April Selection

[Monticello Public Library]

Tell us what you thought about the novel Yellowface by R.F. Kuang.

[Robb]

I thought this book was a wonderful look into current issues surrounding casual racism and microaggressions, the wild, insensitive, and somewhat cutthroat *thing* that publishing is, hypocrisy from all sides, and the discussion of *who* owns a story enough to write it.

The main character was, refreshingly, unlikeable to me. However, Kuang writes in such a way that it's hard not to look at Juniper with some sort of lens of sympathy-- she's not a great person, but there are certainly some things you can look at and say "huh, so this is why she acts this way" or "huh, so this may be her justification." R.F. writes a delicate line of differentiation between June's personal problems and problems that June causes, and writes them clearly. While I still walked away from the book veeery much not liking June, I still got to walk away saying Jonathan Decker's infamous line: "It explains her actions, but it does not excuse them." This is a fragile line that's difficult to make known in what you're writing, but it is done quite well in this novel.

I certainly recommend this book!