A brutally-frank and satirical look at the manipulation of narrative and opinion, Yellowface is deeply fascinating because even the book itself is a cheeky nod to the passionate, sometimes toxic, discussion regarding what type of story an author has the right to tell — so by R.F. Kuang choosing to pen a novel about a White female author stealing from her Asian female friend's manuscript, the outcome is so deliciously meta, confrontational, and strangely empowering, I savored every second of it.

Even beyond the discourse regarding race, Yellowface also dives deep into the publishing industry as a profit-first business, and the arbitrary nature of what makes a bestseller; I love the discussion on all the artificiality going into packaging a novel (and its author) as 'product' (pseudonym, marketing, selling rights), and the ironically true rule of no publicity is bad publicity.

As much as I appreciate this novel straying away from being another formulaic story about a marginalized protagonist suffering discrimination, Yellowface is not perfect, as there are moments where the plot feels a little thin and one-dimensional, but as a whole it is seeped in authenticity (not surprised if R.F. Kuang has experienced a lot of it firsthand), perfectly captures the experience of being bombarded by brazen, sensational 'discussion' on platforms with limited word count. Yellowface being written the way it did is quite risky and experimental, and I'm glad it is as effective as it turned out to be.