Yellowface - R.F. Kuang

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⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

Obviously I was going to read this. It's Kuang's first non-SFF book, about an unsuccessful author, June, stealing her more successful friend's unpublished manuscript after her friend dies. Things are more complicated because June is white and her friend Athena was Chinese-American and the book is about Chinese labourers. Told through June's perspective, she tries to justify her actions to herself and has to double down once people start criticizing her and suspecting plagiarism.

This book is sharp with biting commentary of America and the publishing industry, and it had my head spinning, trying to figure out who was right and who was racist and who was just a pretentious internet troll. Brilliant, with one point docked for making me feel dumb.

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