Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
✨ Some sort of review
So, basically June (a white woman) is so jealous of her friend, Athena (a chinese american, queer), who seems to have it all, that when she suddenly dies, June steals her friend’s unfinished manuscript. She stole it, polished it so it aligned with her approach to writing, then published the story as hers.
Yes, she's insufferable. Yes, you have to deal with her for the whole book. So, make sure you prepare a snack, a tea, or anything that you can grab when things get frustrating.
As an unlikeable character, June is written too well, I think. When you read this, you will expect to hate everything that she says and does. Granted, there are a lot of things you can hate about June. But the thing is, RFK leaves enough room in the characterization of June for the readers to interpret what kind of character she is.
You see, in satire, usually you have this expectation that the characters will always talk in exaggeration, their behavior and worldview, you can’t help but expect the characters to be some sort of caricature. Yet often, in this book, the things that she says are the messages that RFK wants to deliver.
If you find yourself agreeing with this quote from June,
We’re just suggesting the right credentials, so that readers take me and my story seriously, so that nobody refuses to pick up my work because of some outdated preconceptions about who can write what. And if anyone makes assumptions, or connects the dots the wrong way, doesn’t that say far more about them than me?
may I remind you that in this context, June stole Athena’s manuscript about a WWI Chinese Laborers story? Well you’ll find more layers of irony like this in Yellowface.
That dissonance between how I perceive June and some things she said that I agree with, makes me reevaluate my thinking about what was said, who said, how it was said. (A lot of things said on the internet. It’s easy to lose my voice in the noise, sometimes I even forget to make my own judgment.)
Another thing about June is that she feels human in this book. Before you come at me, no, I am not a June defender. There are moments where you will see how June is slowly deteriorating. In those moments, you can see that June is capable of guilt and grief and fear. That, makes her human.
Although not for long you’ll be reminded again, how still unlikeable she is. What an asshole she is. Some people may not like this way of characterization where, after showing her vulnerability, you'll then be hit in the face with a reminder how bad she is.
For me personally, I like to be reminded that she is terrible simply because I’m an empath.
Aside from June's characterization, there's also the social commentary. Have you ever felt like you have so much in your head but it seems impossible to express what you think? Yeah, RFK spoke what I had in mind like how. This book is I think RFK's way to give words to the things that she has been observing. She's very thorough at that too.
Maybe it's because I'm chronically online. Or maybe it's because I'm always interested in media trends. But there are a lot of nuances in which RFK write the things that she wanted to show the readers.
For example, June thought that the way Athena approached historical fiction is "so hackneyed that they defy belief", although it was implied that Athena was trying to be as truthful as possible to the actual history.
For June, how Athena writes is not accessible, didactic, therefore makes it not a good craft. Meanwhile all this time the opposite has been said about Athena's books: brilliant, authentic, insightful.
Part of Athena's original draft that June's editor said to be "torture porn" was a literal story straight from historical record. That exchange between June and her editor is a good example of "the winner is the one who write the history" or whatever, that sentence, but in a bad way.
From this gaze, we get to see how power is an essential factor that builds the narrative. There's a big part in the story where white privilege plays a role in which they have more advantages over people of color.
SPOILER ALERT
June is misusing her influence towards a POC character which consequently ruin that person's life entirely.
SPOILER ENDS.
Talking about POC, RFK has got some humour in her. I love how Juniper is written being so delulu that it makes her look plain stupid.
"Diversity is what’s selling right now. Editors are hungry for marginalized voices. You’ll get plenty of opportunities for being different, Emmy. "
In booktwt specifically, it is not an uncommon occurrence where readers are debating about diversity. "Just because the book is diverse doesn't mean it's good," that saying is not unfamiliar among the readers. What is a good book, honestly? Pulling the thread from this scope, RFK tried to capture how twitter discourse looks like, what each sides are arguing about.
It's easy for people to dismiss the happenings on the twitter as, "It's just twitter", although in a lot of cases it's warranted that things are overblown in there, but there needs to be some consideration where people's life are depending on it. What does this mean is, it all comes down to the theme of white privilege again. June's career is depending on social media, mainly twitter. Being the June that she is, let's say, she's not nice to people, so there are consequences of her own actions, but knowing how deranged twitter can be, relying your career using that media can be debilitating. June is obviously overwhelmed by this. I like this part because this is where the social commentary shines light about the publishing industry.
But Twitter is real life; it’s realer than real life, because that is the realm that the social economy of publishing exists on, because the industry has no alternative.
I don't think I ever heard a book that tells a story about publishing industry this close. Readers are introduced to the behind the scenes of publishing industry with a sense of familiarity, using terms that readers use when they talk about the books they consume. Yellowface is an intriguing piece of literature that break the door to the source of the enjoyment itself and the way it is created in this profit-hungry society. Not only that, it also a neat composition of characterization, storyline, motif, worldbuilding, and a sprinkle of social commentary.
TLDR: Seriously, please read Yellowface! It's well-written, engaging, insightful, and overall an amazing book.