In Yellowface, Kuang delves into diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation within the publishing world and beyond. June Hayward, our largely unreliable narrator and unsympathetic protagonist driven by capitalist ambition, witnesses the death of her contemporary author friend, Athena Liu, in a freak accident one night. It’s also when she steals Athena Liu’s just-finished novel. What unfolds is a sequence of consequences resulting from the decision to publish this stolen novel under her own name. As June fabricates lies and contends with death threats, she discovers how far she’s willing to go to protect her success. Despite the pathetic nature of June’s character, she somehow earns my sympathy as a girl just hoping for her life to turn around.
The most impressive aspect of Yellowface for me is the execution of the plot. Early on in the book, I sensed its potential as a dark and thrilling satire adaptable to the screen. A few days after finishing the book, my friend asked me about the story (spoilers included), I struggled to convey the storyline with its intricate twists that Kuang navigates so elegantly. Yellowface, is a superior, deeply meta novel, one that I insist that you read soon.