Author: R.F. Kuang · Published: 2023 · Genre: Literary Fiction, Satire
Yellowface is a dark, fast satire about theft, race and the publishing industry, narrated by a woman who is both a thief and a fluent self-justifier. It’s gripping and often very funny, though its targets are obvious and its characters mostly serve the argument. If you follow online book culture or work in publishing, you’ll probably finish it in a day.
What it’s about
June Hayward and Athena Liu started out together as young writers. Athena, a Chinese American novelist, is now a glamorous success; June’s debut sank without trace. When Athena dies in a freak accident with June as the only witness, June takes her friend’s newly finished manuscript, an experimental novel about the Chinese laborers who worked for the Allies in the First World War.
She reworks it, claims it as her own, and publishes it as The Last Front under the name Juniper Song, her real first and middle names, with an author photo that leaves her ethnicity ambiguous. June tells herself she’s rescuing the book: it was a rough draft, she did much of the work of shaping it, and it deserved readers. The book is a hit. Then accusations start circulating online, and June spends the rest of the novel defending, rationalizing and doubling down.
What works
- The narrator. June is a gift of a character: self-pitying, defensive, funny and almost convincing. Kuang lets her argue her case so well that you catch yourself nodding along, then flinch. It’s a smart way to explore how people justify what they’ve done.
- Publishing, exposed. The satire of the industry is specific: marketing teams chasing trends, sensitivity reads, diversity as branding, and how little control most authors have. An editorial assistant, Candice Lee, becomes a key figure when she raises concerns. Kuang, already a bestseller with Babel and The Poppy War, clearly knows this world.
- Online outrage. The social media pile-ons are painfully accurate, and the book is fair enough to show that the mobs are sometimes right, sometimes cruel and often both at once.
- Uncomfortable points. Kuang gives June a few arguments that aren’t entirely wrong, about tokenism and how publishers package writers of color, which keeps the reader off balance.
- Pace. Short chapters and escalating stakes make it read like a thriller.
What doesn’t
The satire isn’t subtle. Many arguments sound as if they were lifted from real online fights, and some critics felt the book restates those debates rather than adding much to them. Several side characters, especially June’s publishing contacts, are types rather than people.
Athena is also a problem, possibly by design. We only see her through June’s resentful eyes, so she never becomes fully real, which limits the book’s emotional punch. We’re told her writing is brilliant, but we rarely see why. The final act leans into thriller mechanics that some readers found over the top.
And June’s voice, so entertaining early on, can grate by the last hundred pages. Kuang is making a point about how self-justification never runs out of energy, but the reader’s patience might.
Readers hoping to learn more about the history in Athena’s manuscript, the Chinese laborers of the First World War, will mostly be disappointed. The novel is about how the book is sold and received, not about its subject.
Who should read it
Readers who enjoy unreliable narrators, fans of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels who like following a charming fraud, anyone interested in who gets to tell which stories, and people who work anywhere near books. Some familiarity with online book culture helps, but it isn’t required. It won the 2023 Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction and a British Book Award for fiction, and it’s a good entry point to Kuang if her fantasy isn’t your thing.
Rating: 4/5
Photo credits — Featured image: Photo by Ece Sencandan on Pexels. In-article photo: Photo by Ilinca Roman on Unsplash.
