DISCLAIMER
THIS A SUMMARY OF YELLOWFACE, PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS BOOK IS NOT INTENDED TO REPLACE THE ORIGINAL MASTERPIECE AND NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK. INSTEAD, IT PROVIDES AN INTENSIVE SUMMARY OF THE KEY TAKE AWAY.
Authors The two women were billed as emerging stars, June Hayward and Athena Liu. But Athena is a popular literary figure. The very bare minimum is June Hayward. Who wants tales about unremarkable white females, wonders June.
Therefore, June acts impulsively when she sees Athena die in an unfortunate accident and takes her recently-completed masterwork, an experimental book on the unsung achievements of Chinese workers during World War I.
What does it matter if June makes revisions to Athena's book and submits it to her agency as her own? What if she agrees to have her name changed to Juniper Song by her new publisher, replete with a picture of herself that is unclearly of an ethnicity? Why shouldn't someone, whomever they are, recount this tale of history? It seems that the New York Times bestseller list supports June's assertion, which she said.
Nevertheless, June is unable to escape Athena's influence, and new information raises the possibility that her (stolen) achievements may come crashing down. June learns just how far she will go in order to maintain what she feels she deserves as she scrambles to keep her secret safe.
Yellowface addresses issues of cultural appropriation, racism, and diversity in addition to the scary isolation brought on by social media in a fully immersive first-person voice. The book by R.F. Kuang is current, razor-sharp, and very readable.