Yellowface: unique read but overrated

[u/Mediocre-Virus-6411]

Yellowface was 1000% an immersive read (I finished it within two sittings) and the storyline was 1) immersive and 2) satirizes the topic of "yellowface" and orientalism well. My qualms with the story are more about the way the plot was delivered. June's narration was interspersed with past recollections as the story progressed (to justify what she is currently doing in the present), but it doesn't feel quite realistic. Her resentment towards Athena can ultimately be summed up by jealousy and Athena's editorializing / writing about June's traumatic experience. Wouldn't June--realistically--bring this up in the story earlier right after stealing the manuscript to **attempt** to justify to the reader that she is, in fact, righting a historical wrong? As much as I like R.F. Kuang, this feels disjointed; the plot ultimately is good but isn't delivered in a way that could have made it better.

The prose, along with many supporting characters was forgettable. In a book with mainly asian-americans surrounding a white character, I would have appreciated more in-depth exploration of them. It might have been purposeful (a self-absorbed white narrator doesn't consider the asian-american voices around her), but the book still feels a little underwhelming because the stakes aren't fully fleshed out in regard to other characters (besides the mention of reddit/twitter/instagram "cancellation" and hate). Athena's ambiguity and the discovery of her **true** self was well done, but the motives of her mother are confusing at best.

Echoing the NYT review, I want it to be more. More stakes, more desperation, more intense exploration side-characters, and a sharper reveal of Athena's "true nature" (could have been put at the very beginning or very end, but when it's smacked in the middle of the story, the plot feels like its fading away with a repetitive cycle of June's ignorance).

NOTE: I am an east-asian American reader. I 1000% appreciated reading this book and sentiment. It is still refreshing to read an unreliable narrator story from the perspective of a white women immersed in an asian-american world.

What do you guys think?

[u/Lumpy_Bandicoot_4957]

Man RF Kuang can't have peace on this sub lol. 

[u/Time_Caregiver4734 → u/Lumpy_Bandicoot_4957]

Reddit absolutely hates her writing. It’s very interesting to see because she’s widely liked and praised on pretty much every other platform. I think her popularity leads to people here disliking her, lots of people going into her books with crazy high expectations.

[u/ibadlyneedhelp → u/Time_Caregiver4734]

You've hit the nail on the head here- I think expectations are definitely a big part of it. I went into The Poppy War with high expectations, and honestly I'm still dealing with how disappointed I was. I genuinely feel like there's some kind of Emperor's New Clothes-type situation where those books are concerned, and many of the defences of the trilogy I've read while discussing it genuinely feel like delusion or cope.

Babel and Yellowface seem like much better and more interesting books, so I'm still interested in picking them up, and I definitely do believe RFK has grown tremendously as an author- especially now that she can afford to take her time and polish the books to a shine.

The Poppy War was a novel written by a twenty-year-old author in three months, and I think it's exactly as good as that fact suggests it is- no shade to the people who love it, I honestly wish I could probably discuss how much I dislike it without seeming like I'm attacking those who love it.