Then someone using the Twitter handle makes allegations that threaten to destroy everything June has built. Juniper fights the naysayers and denies any wrongdoing, but her secret becomes a heavy burden, and guilt prevents her from enjoying her success, especially after she thinks she sees Athena’s ghost at an event. The second part takes a dark turn and June - now Juniper - becomes the focus of a social media mob that’s asking for her head, calling her a racist, claiming justice for Athena, and doing everything they can to end Juniper’s career. The first third of the book is hilarious, with June’s actions inhabiting a space between something like literary slapstick and the silliness of a straight white woman complaining that writers of color get all the attention in contemporary publishing. “Yellowface” operates on various levels and shifts tones brilliantly. After one of their outings, the duo goes to Athena’s apartment to chat and eat something, but the night veers off course and Athena chokes on her food and dies. The two writers still speak somewhat regularly and get together once a month. June published a novel that didn’t sell with a small press and had to get a job as a tutor to pay the bills. Athena achieved everything a writer could ever want: a huge advance with a major publisher, critical acclaim, bestseller status, and throngs of adoring fans.

However, the dream only came true for Athena, whose career skyrocketed. They were literary up-and-comers who, they thought, were destined to achieve all their writing dreams together. At once an exploration of guilt, a celebration of writing, a look at cultural appropriation, diversity, and racism in publishing, a sharp deconstruction of social media’s impact on the writing world - especially on writers - and a bizarre ghost story, this narrative accomplishes a lot and offers something for everyone.Īuthors June Hayward and Athena Liu went to the same prestigious MFA program together and became friends. Kuang’s “Yellowface” is a tense, visceral, unexpectedly hilarious, and wildly entertaining novel that works on multiple levels.

Yellowface by rf kuang