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February 2, 2026
  • R.F. Kuang
  • January 25, 2024

Yellowface

4
Despite (Chinese American) Athena having significantly more success and fame than June (white American), Athena remains one of June’s only writer friends. When Athena dies in a choking incident, June steals Athena’s manuscript on WWI Chinese soldiers and edits and promotes the manuscript as her own. Suddenly experiencing overnight success, June also faces harsh criticism for using an “own voices” story and her efforts and those of her publisher to erase her whiteness to sell more books. Through June’s point of view we listen to her worry and then become angry over the constant (justifiable) criticism and honestly as the book’s end I found myself both sympathetic and utterly annoyed by June (which feels to be the author’s point). Kuang’s writing is detailed, and times quite dark as she takes June on a journey from literary nonbody to best-selling author; using the characters of June and Athena and snippets of social media to tell the tale. At times the pacing of this book was undulating from fast to slow but overall, I read this quickly as I was desperate to see how June’s career progressed. Much of this book reflects on whether a white author can write a story (or even characters) that are not white. Kuang points out how “diverse” subjects and authors are marketed as unique to sell more books. June’s book is popular despite the critiques, and a scene I have seen of books play out in real life (for example, a popular sports romance series from TikTok). From the discussion on how social media sells books to how the publishing industry has already selected what will be a best seller long before books make it to market, Kuang gave details on the “dirty” side of publishing. As someone who spends lots of time engaged on book-related social media, I loved the critique I believe Kuang was trying to get across.
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Despite (Chinese American) Athena having significantly more success and fame than June (white American), Athena remains one of June’s only writer friends. When Athena dies in a choking incident, June steals Athena’s manuscript on WWI Chinese soldiers and edits and promotes the manuscript as her own. Suddenly experiencing overnight success, June also faces harsh criticism for using an “own voices” story and her efforts and those of her publisher to erase her whiteness to sell more books. Through June’s point of view we listen to her worry and then become angry over the constant (justifiable) criticism and honestly as the book’s end I found myself both sympathetic and utterly annoyed by June (which feels to be the author’s point).

Kuang’s writing is detailed, and times quite dark as she takes June on a journey from literary nonbody to best-selling author; using the characters of June and Athena and snippets of social media to tell the tale. At times the pacing of this book was undulating from fast to slow but overall, I read this quickly as I was desperate to see how June’s career progressed. Much of this book reflects on whether a white author can write a story (or even characters) that are not white. Kuang points out how “diverse” subjects and authors are marketed as unique to sell more books. June’s book is popular despite the critiques, and a scene I have seen of books play out in real life (for example, a popular sports romance series from TikTok). From the discussion on how social media sells books to how the publishing industry has already selected what will be a best seller long before books make it to market, Kuang gave details on the “dirty” side of publishing. As someone who spends lots of time engaged on book-related social media, I loved the critique I believe Kuang was trying to get across.

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