June was present at the moment of death for her longtime friend/nemesis Athena Song. June and Athena are both novelists, but only Athena was successful. After Athena’s death, June stole one of Athena’s manuscripts and published it. What follows is a spiral of twitter-fueled paranoia and despair, where June inevitably destroys herself in a cathartic ironic justice.
June is a hot mess of a protagonist. To use another metaphor, have you ever seen a train wreck or car crash, and just couldn’t look away? That’s what this book was to me. I enjoyed ‘Yellowface.’
At the same time, this gimmick was tiresome. I felt in a similar way when I read ‘Gideon the Ninth‘ years ago. I enjoy the fever dream which was ‘Gideon’, but at the same time too much of a fever dream is exhausting. I’ve never continued that series as a result. Likewise, I’m happy ‘Yellowface’ is reasonably short because I don’t think I can take much more of this.
Also, ‘Yellowface’ is funny. I found myself audibly giggling at how ridiculous June is on more than one occasion.
Spoilers Below. I’m writing this review in good faith, as one author reviewing another’s book, trying to balance positives with negatives.
Before we begin, do you have a book which needs editing? Do you want to read more reviews? Here is a link: The Rest of My In Depth Reviews
WHAT IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE? WHAT GENRES? WHAT MAJOR TROPES?
- Lit fic, author main character
- Adult, but safe for anyone 16+ years old
- A bit surreal, a bit descent into madness
- Satire
- Extremely Online. References many social media personas and twitter spats
- Deliberately pretentious main character
MY EMOTIONAL RESPONSE/ FUN FACTOR
This book made me laugh. June is so obliviously racist, so deeply mired in double-think that I can’t help but complement Kuang on how well June is written. Everyone around June puts on similar masks of being ‘I’m a good American progressive and totally not a jerk’ even while they act like a jerk in subtle and often unintentional ways. It added authenticity and bitterness to the story which was fantastic to read. The author really went knives out for this one.
After reading ‘The Poppy War’ and ‘Babel,’ I used to say that this author wasn’t very good at writing characters. I must take that back. It’s clear Kuang can write excellent, fully-fleshed out characters when she exerts herself.
WARNING! QUIT READING NOW UNTIL YOU FINISH READING THE BOOK!
CONCEPT AND EXECUTION
This book’s concept is that after the death of an internationally famous Asian American author (Athena), her less-talented friend (June) steals her manuscript, edits it, and publishes it herself. June gets high on her own supply, believes her edits to be the REAL source of genius in the text. She becomes addicted to the fame and fortune. Hollywood deals, TV interviews, podcasts, the works.
Everything turns against her when people compare the manuscript to Athena’s prose, and realize that it’s probably stolen. What follows is a series of self-inflicted errors, (the cover up is worse than the crime), ultimately resulting in June getting cancelled. June’s addiction to social media turns parasitic.
After she weathers the storm and the furor dies down, June realizes there’s only one thing worse than bad press: no press at all. Without having published a book recently, people stop caring. A terrible streak of writer’s block strikes, manifesting in the form of delusions of Athena’s ghost returning from beyond the grave to stalk her. I won’t spoil the end.
I thought the book was well executed. The author did a good job of embodying the mindframe of someone trapped in their own paranoia. The shift to the First Person POV from the Third Person in earlier novels was an intelligent decision by the author because it added more emotion and immediacy to the novel. (The author even hung a lantern on this point in her own book.)
Small spoiler below.
I did not like the ending. That was intentional by the author. June Hayward does not learn the lesson from her mistakes ever. As a result, the book ended on the note of ‘June will continue doing this bullshit for the rest of her life.’
On one hand, that’s the message the author was going for: being cancelled in social media means nothing; if you make yourself a big enough of a spectacle, people will keep watching. Sometimes racist people just can’t be redeemed. June failing to learn her lesson was the point. And it was a good point!
On the other hand, the ending fell flat. I was expecting the book to end with June shouting “I am Athena Liu!” or “Alright, Mr. Demille, I’m ready for my close-up.” The fact there wasn’t some sort of dramatic crash-and-burn left me finishing the book feeling perplexed and disappointed.
CHARACTERS, CHARACTERIZATION AND DIALOG
I enjoyed June in this book for the same reason I enjoyed Kvothe from ‘The King Killer Chronicles.’ June has a very odious personality, to the point she lacks the ability for self-reflection. Kvothe has a bit more capacity for self-reflection, but the point stands. June has a very distinctive personality.
There were many times throughout the novel when Juniper would say something perfectly reasonable, only to pushing the envelope past the point she stops being in the right and starts being in the wrong.
For example,
- When someone questions white June’s right to write a book about Asian people, June responded by saying something like: “People should be allowed to write about any topic they want; forbidding that freedom of expression would just be gatekeeping.”
- I feel most people will admit that’s a reasonable opinion, even if they disagree with it.
- June uses her power to fire the person who suggested the use of a sensitivity reader.
- I feel most people will admit that’s an unreasonable thing to do.
Time and again, the author allows June to say something reasonable or do a reasonable action, only for June’s tendency towards self-sabotage to ruin her life. I could probably cite five more of these instances in just one book. That’s fantastic characterization.
Kuang did a great job playing around with ambiguity. I complained about the lack of ambiguity in the author’s earlier works, so I’m glad Kuang has grown.
June spent half the book in Karen ‘Let me speak with your manager’ mode. Truth be told I spent half the book rooting for her to be as evil as possible: watching a dumpster fire is a spectacle. And yet June was never so unlikable that the novel became a chore to read. To quote a comment from this reddit thread:
Yes, the character is unlikeable and yes her actions are objectively bad, but despite that it never feels like it is lecturing you about the correct viewpoints on representation and cancel culture. The main character is clearly wrong but the criticism she gets is often contradictory and it’s often unclear what is or isn’t fair from the authors perspective.
Probably the most ambiguous aspect of the entire novel is the relationship between Athena and Juniper.
Athena is the prototypical super-successful Asian American author/influencer: beautiful, talented, born wealthy, cosmopolitan. She’s also a two-faced bitch who everyone hated. She was ‘friends’ with Juniper, in the sense that hyper-successful Athena felt contempt Juniper, and they were friends solely for the purpose of Athena being a smugness parasite off Juniper.
As if it couldn’t be worse, Athena is a literary vampire.
One of Athena’s bad habits is that she talks to people and steals their stories. One of her first victims was Juniper herself. June was sorta-sexually assaulted in college, and afterwards she confided the truth to her friend Athena. Afterwards, Athena published the story without giving credit to June. June’s assault story is what kickstarted Athena’s entire literary career. It’s clear that June carries a ton of resentment about this fact, especially since June’s literary career was unsuccessful.
And then Athena dies, and June steals Athena’s novel. Of course she takes the novel; it’s only fair to steal it after Athena stole her story.
And to top it all off, Athena is also an undead vampire.
Athena returns from the grave to get revenge against June for stealing the manuscript… At least according to June’s late-breaking psychosis. One of June’s stalkers gaslight her into believing Athena is still alive. Near the end of the book, these schemes lead to June’s gradual dissolution, resulting in grief, regret and despair… only to turn on a dime back to smug self-righteousness the moment June realizes she’s being gaslighted by her stalkers.
Everyone in ‘Yellowface’ is deeply unlikable, from obliviously racist Juniper to two-faced Athena. Most of the supporting cast prove fair weather friends, abandoning June the moment things get rough. I think the unremittingly asshat characters in ‘Yellowface’ served to emphasize the book’s satire. It’s easy to laugh at jerks.
This book is campy, silly, and stupid. I loved it.
I think this author thrives in the first person. The anger, resentment, pettiness, bitterness and oblivious racism drip off the page like poison. I hope the author sticks to this format and tone, it works well for her.
PACING AND STRUCTURE
I think this used the 6 Act Writing Structure.
- The Death
- Athena dies a comedic death, setting the tone for this ridiculous novel.
- Editing and Publishing
- Juniper takes Athena’s manuscript, and waters it down. She shaves off the hard edges of Athena’s literary writing style in favor of a more white-middle-class beach read.
- Her novel begins a bidding war amongst publishers. Her novel is picked for success, given a massive marketing push, and Juniper basks in the afterglow of ‘her’ hard work.
- The First Crisis (The Ghost of Athena)
- Athena’s old boyfriend figures out what Juniper’s done, and tries to ruin Juniper’s reputation. Juniper defeats him by using his vices against him: he wants to blackmail June, so June blackmails him back.
- Juniper is almost cancelled, but the pressure is taken off her back when Athena is instead cancelled post-mortem, distracting anyone from talking about Juniper.
- The Second Crisis (The Witch)
- Juniper uses a single sentence from one of Athena’s unpublished works to write a book of her own. She feels good about herself: she can write a successful book without the ghost of Athena breathing down her shoulder…
- …only for June’s haters to discover that Juniper stole that single sentence, bringing down an entire new volley of plagiarism charges upon her on twitter. June suffers a nervous breakdown.
- The Third Crisis (Writer’s Block)
- June needs to write a book without any hint of Athena’s work seeping in, but just can’t. It’s almost like Athena’s ghost really is haunting her.
- Without having published anything recently, no one on twitter is talking about her. The silence is deafening, and June wallows in misery.
- The Doom
- June starts receiving texts from Athena’s social media accounts, accusing June of murder and stealing the manuscript. This slowly drives June more and more insane, to the point she seeks therapy.
- June confronts Athena’s ghost, confesses her grief, only for it to be revealed that a character June crossed in Act 2 has come back for revenge. The character hacked Athena’s social media account and used it to gaslight June into believing Athena’s come back. Now the hacker has the evidence she needs to start another kerfuffle on twitter
- The cycle begins again, and no lesson is learned.
I thought this book was well-paced, especially when compared to the author’s prior books. I’m on the record for saying that most books in the Fantasy genre have gotten WAY too bloated; I’m happy that when Kuang left Fantasy she reduced her wordcount. At a trim 336 pages, ‘Yellowface’ was a breezy read compared to the 600+ goliaths earlier in the author’s career.
AUTHORIAL VOICE (PROSE STYLE)
One of the problems I had with ‘Babel,’ and to a lesser extent the ‘Poppy War’ trilogy, is how ‘modern’ Kuang’s authorial voice feels. The use of a modern authorial voice when contrasted unpleasantly against the historical settings present in those novels. (Personal taste is subjective.)
The use of that same modern voice works well here. This book feels like it was written by a hyper-online twitter addict, which is appropriate because the protagonist Juniper Hayward is a twitter addict: the only thing Juniper fears more than negative tweets is being forgotten on twitter.
Now, caveat emptor, I’m not very hyper-online myself. I feel like big swaths of this book went over my head. It mentioned something like… jade vagina eggs? I listened to the audiobook: did I mishear that? What’s up with that?
I’m also pretty sure this book won’t hold up well over time: I noticed references to Juniper respecting people who have ‘blue check marks’ as being the elite of twitter. Since this book’s publication, twitter’s changed it’s policy regarding ‘blue check marks,’ so they can be purchased. I think fifty years from now this book will be remembered as a period piece, if it’s remembered at all.
In my reviews, I frequently suggest readers meet the book halfway. I find it relatively easy to meet ‘Yellowface’ halfway, compared to the author’s previous works. The storytelling in this book felt like the author wrote an explosion of frustrations onto the page. The emotions herein felt genuine; I expect nothing less, I enjoyed the emotions in ‘The Poppy War’ trilogy as well. I loved how campy Juniper was as a villain protagonist, chewing on the scenery with her unconsciously racist tendencies. I feel the author failed to do with Letty in ‘Babel’ what she succeeded here with Juniper.
Now that said, I highly doubt this book will be enjoyed by everyone.
- Juniper is a villain protagonist, a storytelling choice which will always have a more limited audience.
- The hyper-online twitter addict thing is bound to disenfranchise a large number of readers.
- The whole ‘writer writing about writers’ won’t interest a lot of readers.
- The plot ended on the note of ‘That’s it? Why did I bother reading this book?’
But I enjoyed how the author drilled down into Juniper’s psyche, explored her imposter syndrome and jealousy. This is a nuanced, multi-layered character, who also happens to be a miserable ball of self-loathing. (Note that ‘nuanced’ does not mean redeemable.)
AUTHORIAL VOICE (THEME)
You can’t talk about ‘Yellowface’ without talking about ‘Babel’ and ‘The Poppy War.’ Those books made Kuang popular, and they are also what made the author receive hate-campaigns. As the protagonist in this book received hate campaigns… well, the parallel between author and protagonist is obvious.
I’m not saying either Athena or June are author inserts. Athena and June are both terrible people and I HIGHLY doubt Kuang sees herself in either of them. But no one will argue that Kuang didn’t repurpose bits and pieces of her own narrative to tell this story.
Women and people of color authors are held to a higher standard than men and white authors. There is something called ‘respectability politics,’ wherein people with power say to protestors “If you’re going to cause a fuss in the pursuit of your beliefs, I’m going to ignore you.” ‘Babel’ causes enough of a fuss that people get mad and dismiss it.
Tangent Time! Have you heard of the game ‘The Last of Us 2?’ That game debuted to mixed reactions. Many lauded it as a masterpiece. Some people hated the inclusion of a trans character. Some people disliked it because it had bad pacing. Either way, ‘TLoU2’ is a great source of golfing memes.
On reflection, the reaction to ‘TLoU2’ is similar to ‘Babel.’ The backlash to the game was muddled by that transphobic stuff. It is a flawed game (bad pacing), but it’s difficult discussing those flaws because of transphobic fellow-travelers. Likewise, you can’t talk about the negative aspects of ‘Babel’ without dealing with all the baggage. And ‘Babel’ is flawed, because all books are flawed.
Most of the feedback I got for my initial ‘Babel’ review was cordial, even from people who disagreed with me. However, some of this book’s defenders suggested I was racist for pointing out ‘Babel’s’ flaws, even though I enjoyed ‘Babel’ net total. It is not my place to say if I am racist or not; read my long history of reviews and decide for yourself. I cite this as evidence that this book was yet another nexus in the culture war.
And now, the elephant in the room. If I went through some culture war shit for posting a review, I can’t imagine what the author went through for actually writing the book.
The author’s message with ‘Yellowface’ is a screed against her haters. You know how I mentioned ‘respectability politics’ above? Kuang has been the target of a lot of shit for the stuff she’s written. You can’t not read segments in ‘Yellowface’ and fail to see the words ‘inspired by real-life events!’ The subtext is under such a thin coat of paint it might as well be varnish.
This book feels like a therapy session by the author, a metatextual rant about all her haters. Fair enough: it’s a time-honored tradition for authors to lampoon their detractors. But I didn’t like this lampooning at moments; more on this later.
Self-awareness time: I think I might have made an appearance in ‘Yellowface,’ as one of the metatextual haters. And if not me, maybe you.
At one point, the narrative of ‘Yellowface’ mentions how June skims the web and reads reviews and critiques on places like blogs, goodreads and reddit. I’ve written critiques on blogs, goodreads and reddit, including for Kuang’s work. And as some of what June goes through seems to reflect what Kuang goes through… So… yeah. Not really sure what to make of it. It’s weird when the 4th wall gets broken like that.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Like I said, at moments this book more or less echoed criticisms Kuang herself received for ‘The Poppy War’ and ‘Babel.’ For example, I think there was a storybeat about how June and/or Athena got blowback for something about Taiwan, reminiscent of blowback Kuang got from ‘The Poppy War.’ Because June is such an extreme unreliable narrator, I don’t know if I should read into this storybeat that Kuang is saying:
- “I was wrong about Taiwan in ‘The Poppy War.’ Sorry guys, I’ll take the L.”
Or if Kuang is saying:
- “I was right about Taiwan in ‘The Poppy War.’ Screw the haters!”
While I complemented the author’s ambiguous writing style earlier in this review, I must condemn that ambiguity here. If an author wants to address criticism, address it in a forthright blogpost, a tweet, or with an news outlet. This ambiguous meta-narrative lampooning is too cute by half and muddies the water. It was fun, but don’t use your own controversies.
Ultimately, this book does not have to validate it’s existence to me or anyone. And ultimately, I’m not interested in wasting the time doing independent research into these controversies to form my own opinions. I enjoyed ‘Yellowface,’ but these flavors bitter the broth.
AUDIOBOOK NOTES
I found the audiobook to be propulsive, but I feel like a good deal of the stuff went over my head. This book references random twitter-stuff at times, and none of it made sense to me. Because it was in audiobook format, I never got the chance to slow down and look up the mentioned twitter scandals.
LESSONS LEARNED
As an author, I want to improve my own writing/editing skills. To that end, I like to learn lessons from every story I read. Here’s what I learned from this story:
- Satire makes message fiction go down easier.
- Have a prose style which matches your book. I liked how the twitter-obsessed narrative reflected the twitter-obsessed protagonist.
Here’s a link to all the lessons I’ve previously learned.
SUMMARY
The life and times of June Hayward was a car crash I couldn’t look away from. What a fascinating book. I loved reading it, but I hope I don’t stumble into another book like it any time soon. June is a lot.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 