📖 Yellowface

✏️ R.F. Kuang

📍Washington, D.C.

👥 Juniper (June) Song Hayward. Athena Liu.

📎 Contemporary

e-ARC from NetGalley and HarperCollins UK

Publication Date: 25May23

“Athena, the dead muse. And I, the grieving friend, haunted by her spirit, unable to write without invoking her voice. See, who ever said I wasn’t a good storyteller?”

The story centres on two college friends, both making their way in the world as authors. Athena Liu is successful, June Hayward not so. One evening back at Athena’s apartment tragedy strikes and she loses her life. In the chaos that follows, June grabs Athena’s latest manuscript which she subsequently edits and releases as her own, to critical acclaim.

This book has so many layers. Athena is Asian American, June is white. The novel is a historical fiction based on the treatment of Chinese labourers at the front in WW1. June changes her pen name to Juniper Song, sufficiently open to doubt in terms of her heritage. It tackles so many themes including racism, reverse racism, sexism, mental health, grief, the cancel culture, the power of social media, the toxicity of the publishing industry… It’s a dark satire/contemporary thriller/social commentary and it’s BRILLIANT.

Not going to lie, if R.F. Kuang published her shopping list, I’d probably read it. I devoured this book in a few days. Completely unrecognisable from her Poppy War trilogy yet just as captivating. Her writing is transcending genres and I’m so excited to see what she comes up with next ❤️