Synopsis

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese labourers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song – complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Review

They say that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer… judging by the message of this book, never has a truer word been spoken!

This book was such a wild ride and I really enjoyed the majority of it. Sadly the ending, which was predictable and quite silly, really let it down. Perhaps Kuang (like June) backed herself into a corner and didn’t know how to complete the final third of the novel… nor how to end it.

That said, I still loved how the author poked fun at herself and her books, as well as the publishing industry. Yellowface is clever, insightful and gripping. Kuang shows that she can write about a variety of topics with a dark humour and pace that is very different from her fantasy books. I devoured it in under 24 hours and recognised so many elements about publishing that I’ve heard from author friends.

As for our protagonist June, she may be the dumbest character ever to have lived. Wow… I can’t believe how much I despised her. What a self-centred, naïve, mean-spirited person. Not to mention racist and entitled. Although June was irritating, so too was Athena. Talented, rich and beautiful for sure, but clearly also very entitled and mean.

Has it put me off writing a book? No. Has it made me even more nervous about ever getting it published? Yes.

Yellowface is published by Borough Press.