June Hayward and Athena Liu met several years ago as students at Yale. Since then, they've both published books, but while Athena is now the darling of the literary world, June is struggling. They're both living in Washington DC now and occasionally hang out together -- and they're in Athena's apartment together when Athena dies in a rather bizarre way (!). Sometime between the arrival of the paramedics and her departure from the apartment, June succumbs to curiosity and temptation, and slips the draft of Athena's just-completed new novel into her bag.
It's a novel about Chinese labourers on the Western Front during the First World War, and June immediately recognizes its potential. After some edits, she submits it to her agent as her own work -- and it becomes a bestseller, under the culturally ambiguous pen name of Juniper Song (June's real first and second names, courtesy of her hippie parents).
The book becomes a New York Times bestseller. The fame and fortune is everything June ever dreamed of.
And then it slowly turns into a nightmare...
"Yellowface" is brilliantly crafted and well-written (with June as narrator, so we see and experience everything from her perspective). It offers up some dagger-sharp observations about the publishing industry, social media, “cancel culture,” culture wars, cultural appropriation and racism, among other hot topics. As a writer myself (although it's been a very long time since I dabbled in fiction), the parts about writing and the writing process are bang on. But I'll admit that the moral/ethical dilemmas and ambiguities presented, and the sheer nastiness of the characters (including -- especially?? -- June herself!), left me feeling more than a little queasy!
I don't want to say too much more -- too many potential spoilers! But if you're looking for a topical novel that's bound to generate a lot of discussion in your book club, "Yellowface" will do the job!
I really had to think about how to rate this one, and whether the pros of the novel outweighed the cons. I've settled on 4 stars. (I think! lol)
This was Book #3 read to date in 2025 (and Book #3 finished in January), bringing me to 7% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) on track to meet my goal. :) You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books."
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