Yellowface Bird

Hello again, friends! I am crazy busy this month with my regular job’s student showcase AND creating a 20-person murder mystery party for my Grammie’s 90th birthday party next weekend. But despite all that, I still read a few books and got up to 20 books read this year so far! Moving on to this month, I’m reviewing Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. And to accompany this one, I made a Yellow Bird cocktail.

Yellow Bird Recipe

1oz Light Rum

1oz Dark Rum

1/4oz Galliano

1oz Gin*

1 1/4oz Orange Juice

1/2oz Lime Juice

1 Lime Wheel

*This is an optional ingredient.

In a cocktail shaker with ice, add all liquid ingredients and shake for approximately 10 seconds. Strain into a collins glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and enjoy!

This month, I had a much better time picking a special ingredient. The main character’s name is June, or Juniper, so I knew I wanted to use gin. This was an interesting cocktail. I thought the gin addition would make it almost like a Long Island, aka way too boozy. But it actually wasn’t bad! Don’t get me wrong it’s definitely boozy, but all the elements work together quite nicely to make a balanced drink. So, I would definitely recommend trying this one if you’re ok with drinks a little heavier on the alcohol side!

Yellowface Synopsis

(from book cover)

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Review

“Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic.”

Wow, this one surprised me! One, because it’s another Bookstagram/Booktok favourite that was worth the hype. And two, because I did not expect a lot of the twists and turns this novel took. Yellowface intrigued me after seeing the gorgeous cover all over social media, then when I read the synopsis I knew I needed to review it. And overall, I really enjoyed this novel. It was fresh, satirical, and hooked me from the start. But, as it often goes, this one was not perfect. So, let’s get into it.

Yellowface has so many story elements that I love—satire, an unreliable narrator, fantastic prose, and a first sentence that draws you in. So, you’re probably surprised that I said it wasn’t perfect for me, but not everything can be Finlay Donovan is Killing It (the only book I’ve ever rated 5 stars on here). It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what I found great, or not great, in this story. But I’ll start with the writing and work from there.

As stated above, the prose is transfixing. Kuang has an interesting ability to write witty weirdness one paragraph and beautiful sentiments in the next. And for me, that is the sign of a great satire. Not to mention, I found myself wondering just how exaggerated Yellowface‘s world of publishing really is. At points this novel definitely had an air of “this seems very meta”, which I loved but can’t confirm as I honestly don’t know much about the author. The focus of the satire, the “diversity” (racism) in publishing, was also great and is so topical right now. We’ve all seen tiktoks or read tweets about white people complaining that it’s easier to get published if you’re diverse these days. And I loved how Kuang pushed against that truly silly narrative with this satire.

Beyond that, Yellowface was more than just a satire about racism and appropriation in the publishing industry. It was, as Kuang calls it, “a horror story about loneliness…” And this aspect of the novel was where I was honestly surprised. I knew it was a dark satire going in, but me oh my I did not expect it to take the turns it did. And this thriller-like element of the story was really what pulled me through the novel because I needed to know what happened next.

In relation to the writing style, the narration is perfect. Our narrator, June, is everything you want in an unreliable narrator. She starts somewhat sympathetic and becomes more unhinged along the way, making you question everything she’s ever done or said and everything that is happening to her. She gave some Holden Caulfield vibes at points when it came to not being able to communicate her feelings to people and consistently seeing negatives in others rather than herself. But I loved reading this novel from June’s perspective. The ways she would justify her racism and cultural appropriation by claiming herself to be liberal was eerie as it’s such a common thing to see these days.

But on that same note, the characters fell a little flat for me. We really don’t get to know anyone other than our villain-protagonist June. And again, I was fascinated by the insights into June’s psyche and how she was portrayed. But no other characters were fleshed out. Athena was the closest we got to learning about other characters, but I wanted more insight into her too. I’ve found that this seems to be a pretty common complaint online, so I will mention that for me it didn’t ruin the novel. Yes, I wanted a little more, but I was also happy with what I got. At the end of the day, this was a satirical thriller about racism, privilege, and identity and that’s exactly what we got even if it means we lost out on the character element a bit.

Another complaint I’ve seen online is that a lot of the novel deals with tweets and other social media. I didn’t personally hate this, but it did get a touch repetitive at points. My biggest problem with the social media aspect of Yellowface, is that it felt like we could’ve explored more into June’s mind or into other characters instead. And again, I know that wasn’t overly the point of this novel, so it isn’t a huge negative for me it’s just something I didn’t love.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick, hard-to-put-down read that was thought-provoking and topical. The satire was perfect, the narration was wild, and the story was interesting. I wish it had a bit more depth to the characters and relationships, but it didn’t feel lacking. So, I would definitely recommend Yellowface if you also love dark satires. And, as always, give the Yellow Bird a try if it piques your interest!

My Rating:

Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading Fallen Anxious People and The Vanishing Half and Half if you liked this one!

Teghann

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