Thriving Through the Thirties

I’ve read a lot of hyped-up books that didn’t really do it for me, but this one? I totally get the hype. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang pulled me in right away. Imagine this: June Hayward watches her old college “friend” die, and instead of, you know, mourning properly, she has the audacity to steal said friend’s draft manuscript and publish it as her own. The story follows June as she navigates the publishing world as an author with a highly anticipated book. But the real drama begins when she struggles to follow up that one (controversial) success. Meanwhile, she’s constantly defending her original lie in public while in fact she is haunted by her actions.

This book made me sit with my thoughts and really reflect. It’s the kind of story that forces you to question your values—what’s right, what’s wrong, and where the lines blur.

And that insider look into the publishing industry? So eye-opening! It paints the industry as a cutthroat, no-mercy space with just as many inequalities and injustices as any other. Plus, the weight of Book Twitter and the online book community? Absolutely spot on.

Oh, and let’s not forget June’s nerve. The sheer audacity to keep justifying her actions, doubling down on her lies, and building this self-righteous version of herself in her mind—it was both infuriating and oddly impressive. Her moral downfall had this fascinating mix of being shamelessly immoral yet so stubbornly committed that you couldn’t help but marvel at it.

This book also sparks great conversations about friendships—like rivalries within friend groups and the toxicity that can seep into both platonic and romantic relationships.

Then there’s the big stuff: cultural appropriation, who gets to tell certain stories, plagiarism, integrity, morality, racism, the for-profit nature of publishing… it’s all in there, and I was here for it.

That said, the ending was a bit of a letdown. It felt rushed, like the author either got tired of writing or just really wanted to hammer home a moral point by punishing the “villain.” Still, I appreciated that the final paragraphs left a little room for interpretation—true to the book’s overall spirit, in my opinion.

P.S. I really wish we’d learned what dark secret from Athena’s past her family was so determined to keep buried. What were they so afraid of?