YELLOWFACE BY REBECCA F. KUANG

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BOOK NAME:  YELLOWFACE

AUTHOR NAME: REBECCA F. KUANG

GENRE:  SATIRE / CONTEMPORARY FICTION / PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

PUBLISHER: THE BOROUGH PRESS - HARPERCOLLINS

BOOK BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.in/Yellowface-anticipated-thriller-SUNDAY-bestselling-ebook/dp/B0B4BTBKB7


BOOK COVER IMAGE:



BOOK REVIEW:

After hearing so much about the author and her books, I finally decided to give in to the hype around her latest release. I was initially dubious, given that popular books usually don't work well for me. But my god, was I so wrong? I would have regretted not reading this book earlier if I had let it pass.


June Hayward and her Chinese-American friend, Athena Liu, are celebrating the latter's success in her apartment for bagging a Netflix deal on her literary wonder. But unfortunately, the day of celebration turns into a horrid mess, and June has to witness Athena die in front of her eyes helplessly. She is haunted by Athena's ghost forever as she cannot get her out of her mind. With this outline, one might assume that June and Athena were besties, and June is probably devastated by her best friend's death. But that's not it.


June and Athena were frenemies all along, each leaching off the other only for their literary interests. June gets into a moral dilemma after Athena's death, publishes Athena's unfinished work as her own as Juniper Song, and vows to defend her lie till the end by all means. Who is to know about this except herself and her dead "best friend"? But June realises later that the publishing industry and the readers are unforgiving, and she has been put on trial since the start of her bestseller journey. But June too is ready to go to any end to defend her lie.


This book was such a page-turner from the start, and I could hardly put it down. The author's tremendous research and detailing into the book shows so brilliantly. The writing was so good that I couldn't take a stand at one point in time. I seriously object to what June did, but she was not the only villain all along in the story. The book poignantly speaks about writers' struggles and the publishing industry's downside. It blew my mind when I read "Bestsellers are chosen, nothing you do matters", a one-liner that describes the entire book writing process. The loneliness of an author's life is reflected so well that it made me question my writing aspirations, little of whatever is left.


The book showcases the aspects of online harassment, white privilege, plagiarism, boycott culture and imposter syndrome with utmost perfection. June's reactions to adversities, her moral dilemma and her behaviour, were very real even though they were wrong. The climax was the only portion that was not convincing to me because, with such great characterisation, plot and writing, the ending felt too weak in comparison. Sparring the conclusion, this book is terrific in every aspect, and you shouldn't miss this one. This genre-bending novel is ludicrous, strangely addictive and will leave you baffled.


MY REVIEW: 4.5/5

#penbooksandscalpel

This post is a part of Blogchatter’s #TBRchallenge and Blogchatter’s Half Marathon 2023



Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 27, 2023 at 11:56 AM

    Sounds like a good read and I've been hearing only +ve things about it

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anupama JoshySeptember 2, 2023 at 9:12 AM

    Will check it out

    ReplyDelete

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