{"id":171744,"date":"2023-06-08T14:35:21","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T04:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=171744"},"modified":"2023-07-11T15:03:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T05:03:34","slug":"review-yellowface-by-rebecca-f-kuang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2023\/06\/08\/review-yellowface-by-rebecca-f-kuang\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here\u2019s the book I can\u2019t shut up about, <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/yellowface-rebecca-kuang\/book\/9780008600303.html\">YELLOWFACE<\/a><\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-2 is-cropped\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/y648-1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"171747\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/y648-1.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?attachment_id=171747\" class=\"wp-image-171747\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/y648-1-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/y648-1.jpg 430w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/kuang-author-photo-2-200x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"171746\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/kuang-author-photo-2.jpeg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?attachment_id=171746\" class=\"wp-image-171746\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/kuang-author-photo-2-200x300.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/kuang-author-photo-2-683x1024.jpeg 683w, https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/kuang-author-photo-2-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/kuang-author-photo-2.jpeg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/yellowface-rebecca-kuang\/book\/9780008600303.html\"><\/a>In this book, a lacklustre author steals her successful \u201cbest friend\u2019s\u201d novel the night she watches her die. This gets published and said lacklustre author becomes a literary sensation. The trouble is that she\u2019s not who she says she is and this bestselling novel is not her story to tell. <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/yellowface-rebecca-kuang\/book\/9780008600303.html\">Yellowface<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is hands-down hilarious and will drive you absolutely wild wanting to know just how its chaos will play out. The narrator is one of the most despicable people you\u2019ll ever read \u2013 it\u2019s very, very addictive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Yellowface <\/em>speaks to timely debates over diversity in publishing and the literary establishment\u2019s shady business in exoticising and tokenising of non-white authors and profiteering on cultural theft. The (real-life) author, Rebecca Kuang holds a mirror up to the commercial hype machine that is constantly manufacturing THE NEXT BIG BOOK by the HOT SMART YOUNG AUTHOR while simultaneously existing in that space herself with this soon-to-be international bestseller. She even joined the union picket line <a href=\"https:\/\/rfkuang.substack.com\/p\/the-girls-are-striking-in-nyc\">against her own publisher<\/a> earlier this year. The whole publication story of this book is fascinating and it makes the book itself even more meta and juicy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also think <em>Yellowface <\/em>works incredibly well as a kind of manic psychological thrill ride even if you know nothing about Rebecca Kaung or publishing industry controversies. I so enjoyed the narrator\u2019s journey towards ruin \u2013 she, with the permission and support of her fictional publisher, proudly defends her sins to the Twitterverse to the degree that she eventually becomes madly deluded of her own\u2026 if not innocence then something like righteousness. If you\u2019ve read the Russian classic <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/crime-and-punishment-fyodor-dostoyevsky\/book\/9780141192802.html\">Crime and Punishment<\/a><\/strong>, <\/em>you\u2019ll be familiar with the reading experience. It\u2019s exhilarating stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m obsessed. You must, <em>must<\/em> read this book!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/tell-me-what-to-read\/tell-me-what-to-read-australias-biggest-book-clu-7\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"536\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/social-1200-b-1-1024x536.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-171750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/social-1200-b-1-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/social-1200-b-1-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/social-1200-b-1-768x402.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/social-1200-b-1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Hear us chat more about Yellowface on our <a href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/tell-me-what-to-read\/tell-me-what-to-read-australias-biggest-book-clu-7\">podcast!<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-podcast-player jetpack-podcast-player__direct-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.omnycontent.com\/d\/playlist\/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5\/413a2746-13c6-4f80-bf5a-afbf006ca6dd\/68234428-1962-44c9-9f41-afbf006ca703\/podcast.rss\">https:\/\/www.omnycontent.com\/d\/playlist\/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5\/413a2746-13c6-4f80-bf5a-afbf006ca6dd\/68234428-1962-44c9-9f41-afbf006ca703\/podcast.rss<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s the book I can\u2019t shut up about, YELLOWFACE.&nbsp; In this book, a lacklustre author steals her successful \u201cbest friend\u2019s\u201d novel the night she watches her die. This gets published and said lacklustre author becomes a literary sensation. The trouble is that she\u2019s not who she says she is and this bestselling novel is not her story to tell. Yellowface is hands-down hilarious and will drive you absolutely wild wanting to know just how its chaos will play out. The narrator is one of the most despicable people you\u2019ll ever read \u2013 it\u2019s very, very addictive. Yellowface speaks to timely debates over diversity in publishing and the literary establishment\u2019s shady business in exoticising and tokenising of non-white authors and profiteering on cultural theft. The (real-life) author, Rebecca Kuang holds a mirror up to the commercial hype machine that is constantly manufacturing THE NEXT BIG BOOK by the HOT SMART YOUNG AUTHOR while simultaneously existing in that space herself with this soon-to-be international bestseller. She even joined the union picket line against her own publisher earlier this year. The whole publication story of this book is fascinating and it makes the book itself even more meta and juicy. I also think&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":171752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6678,73],"tags":[988,15551,9901,15549,4484,15445,15550],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Editorial-Feature-Image-63.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171744"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171786,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171744\/revisions\/171786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}