Yellowface *****
Rebecca F Kuang
HarperCollins
Rebecca F Kuang is no stranger to topping the book charts with fantasy epics, among them The Poppy War trilogy and, recently, Babel. Her work is infused with unfiltered social commentary, sweeping the reader into embellished worlds, daring one to participate; to critically diagnose history. In Yellowface, Kuang offers up a literary thriller that, though fiction, reads as a scathing and demystifying look at the “isms” of publishing by satirising racism and cultural appropriation in literature, the virtue of woke and cancel culture, and the vortical beast that is social media.
Yellowface is a stone's throw from what Kuang’s fantasy fans have come to love her for, but make no mistake, her ingenious plotline is daring; hypnotic from the first page.
June Hayward lives in the enveloping shadow of Athena Liu, her so-called best friend and the epitome of what June craves to be: a best-selling author. June’s projects are mid-level, with minimum sales and cancelled book opportunities. One fateful night, Athena invites June to her penthouse for a girl’s night. June inquisitively wanders into Athena’s study where she finds a Remington typewriter — steely, sparkling black and boastful — next to a manuscript that ends up in June’s possession after a tragedy ends the evening.
As the book progresses, the chapters walk the lines of blurred morals and the sanctity of righteousness, where the reader witnesses the unhinged disgraces of June, who becomes Juniper Song as she pathologically wills herself into submitting Athena’s book as her own, striking a match that sets alight a fire inflamed by delusion and privilege.
Kuang masterfully seduces the reader into a dual experience, as an observer and a critic of an Asian author writing from the voice of a white counterpart impersonating a Chinese author. Yellowface personifies the never-ending rat race to secure the number one spot, the green gremlin that steers jealousy and elbows competition.
Parodic, jarring and an important work, Kuang enters the eye of the storm, calling out the publishing industry from the outset; her storyline cascading into themes that answer what it means to be an author of colour.
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