REVIEW: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

“...I don't know what it is I want to say anymore. I don't know if I ever did. And I'm terrified that the only thing I'll ever be remembered for, and the only method by which I can produce good work, is slipping on someone else's skin."

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is a biting, thrilling and addictive take on privilege, entitlement, race and fame in the literary world.

June Hayward has always lived in the shadow of fellow writer, Athena Liu. Athena's achievements fill June with a mix of envy and bitterness. One night when the two of them are hanging out in Athena's home, there is a freak accident where Athena dies. June, noticing an unpublished manuscript, takes it home with her. June, hungry for success, takes the manuscript (about Chinese laborers in WW1) and begins to weave it into something she thinks she can claim as her own. 

Strategically rebranded as Juniper Song by her editors, she publishes the book to critical acclaim…and increased suspicion. As June attempts to keep her secret underwraps, she must try and escape Athena, her memory and accountability for her choices. 

This is by far the most compulsively readable book I've read in a long time. It's hard to truly communicate the insanely clever layering that Kuang incorporates into her work. It's always tough to tell a story from the POV of the villian, especially when they give you many reasons to not believe or trust them. 

While the main character is not likable (all the characters will have you liking and hating them), she is the perfect vehicle through which Kuang explores questions that plague all industries while some are unique to the world of publishing. What constitutes a villian? What warrants revenge and how can it be legitimized? Who do you root for when no one is innocent? Who is entitled to what? Who deserves to be forgiven?