of this book home, and it is compulsively readable (with some Babel references thrown in!). I think this would be a fascinating read for book clubs and a great way to start conversations on racism, cultural appropriation, OwnVoices works, whitewashing, and the publishing industry. I highly, highly recommend this one - it will absolutely be on my list of favorites for the year.