A unflinching inside look into the literary/publishing world which was both fascinating and frustrating. Yellowface raises the question of how far someone is willing to go for notoriety and prestige. For our main character, June, she is willing to do unspeakable things to achieve her dreams of being a literary darling.

This book is satire and that must be mentioned because I know there will be people who will read this book not understanding the underlying message R.F. Kuang is relaying. Is June over the top, and like a caricature? Absolutely. She's a caricature representing countless white authors who have a chokehold on publishing. You're not supposed to like June, she does not have any redeeming qualities. Reading her character will make you cringe, and hopefully to think about why you're cringing. If you've read Kuang's Babel

Yellowface is like reading Letty's chapter in that book, but multiplied by like 1000.

I've never read anything like this before, and for sure it's like watching a trainwreck... you just can't look away. Feeling uncomfortable while reading this book is the point. June's journey is both rage and anxiety inducing. I loved the use of June's group of fellow white authors 'Eden's Angels' as representation of how circles of white people become a vacuum chamber. It pokes fun at "but I'm a liberal, I'm not racist!" because when we live in a racist society, one must be actively anti-racist to combat how entrenched white supremacy is in our world.

I think the storyline was just a tad too drawn out. I think it needed perhaps one less repeat of this cycle June goes through dealing with the fallout of her bad decisions and then looping back into the finding a way to manipulate her way out of it (using her security of being a white woman to her advantage). It would've made the book a bit punchier. Either that or at one point towards the end you see a glimmer of June potentially actually growing as a person, and it would have been cool to dwell on that a bit longer instead and then move into the finale.

I truly wasn't sure how the book would end, and I was a tad let down with the 'reveal'. Only because I felt like there wasn't the right kind of build up to it

because the Instagram account only comes into play towards the end of the book, but June had been seeing this ghost of Athena since the beginning. It's kind of like, where was Candice this whole time then? Just over stewing for years as June continues on her tirade through publishing? BUT I did think the way it ends when June is basically just back where she started having not learned anything was fitting... frustrating, but fitting. And I do like that Yellowface becomes very meta because then you're almost reading the book June is getting ready to write at the end

R.F. Kuang is really a master, and having read this book I fully believe she's capable of writing anything.