Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

When literary darling Athena Liu chokes to death in a freak accident, struggling author June Hayward makes a split-second decision that propels her to the top of the bestseller list—on a stolen manuscript.

June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be rising stars together, but while Athena landed six-figure deals and critical acclaim, June's writing career withered into obscurity. When June witnesses Athena’s sudden death, she impulsively takes her deceased friend's masterwork: an experimental novel documenting the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. After editing the draft and rebranding herself under the ethnically ambiguous pen name Juniper Song, June finally achieves the commercial success she believes she deserves. But as The Last Front tops bestseller lists, an online outrage machine fueled by Twitter sleuths, plagiarism allegations, and haunting manifestations of Athena’s memory threatens to dismantle her web of lies. A masterwork of transgressive literary fiction and satirical thrillers, R. F. Kuang’s Yellowfacedelivers a sharp critique of performative diversity, cultural appropriation, and the toxic echo chambers of modern publishing.

Why You’ll Love This Book

Kuang crafts an unsparing, addictively cringey first-person narrator whose rationalizations make every step of her downfall mesmerizing to watch. The satire exposes the performative diversity, capitalist motives, and toxic social media dynamics of the modern literary world. A thought-provoking reading experience for anyone who loves dark publishing dramas and morally complex anti-heroes.