Yellowface – RF Kuang – Chick lit

Review: Yellowface – RF Kuang

On the day that Athena Liu dies in front of June Hayward, the latter takes Athena’s latest manuscript home. A manuscript that no one has seen yet and with which June wants to boost her mediocre reputation as an author. Because, unlike June, Athena was a bestselling author. A different world opens up for June when the book sells like hotcakes, but her sudden success doesn’t go unnoticed and there seem to be social media ghosts connecting the dots and putting June’s reputation at risk.

Where to start when discussing Yellowface? There is so much to say about RF Kuang’s latest novel, and the first to be translated into Dutch. Readers who also read English books may know the author of the fantasy trilogy The Poppy Waror from it published in 2022 Babylon. If you place all these books side by side and next to Yellowface, it is immediately noticeable that Kuang does not limit herself to one genre and that makes her all the more interesting as an author.

Yellowface is written at a high pace, something that ensures that as a reader you cannot stop reading. It’s not so much that there is a lot of action, but Kuang has a certain urgency in her style that doesn’t let go. In the meantime, there are moments when you wonder why you can’t stop reading, because let’s be honest, main character June is not the most honest character ever. And that is putting it very mildly! Her questionable choices teeter on the edge of an ethical abyss and that’s not the worst of it. It’s June’s way of trying to convince you, the reader, of her relative ‘innocence’. It’s rare that a main character is so irritating and somewhere you as a reader are in doubt whether you want it to end well or whether she’ll just hit her head really hard against the wall.

Kuang writes from June’s perspective. She is the omniscient first-person narrator, who specifically addresses the reader. For a long time you wonder in what form this story will be brought to you, because that actually remains unknown until the end. Why does June tell her story to you, the reader? It is something that is actually especially at the start of Yellowface very striking, and quite honestly also a bit of an annoyance, but you get used to it to such an extent that it feels normal later in the book.

In terms of themes, Kuang incorporates a lot Yellowface. The title already gives a hint, because the fact that June Hayward is a white woman writing a story about Chinese workers in World War I raises the question of whether she has the right to do so. It is a difficult topic because cultural appropriation has very deep roots in the past and is therefore very complex. In addition, Kuang describes various human emotions such as loneliness, jealousy and ambition. Many elements that are written down call for reflection, without really taking you out of the reading flow.

The setting is the book trade and that is also nice, because most readers don’t know much about it anyway. It is certainly a book about books, but it is so much more. Kuang writes with Yellowface a smooth, contemporary, deeply developed novel. The fact that the main character is so unsympathetic does not always make you feel comfortable, but the book itself is definitely worth it. Let’s hope for the Dutch translation of RF Kuang’s other books.

Review: Yellowface – RF Kuang