This is the second R. F. Kuang book I’ve read, Babel being the other. This book is far different in a lot of ways and quite similar in many others. Technically, this is Kuang’s first time writing outside of the fantasy genre, but the storyline takes on every writer’s deepest fantasy of finding unimaginable success with a single book making so much money they never have to work again — so I can understand why she was able to transition so easily.

As someone with a bachelor’s degree in publishing, this was also a quite satisfying read. I made the decision a few years ago to not go into the publishing industry but every once in a while I think about what it would be like. It’s never realistic, of course, but why would I waste a good day dream with reality?

Kuang does a great job of showing the reality of the industry and yet letting me day dream at the same time. I would get lost in thought while I was reading and find myself dreaming of running a publishing agency where every story we take on is a work of art. Every author is kind and understanding of the process and every staff member gets along. It’s a small press on some back street in New York City where the noise of traffic goes quiet, but we are not worried about the shrinking industry because our work has made us world famous. I wear great outfits every day and my feet never hurt even though I walk to work in incredible heels. The fantasy never really goes deeper than that, but, like I said, never waste a good day dream being realistic.

Anyway. Yellowface is the story of Juniper Hayward and her friendship with Athena Liu. From June’s perspective, Athena has it all: she’s slim, tall, and beautiful, so successful in the literary world while being so young that she is completely unapproachable, and she keeps June around for reasons June cannot comprehend. They went to university together and, upon graduation, both published debut novels. Athena’s brought her into the spotlight, and her two successive novels garnered the same attention, making her steadily famous. June’s debut novel never received the same recognition and she couldn’t get out of the shadow of its failure. When the story begins, Athena and June are celebrating that Athena got a Netflix deal.

It is clear from the start that June’s feelings for Athena are complicated. In some ways she hates Athena for appearing so blasé about her inexplicable success, but she also desperately wishes she had Athena’s life. While June always feels horrible about herself when around Athena, she continues to hang out with her regularly. In almost a masochistic way, June stays within Athena’s orbit no matter how it makes her feel, all for the desperate hope that some of that fame and fortune will rub off on her. 

The drama of the story develops when the two women return to Athena’s to continue drinking in celebration, switching from the champagne they sipped at the bar to an unopened bottle of expensive whiskey in Athena’s apartment. While having a pancake eating contest, Athena chokes, but June can’t get the piece out of Athena’s throat. June calls 911 while Athena is giving herself the Heimlich, then she begins to convulse on the ground and is dead before the paramedics get there. June is there for a long time while they question her, but it is ultimately determined that she is not at fault for Athena’s death.

We find out once June returns to her apartment that before the paramedics arrived, June went into Athena’s office and stole the completed draft of the next book she was publishing. Athena was already an incredible writer but it was clear that this would have been her greatest book yet. This act by June creates a shadow over the entire book of questioning just how hard June worked in trying to save Athena when she was choking.

June then spends the next few months obsessed with the draft; editing, organizing, and clarifying what was needed, and expanding when she wants to build up sections Athena did not. When she submits it to her publisher, she claims that it is as much her work as it was Athena’s — she says this to herself because, to her agent, she says it is entirely hers. 

This internal battle between superficial monetary success and ethical honesty in that success makes up the bulk of the story. June finds ever-evolving and ever more complex ways to justify to herself what she did and continues to expand the lie as needed to those she speaks with. Because the book is so incredible, June finds herself skyrocketed to the upper echelon of the publishing industry with incredible amounts of wealth at her disposal. Yet, she spends days in bed racked with guilt.

Kuang, in this story, takes on an incredibly old trope: the guilty conscience of the actor is not worked through internally like we see so often nowadays; rather, it is an external attack on the individual that they must run from or fight. The Ancient Greeks called them the Furies. Eternal, cosmic beings who determined what was just, and what the punishment would be for injustice. 

June is hunted by a sense of justice that she has no desire to acknowledge. June is always trying to find ways to avoid the consequences of her actions. It is an unending, exhausting cycle. The more success she finds, the more she develops her brand, the more she’s always looking over her shoulder, preparing for anyone and everyone to call her out for what she did. In every interaction, she is preparing her rebuttal to protect herself. Kuang doesn’t give us a clean solution to this story, she doesn’t have any answers in her book. The conclusion is that June keeps trying. This, specifically, seemed to upset a lot of readers online. 

It is a small book, a peak behind the curtain of a world that many don’t pay attention to. We read fiction to escape our reality and I think maybe Kuang’s writing is a bit too honest for many people. Or maybe it’s not their style. But it would be foolish to not consider it. Those who pay attention cannot fathom thinking like June, doing what June does, or sympathizing with her at all. Yet, June cannot outrun herself and the ghosts that haunt her, though she may try her whole life. 

June never gives up trying to save her own skin. It is uncomfortable to read because we know that what she did was wrong; yet, she seems to know this as well at a subconscious level or else she would not be haunted by her ghosts, becoming more paranoid as the book goes on. And as much as it is human nature to know right from wrong, it is also human nature to fight for survival. That is what June does. The human sense of justice has a pretty strict timeline, and it never occurs when we want it to. Cosmic justice does not confine itself to this timeline. June’s own self is weighed down by the truth and the way she lives cannot sustain itself. It is normally an admired trait for someone to never give up on their own success, and while June is hardly someone to admire, her persistence makes her all too human. 

It is uncomfortable to read this story from June’s perspective, but it’s also fascinating.