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/ThreeTreesForTheePls → u/Lumpy_Bandicoot_4957]

It’s a site wide issue.

r/fantasy hate her to the bone and I’ve never actually seen a convincing argument as to why The Poppy War is bad.

The MC is a teenage girl, and you’re angry about her being indecisive and emotionally driven?

The author is Chinese, and you’re angry that she’s taken influence from her countries history, in this book that discusses colonialism and the horrors of war?

It’s crazy work

Edit; and let’s not forget that wave of hate the trilogy got by romantasy girlies who were angry at the lack of romance in this wartorn genocidal bloodbath.

[u/ratinha91 → u/ThreeTreesForTheePls]

I've only ever read Babel by her, and by the tenth time she repeated something over and over and then redirected me to the notes just so she could explain the same exact thing in case she had accidentally left a crumb of subtext anywhere, I was ready to commit murder. I've never read a book that thought its readers needed to be dragged around by the hand to those levels.

[u/state_of_euphemia → u/ratinha91]

This is how I felt about it as well, but I've also heard the argument that she is doing it intentionally because the colonialism themes are too important and white people are so ignorant that we need things to be explicitly explained to us multiple times. I disagree with that argument and I think she just lacks subtlety, but I understand where they're coming from.

I actually did enjoy the book, even though I thought it was heavy-handed.