Book Review: “Yellowface” by R.F. Kuang

Aug 5

Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface; a satirical tale about envy, fragility, entitlement, and the lengths one person would go to to defend their success, especially if it was taken from someone else.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Fiction bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

June Hayward has a complicated relationship with Athena Liu. Both are graduates of Yale University, both live in the District of Columbia (DC) in the United States, and both are published fiction authors. Athena Liu has published three bestselling novels—each selling better than the last—and lives in a posh apartment. June Hayward lives in a modest apartment and her debut novel was a flop. June tells herself that it must be because she’s a plain-looking white girl writing about experiences of white women while Athena is an exotic Chinese beauty writing about the pain and suffering of Chinese people. June reasons with herself that even though she has put in the work she is only given scraps because she’s white while the world of success is just handed over to minorities like Athena. But of all of this changes the night June witnesses Athena’s untimely death—and steals one of Athena’s unpublished manuscripts.

With Athena’s work in hand, June Hayward goes through a rebrand: she either revises or completely replaces major aspects of the original manuscript, takes professional photos to intentionally make herself appear ethnically ambiguous, and goes by the pen name Juniper Song (which is her full first name and her middle name, a remnant of her mother’s hippy phase). And it works! The book is a major success. She is finally tasting the prestige she deserves. But cracks begin to form. Evidence comes to the surface of the true provenance of Juniper Song’s bestseller. June’s new life, the life that she feels is owed to her, is under threat. And she will do anything to keep it.

Important Trigger Warning for Yellowface

Chapter 13 of Yellowface centers June Hayward’s retelling of a sexual assault. The exact details of the assault are not essential to the plot. If this is something that causes you distress or discomfort, then you can completely skip Chapter 13 without losing important story information. If you do decide to read through Chapter 13, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.

My Thoughts on Yellowface: 4.5 stars

R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface was the July 2024 title selected by the book club I am a member of. I had wanted to read this book for a while but, as is the case with many book buyers, it had fallen into my backlog of books I have purchased but have yet to read. Thankfully for my friends in the book club, it was brought to the head of the line.

Yellowface takes place over two separate landscapes: the real-life world and the internet. The two blend together throughout the story to paint a dynamic picture of Juniper Song’s rise and fall. The story within Yellowface is both startling and familiar for many. I am an Indigenous person with an academic background in the social sciences and humanities and I can think of many colleagues who are a bit too similar to the story’s protagonist. Reading the internal dialogue of June Hayward gave a sobering and sometimes triggering look into the minds of many of the “performative allies” (as I think of them) I encountered throughout my many years of graduate school.

Yellowface is written from the first-person perspective of June Hayward. Although there is a cast of characters including Athena Liu, Athena’s mother and ex-boyfriend, June’s family members, professionals in the publishing world, groups and organizations June encounters, and others, it is all presented through the lens of June Hayward. With that being said, my review of the characters is what I think of June Hayward and her presentation of the other characters to the reader.

There are three aspects of June’s character that I will expand upon: her view of herself and others; her compartmentalization of Athena’s original writing in Athena’s manuscript and the alterations made by June herself; and who June is by the end of the story.

Starting off with June’s personality and perspective of others, my immediate impression of her is that she is entitled and woefully lacking in remorse.

For June Hayward, it seems as if the success of Athena Liu and other authors means that success is taken away from her. Perhaps there is some truth to this in the world of fiction writing and publishing. What absolutely makes this a toxic trait in June is the way it consumes her and strips her of her own agency. June’s success (or lack thereof) is no longer a matter of her own talent and efforts, but is now something that was stolen from her; something that was somehow originally meant for her but was taken and given to others to enjoy. Her decision to steal it back manifests when she steals Athena’s manuscript within hours of witnessing Athena’s death. This was absolutely appalling! It goes without saying that witnessing someone die is a traumatic event and you never know how you will react in the event of emergency until there is an emergency. But June Hayward had the presence of mind to steal from a woman who just died in front of her while there were police officers, paramedics, and Athena’s body in the same apartment unit.

This decision sets the structurally unsound stage for the ensuing events of the story. June soothes her guilt (she knows she did wrong) by saying that she is really doing Athena, the writing world, and the community of readers worldwide a great service in bringing this manuscript to life. She tells herself that all she needed was the guidance of her tragically deceased friend’s writing so that others could see how truly talented and deserving she—a white woman—truly is. Among the writing community, June Hayward views herself as tossed aside and ignored for not “checking the boxes” of diversity and adversity. Within her family, she views herself as an avant-garde artist that her simple and single-minded family just cannot understand. There is incredible isolation and loneliness in June Hayward’s world because she ensures to create it and reinforce it. But this bestseller, which June Hayward/Juniper Song genuinely believes is great because of herself, is the key to stepping out of this isolation.

This separation of herself from others extends into her view of what would become the best selling novel from Athena’s manuscript. June very clearly creates two separate mental columns when internalizing the praise and criticism the novel receives: on one side is the criticism aimed entirely at the original parts hastily written by Athena Liu; on the other side is the absolute praise for the new parts masterfully created by Juniper Song. In her mental separation of her words in a side-by-side comparison with Athena Liu’s words, she makes it clear that Athena’s work is the source of the novels pitfalls while her work is what makes it shine.

By the end of the story, June Hayward becomes a more emboldened version of the bigot and con artist she was capable of being from the very beginning. She is more confident and audacious in her brainstorming of how to counter the events in the story’s finale. This is neither a surprise nor a disappointment. If you or anyone you know has encountered a real-life June Hayward/Juniper Song, you would understand that these sort of individuals rarely change or see the harm caused by their misguided beliefs and actions.

Kuang’s writing of June’s perspective is brilliant. There were many times where I found myself feeling bad for June. But then I would be immediately reminded of the objectively horrible thing she did. As a dear friend of mine pointed out, June first makes shitty choices then commits to being shitty through her actions.

Several questions come to my mind when I think of takeaways for Yellowface. These include:

Who can write about certain stories and histories?
What stories do people want to read?
Are you entitled to renown and success just because you put in the hours?

My quick answer to all three is: it depends. But let’s go into more detail than that.

First, who can write about certain stories and histories? There are valuable approaches to the retelling or analysis of events from different perspectives. Individuals and communities with first-hand lived experiences of events can provide an unparalleled glimpse into their reality. In the retelling of their experiences, there is a raw and (depending on the story being told) graphic texture to their voices. Yet the majority of cultural anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians are not members of the communities they work with and study. Many psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists do not have first-hand experience with what their patients seek help for. With all these professionals, their education and training is what provides validity to their perspectives. In the best case scenario, community members and professionals (with an overlap of professionals who are also community members with first-hand experience bridging the two demographics) treat the stories shared between them with the utmost care, respect, and empathy. Unfortunately, the best case scenario is not always what happens.

So who CANNOT write about certain stories and histories? In Yellowface, the outrage June Hayward faces after publishing Athena’s manuscript is rooted in decades-long traditions in academe and literature where writers/researchers of one community build their careers, renown, and fortune off the minds, bodies, and stories of another community. In such instances, a power dynamic usually exists where the writer/researcher holds some greater social or economic currency over the people they view as a subject. June Hayward does not treat the stories and context within Athena’s manuscript with respect or dignity. Instead, she makes conscious choices to alter aspects of it—rooted in a community’s real lived-experiences—to both placate and soothe readers who identify with the more powerful player in the power dynamic. She distorts the voices of those who the story should center and uses it to dull the blade of those who the story meant to expose. This lack of respect for the source material crosses the threshold into exploitation and cultural appropriation. It is what makes June Hayward someone who should NOT write about these specific stories and histories. She may experience great success at first, but the stolen story she profited off quickly became something people did not want to read.

So what stories do people want to read? June Hayward holds the misbelief that people do not want to hear stories about white women written by white women. If there was truth to this, then Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women would not be one of the most beloved tales of American literature. Throughout Yellowface, the reader does not actually learn much about the criticism of June’s debut novel beyond it not doing well. She attributes this both to what she presumes people want to read as well as what she feels is the failure of her literary agent and publishing team. This could all be valid if it were not for the fact that at no point does she hold herself accountable for the failure of her debut novel. She holds no introspection or analysis of her own work beyond self congratulations for how she altered a stolen incomplete manuscript. It is not that people do not want to read stories about white women written by white women. It is that people do not want to read stories lacking in authenticity and honesty. Fiction, whether it is based in real historical events or in an entirely made up universe, is powerful because it presents authentic truths. Juniper Song’s bestseller was a greedily crafted exploitation built upon a foundation of grotesque lies and betrayal.

This brings us to my last question: Are you entitled to renown and success just because you put in the hours? This is a difficult one to give a blatant answer to. In a perfect world, everyone who put in the effort would obtain the success they aspired to achieve. But that is not the world we (or June Hayward) live in. When it comes to the renown and success she gained in publishing Athena’s manuscript, June absolutely is NOT entitled to it. It was Athena Liu who honed the skill, put in the hours, and gave the care necessary to produce the original manuscript that would become Juniper Song’s bestselling novel.

The overall rating I give to R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface is 4.5 out of 5 stars. Overall, there was a catharsis in reading this story. Many have encountered June Haywards in their life. And there are many June Haywards out there unaware of the harm their entitlement (and the seemingly genuine earnestness behind it) causes. I cannot help but wonder if there was a specific person or multiple people R.F. Kuang had in mind when she conceptualized June Hayward. For me, it felt like I was reading the thoughts of specific people I have encountered. Maybe that’s why I felt like I couldn’t put Yellowface down. With every chapter I finished, I had to find out what happened next. I had to keep reading. I originally purchased a hardcover copy of this book. After finishing it, I purchased an audiobook copy so that I can revisit again later. For that reason, I recommend buying a copy of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 29 August 2024