Yellowface Book Review

What would you do with your dead famous friend’s manuscript (that only you have seen or know about)?

June Hayward’s choice is to use the unpublished manuscript, tweak it in her own words and publish it under a new culturally diverse author name, Junper Song. No one will notice right?

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

The premise of Yellowface seems exciting, thrilling and controversial. When I first heard about the book, I was excited to read it.
The first few chapters are great, they are fast paced and interesting, but I got a little annoyed at the main character, June.
She has formed great jealousy during her friendship with Athena Liu over the years and I believe her comparison between Athena and herself had caused insecurities and resentment. Her responses and reactions of getting caught for plagiarising may ring a little true to how we would feel in this day and age of cancel culture and delving into social media non-stop, but it was quite repetitive throughout and started to make me lose interest. One of the main things that kept me going was wanting to know, will she get caught and will she confront her own insecurities that have led her to this moment?

I liked reading the small insights into the publishing industry, the processes and the people it takes to publish. Unfortunately, the book felt like it was analysing June’s twitter and Instagram feed more than the issues of the Western publishing industry and oppression of culturally diverse authors. Taking someone else’s ideas, work and culture and making it your own was what I was originally excited to read about in this book, so it was a let down when the story went off track.
No one is a saint in Yellowface. The individuals that surround June are just as judgemental, show misogynistic tendencies and celebrate the downfall of others, all while celebrating their own accomplishments.

Overall, this book did not hit the mark for me. It definitely is somewhat thought provoking and definitely raises conversations to be had on multiple themes.
Would love to know your own thoughts with this book once you get to read it!

We have several copies at our libraries as well as the e-books through Libby and Borrowbox.
Let me know what you think, let’s have a chat in the comments!