July 2024: “Yellowface” by R.F. Kuang

Jun 24

Spoiler-Free Story Blurb

June Hayward has a complicated relationship with Athena Liu. Both are graduates of Yale University, both live in the District of Columbia (DC) in the United States, and both are published fiction authors. Athena Liu has published three bestselling novels—each selling better than the last—and lives in a posh apartment. June Hayward lives in a modest apartment and her debut novel was a flop. June tells herself that it must be because she’s a plain-looking white girl writing about experiences of white women while Athena is an exotic Chinese beauty writing about the pain and suffering of Chinese people. June reasons with herself that even though she has put in the work she is only given scraps because she’s white while the world of success is just handed over to minorities like Athena. But of all of this changes the night June witnesses Athena’s untimely death—and steals one of Athena’s unpublished manuscripts.

With Athena’s work in hand, June Hayward goes through a rebrand: she either revises or completely replaces major aspects of the original manuscript, takes professional photos to intentionally make herself appear ethnically ambiguous, and goes by the pen name Juniper Song (which is her full first name and her middle name, a remnant of her mother’s hippy phase). And it works! The book is a major success. She is finally tasting the prestige she deserves. But cracks begin to form. Evidence comes to the surface of the true provenance of Juniper Song’s bestseller. June’s new life, the life that she feels is owed to her, is under threat. And she will do anything to keep it.

Important Trigger Warning for Yellowface

Chapter 13 of Yellowface centers June Hayward’s retelling of a sexual assault. The exact details of the assault are not essential to the plot. If this is something that causes you distress or discomfort, then you can completely skip Chapter 13 without losing important story information. If you do decide to read through Chapter 13, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.

Discussion Questions

Who can write about certain stories and histories?
Where is the line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation?
Are you entitled to success because you “put in the hours”?

Click on the book cover image to see what people are saying about Yellowface on Goodreads. Visit the Fiction bookshelf to read my book review of Yellowface.

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