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  • Yellowface

  • By: R. F. Kuang
  • Narrated by: Helen Laser
  • Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (466 ratings)

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Yellowface cover art

Yellowface

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Helen Laser
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Summary

The new book from no. 1 New York Times and no. 2 Sunday Times bestselling author R. F. Kuang

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies

When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour

But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…

What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

©2023 Rebecca F. Kuang (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Razor-sharp." (Time)

"A wild ride." (Stylist)

"Satirical and humorous." (Cosmopolitan)

What listeners say about Yellowface

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Drunk on her own self importance

Honestly this book has been hyped up and the PR has shoved this down on social media for months for me it wasn’t that great.
Drunk on her own failed existence an author steals a lot more than a manuscript. I feel the voice wasn’t dark enough to get that full villainous experience.
It’s fast paced, it’s incredibly millennial and contemporary, but a thriller??? I wouldn’t say that and the voyeuristic look on the publishing industry held no interest for me.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A truly awful book about a bad author who steals a book

Not sure if this was supposed to be funny, insightful or what? Can’t believe I fell for the hype. The whole premise of an untalented white author who takes a Chinese authors book and pretends it’s her own - feels very college grad. The author in the book exemplifies every racist trope which just feels lazy and starts to makes your teeth grind. There’s also a bunch of insights about wanna be writers and the whole literary scene. All very meta and unredeemingly awful. Didn’t make it past chapter 8

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Luke warm social satire with zero thrills

Great start which swiftly goes downhill as soon as the story meanders into the stolen manuscript trope. Jean Hanff Korelitz handled the same idea in a much more interesting & original way just a year ago in The Plot. But this has nothing to add. Where the novel does get interesting is the detailed Chinese WWI history. I was waiting with bated breath for some interesting, clever link to the central story and the dead character’s mother, but it never materialised. Instead it ended up being set dressing for an incredibly run-of-the-mill wannabe literary thriller. The problem seems to come down to the fact that the central premise just doesn’t stand up. Why a white millennial would consider passing off an Asian friends story of Chinese history makes no sense. Social media is littered with cultural appropriation horrors, and anybody under the age of 30 has a clear and concise grasp of this. The lead character is also incredibly one-dimensional. She has no love interest, no close friends and a cardboard cutout family who are blithely unaware of all the media attention she’s garnering. Kuang seems to be trying to say something important and weighty, but she doesn’t have the skills to do the heavy lifting.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Didn’t match the hype

This will appeal to people wanting to publish their own book, or people in the publishing industry, otherwise it was like watching paint dry. 3/4 of the way through I gave up on it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Nor for me.

Really hard to listen to, the narrator does a great job of portraying a horrendously narcissistic human being, but that doesn't make it a good listen.

I was hoping the story would get going, but it never really does.

I tried to feel some sympathy for the main protagonist, but she's really rather unpleasant and the story just didn't grab me at all.



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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

Loved it!I thoroughly enjoyed Babel and wondered whether this would be as good. It was captivating the storyline is gripping and the conversations surrounding authorship and race were well represented.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great modern satire

so on point and really entertaining. narrator good maybe a bit too off-putting but all in all a great satire on cancel culture, cultural appropriation and social media.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Underwhelming

Fell for the marketing, was totally underwhelmed. started off ok but quickly became a poor me storyline with totally unlikeable characters.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

Couldn’t wait for this book to launch felt underwhelming no true flow to the story no significant or clever outcome

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Self obsessed

I could not quite figure the book out. Publishing inside story? Mystery? Critique of a modern day social media culture? I found it repetitive and rather annoying. Sorry

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2 people found this helpful

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  • Amanda
  • 19-09-23

It is very engaging until half way through

I found the storyline very enticing but halfway through it became very repetitive and long winded.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Tracy-Lee de Villiers
  • 14-08-23

So meta it’s meta of the meta by the meta

It’s pretty meta. Very engaging but loses the plot a little at the end. Performance is outstanding. Great variance in character voice while not sounding cartoonish or overly put on. Definitely worth a listen. If you know or have ever been curious about the world of publishing. Plus, it’s on the NYT best seller list which is super meta.

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