Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies

When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour

But as evidence threatens June's stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences...

What happens next is entirely everyone else's fault.

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Phew. I can see why this is getting so much attention! (Ironically amusing, given the topic.) It's tough to even describe without giving too much away, and this is a book you want to go into as unspoiled as possible, so I'm going to have to be pretty vague.

You've seen the blurb, you know what it's about, so I'll add that it's a (brutal, in spots) no holds barred look at the world of publishing. I'm a bookseller, I don't have much insight into publishing as an industry, but it's certainly true that some books get much more promotion than others and some authors get more than others, especially established vs debut.

This is also a really hard look at mob mentality in social media, and how quickly things can turn and change. It's a good chance to look at your own behaviour online and whether you're fanning flames or helping them calm down.

June does a LOT of justifying and explaining away and not-quite-lying, which can get annoying - I've seen reviews who were really irritated by it, and I can see where they're coming from, so be aware of that if you're reading. I didn't think it was too awful personally - maybe that says something about me as a person! However, I did appreciate that this book didn't have a huge focus on romance; it's actually almost never mentioned, which is really refreshing in a book and felt like an acknowledgement that lives can have other purposes.

I read this all in one go, as I think many people will, as it's so amazing. I'll be shoving it at people once it goes on sale in a few days. I think it's going to be great.

Yellowface published on the 16th of May, 2023 in the US and will publish on the 25th of May, 2023 in the UK, using the same cover. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.