Yellowface
by R.F. Kuang
A white writer watches her more successful Asian American colleague die, steals her unpublished manuscript, and passes it off as her own. What follows is a slow, masterful unraveling as Juniper narrates her own bad decisions without ever fully admitting to herself what she’s actually doing.
“I didn’t steal her story. I gave it a chance to be read.”
What It Actually Felt Like
Juniper is one of the best unreliable narrators I’ve read. The gap between what she tells herself and what is actually happening is where the whole book lives. Kuang writes her with a specificity that makes her both infuriating and completely recognizable, she is every person who has rationalized something they knew was wrong because it benefited them.
I could not put this down. I kept reading to see how much deeper she would dig. The book is funny in a dark way and sharp in ways that don’t feel like they’re trying to be. It goes somewhere.
The Honest Part
The ending is deliberately unsatisfying in a way that is thematically correct but might frustrate readers who want more resolution. That choice is intentional and I think it’s right, but it’s worth knowing going in.
Who This Is For
Anyone interested in the publishing industry, race and appropriation in media, or just a really well-crafted unreliable narrator. Literary satire fans will love this.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Sharp, biting, and I could not put it down.
Tags literary fiction, satire, publishing industry, race, mood: gripping and uncomfortable
