I like your description of: having enough in common that they fell into a friendship rather than forging one

Awesome review Willow, as usual. So glad you're going to pick up Babel, cannot wait to hear your thoughts. I love that RF Kuang is unapologetically angry in her books, angry at racism, classism, homophobia, xenophobia etc... I was scared of the hype too, but she delivers. My copy of Yellowface is on order. 💛

Yes ! I need more people to talk about the social media criticism in yellowface . With each vortex of social media scandal that June gets into , her sales goes up. And her literary agent doesn’t really care for her reputation or mental health

If this book is ever turned into a movie they better do it justice

Just read this book. It gave me a lot of anxiety. I’m a person who empathises with the protagonist a lot, and in this case, June being the main character had me disgusted by her twisted personality and yet rooting for her cause I started to care for her so much. The fact that the book also explores the darker side of the publishing industry and the toxic social media culture was absolutely riveting, it felt so unique and modern. There was this one time where I just forgot this book was fiction and ended up believing that it was some real life incident because it is that believable! And idk but June’s unhealthy and deranged obsession with Athena even after her demise kind of reminded me of Daphne Du Maurier‘s Rebecca wherein the narrator compares herself with her husband’s previous wife and always wants to measure herself up to her, the only difference being that the narrator is very passive, but June in Yellowface is very active as she takes decisions for herself even when she is weighed down by Athena’s omnipresent ghostly ego. And I love everything about your review, it’s so analytically detailed. Much love!

Your reviews are fabulous - I love the attention to detail coupled with the fact that it's just enough info. to grab our attention - just got both books from the first two review vids of yours I've seen. Thank you!!

I finished it a few days ago and although I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece, I really enjoyed it. After my utter disappointment with “Babel”, I was surprised with how well Kuang wrote such a desperate character, who was in total denial of her own wrongdoing. Also, unlike other crime comedies I’ve read, the humour in this one was not cringy at all, but rather grotesque and I loved it! I can really recommend the audiobook narrated by Helen Laser, too! 😁

Your kōrero is everything! I’m so glad I found this channel. This level of discussion, analysis and criticism is what I loved about studying literature - but without the pressure of prescribed reading. Thanks for these videos, Willow!

Well, after a review like this, how can I not add this one to my TBR! Sounds fantastic. Brilliant video, Willow, as always 🙂

Great review Willow! I just finished the book. I think that Kuang’s decision to tell the story from June’s POV is… kind of genius.

I Watch all your videos and I love them!! Thanks so much! ❤

Ahhhhhh!!! I love this!!! I'm so glad KZfaq bought me here - I completely agree with everything you've said.

This sounds right up my alley, thanks for the recommendation!

Hi Willow! It is a great book!! I can hardly put it down. I love this book and i love the color of the cover!!

I recently found your channel and watch your videos first when they pop up on my subscription feed. I love your reviews. Babel was my favourite read last year. I hope you like it as much as I did. I'm really looking forward to reading Yellowface.

Great review - very helpful. Stacked!

Ya gotta love books with covers that just draw you in, they always seem to have something we like

Love your review. Just subscribed. ❤

great review and analysis!

Immediately ordered the book now. Thank you always for your reviews!

I am smiling watching your video as these are exactly my thoughts but would never be able to explain them out loud so eloquently. I loved this review because I think you covered everything mostly without spoilers and that is so hard to do with this book. I can't wait for you to read Babel. That book was sooo powerful and is one of my most favourite books of all time. Listening to your thoughts on yellowface I think you would absolutely love Babel and I can't wait for it's review.

Great video! You the best

Hello Willow. Love your channel thank you. I just ordered Yellowface and it is on its way from Waterstones. Can’t wait to start reading it.

💯 agree! I was blown away by this book. You managed to put into words so many of the reasons I loved it. Thanks!!

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo really is a great book. You might also like Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou. :)

Well this sounds bloody brilliant! It keeps being advertised to me and usually I don’t buy into that, but with your recommendation I’m sold haha

Mkay I’m back it was SUCH A GOOD BOOK! Now to enjoy your video 🥰

Was looking for a review to see if this book was worth buying for a plane journey. Thrilled to have found your channel and to see you are doing so well Willow. A China friend

Love this book review. So good.

I really liked your review!

This book floored me I read it in 12 hours thanks for the review I love looking back on books that I’ve recently read ugh this book was SO GOOD

I cannot wait to read this! Also, just finished Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou, another brilliant satire that deals with many similar themes in Yellowface, but is set in academia rather than publishing.

How funny that Yellowface is delivered to my door and an hour later this pops up in my recommended videos 😂 I’ll watch this after I finish the book

Hundred percent agree with everything you said. I read Yellowface yesterday, almost literally in one sitting. So great! I especially loved how you’d be going along and suddenly she made you agree with something June would say, and you’d think, wait, that can’t be right

I loved the Poppy War trilogy, and Babel was a love-hate for me; the latter was so detailed and interesting, but the message overshadowed the characters and plot for me. I love R.F. Kuang's writing and messages, and her knowledge humbles and astounds me constantly. I've ordered an e-copy of Yellowface, and I've been going back and forth on reading it. The reviews, like for Babel, are polarizing, and I've been seeing a lot about how the satire in this was heavy-handed. Your review just convinced me to give it a go and see for myself, so thank you, Willow! :)

Great review! Glad to hear you’ll give Babel a shot. I’m reading it rn and think it’s brilliant

I finished today and I agree 100% with your review. I would add that all characters are truly multidimensional. June was a victim as well as the villain, but she's a survivor most of all. Athena was a victim, but also a terrible person that stole stories from others. Candice was a victim but was also a survivor... And the readers that jump the train thinking they are being fair, the book reviewers that don't research before posting but share the news, Rebecca Kuang unmasks everyone. And go read Babel, you will finish the book wanting to burn down Oxford!

I liked the plot, but the characters were so flat and the message lacks any form of subtlety. Honestly, Erasure by Percival Everett deals with the same theme and is soooooooo much better.

Just finished this in one sitting and I really enjoyed it!

"a book with teeth" is the best descriptor for R.F. Kuang's writing. I'm glad you're going to give "Babel" a chance after this! That one's got some shark teeth too! XD And like someone else said in the comments, while I can see the legitimacy of some of the criticism levied at that book, what it does right, it does so brilliantly that I can't help but love it to death. And I'm gonna emphasis on *some* there because there has also been the expected loud bad faith bullshit out there. I love knowing that that will never be what I get from you, even if you end up not liking it! ^_^ I hope you'll make a video sharing your thoughts about "Babel" whenever you get to it.

Lots of books I hadn't heard of that I will add to my TBR. Thank you for the recs. I feel so many videos recommend the same books over and over. Mistborn was my first Sanderson book I read many years ago and it blew my mind. Another fantasy I absolutely loved was Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. It is a stand alone not a series though.

Oh damn, I was going to pass on this one as I assumed it was just a normal fiction for some reason?? But this sounds gnarly as hell. I valued her anger in The Poppy War, and this sounds even more unabashed. Looking forward to this now!

I am glad you are now open to Babel!

"A book with teeth". That is the EXACT reason I loved Babel so, so much. So it sounds like I am going to love Yellowface too.

I did read the first book in The Poppy War, and even though it fictionalized a rarely studied part of history , at least in North American; the horrific rape of Nanking, I can only take small doses of violent conflict therefore I did not continue with the trilogy. I read Babel within a few days, and even there are flaws ( a number of the negative comments I have heard are valid) BUT it spoke to my anti colonialism soul so I loved it. Like you, I read Yellowface in a day and I thought it was brilliant (sidebar there was an oblique reference to Babel ). Kuang is an incredible writer, I had a review somewhere that stated the reviewer would read Kuang's grocery list and enjoy and that reflects my feelings as well.

Thanks for this review, I am always halfway of the book, and I am eating it out, it is like reading a gossip magazine

I just finished reading this book and just like you, I read it til the end within a day. As the story unravelled, i couldn't believe what was happening. And the ending, i think it was perfect. Juniper's craziness was revealed and got her in the end. Ha!

I'm so hyped to this one , i started reading Babel but is so dark and I was not on a good place mentally to read that

Yellowface is so amazing that generates excellent reviews like yours! After reading it I went running to the bookstore to buy Babel. It’s completely different but, at the same time, it’s a great pleasure to read it and as addictive as Yellowface. I’d love to listen to your bright review about it.

I read this right before reading The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris. Another really good book! I hope that Yellowface gets a Hulu series like TOBG did. My biggest takeaway from these two books was how awful the publishing industry has become since I walked off the job at a university press on April 20, 1999 (yes on THAT day). I will never write a book and submit it to a publishing house in the current state of the industry. I’m going indie!

2:11 Babel is one of my favorite books this year! I think the power of words has been underestimated. It’s important to understand how we use this power.

It's so exciting that an EXCITING author can GENRE-BEND and flex it like a boss!

I finished it a day ago, I loved it. I have no words, she's insane but I'm insane for loving it??

Sounds intriguing. I read the first book of the Poppy War Trilogy, she is an engaging writer.

For the past 2 days I have been going to sleep while listening the audiobook ver. Today morning when I woke up the book was still playing and it happened to be the last chapter 😂 so basically I, myself spoiled the whole story for me, like the ending had me a little baffled, but I'm still intrigued on what were the circumstances that lead to the end!!! Thanks for the wonderful recommendation as usual!!

The book was so good I found myself ON HER SIDE somehow. Great unreliable, spiraling narrator- loved it :)

Listening to how polarizing Kuang's books are, I wonder if they would be better listened to as an audiobook. Sometimes when I have a really hard time getting into a book, I'll switch to listening to it as an audiobook and that makes it a lot easier and funner to consume. I think because I listen at the normal 1x speed, that forces me to slow down and I experience the book more fully. This usually happens with big books with lots of characters and complex plot, like Dune, American Gods and recently with Jade City.

Coming back to this video after meeting RF Kuang in Lisbon for a book signing. Interesting to learn that she finds Yellowface her least enjoyable work - it was written during the pandemic and from a somewhat bad place, both physically and mentally. Regardless, it will forever be one of my favourite books.

Great to know this book is worth it. I just picked it up yesterday. lol... I'm hoping I love this one because I did NOT like Poppy War, in fact I DNF it. So, this one sounds MUCH different. Thanks.

I’ve only tried Babel, and I couldn’t get very far with it at the time I was reading it. It felt like her message, while one I wholeheartedly agreed with, was delivered without a lot of nuance, and the magic system didn’t really work for me (I was excited about it as a linguistics major, but found it very underwhelming), nor did the characters.

I got a review copy for this book and it really was that good

Emojis are yellow face 😮

10/10 thumbnail

Evelyn Hugo is indeed great!!

I can't wait for u to read the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo

I wanna read yellow face so bad!😊

I'm reading RIGHT NOW and I'm so conflicted because June is the worst but at the same time I am worried about her and what will happen to her. I will watch the video when I'm finished

Done with Babel, ongoing with Poppy War trilogy. This is probably my next

You are the best book reviewer out here. And I believe you in how you dissected this book. For this reason I'm getting the feeling I'll be stressed out if I read this.. So I'll pass :- D

Sounds interesting. I DNFed Babel, Poppy War is not for me, so I kind of gave up on Ms Kuang. Now I'm probably going to give it a go when it's free in the library

Heard a lot of negative reviews nice to have a balanced opinion.

I both hate and love Yellowface but I loved the writing style and I finished it in one night. I have never read another Kuang book but I don't want to read a fantasy novel. Can you recommend me a book if you also liked Yellowface?

I don't think I'll get round to read "Poppy war" but I do want to read "Babel" and I will definitely read this one. I don't know when I'm trying to finally read what I've already bought. Trying is a good word becaus I then go to the library and get the acctual book I didn't got during the "Intergalactiques" sf festival, as I akready spent way to much. I guess It's stll better and last costly addiction than cocain.

I like Babel!! Actually it's kinda slow plot at the first, but i dont mind at all that made me imagine every scene of it. Rf Kuang really become my fav writer after Babel came out💓

Evelyn Hugo is an amazing book!

I'll read this before I comment on the social political lense. But one thing that is already kinda wild is how people are still claiming cultural appropriation is a thing. It's always childish weapon to beat someone over the head with, so boring.

I really loved most of the book, the point/message is so clear and sharp. I really agree with how June was portrayed, I hated her, but at times, she talks to the reader like we're her best friend. So you judge her, but pity her at the same time. I hated every time I felt sympathy for her cause she deserved all the things that happened. I didn't like the death threats, no one deserves that. But public humiliation, losing money, etc. SHE DESERVES IT. But I wasn’t a fan of the ending. I didn't find it as witty or sharp as the other two acts. To me, it felt like the author had a hard time wrapping it up. Which paralleled what June struggled with in act 3. I personally would've liked for June to win again. Cause one of the points is to shed light on how entitled people get away with everything. The ending was her first loss, and her planning a comeback. I would’ve preferred if she went full force and silenced those who were against her while still playing innocent. It would've hinted her vicious cycle and infuriated the reader even more.

I actually really disliked Seven Husbands which broke my little lesbian heart! I think because it is set up to literally be a character narrating her life story at someone else...that's exactly how the writing comes across too. Probably one of the worst cases of telling rather than showing that I've seen in a major published novel. Aside from that, I kind of hated that there was no reason at all to like Evelyn and Cecilia as a couple (not a spoiler, this is the premise of the book). Despite the book ostensibly being about a bisexual woman finally revealing the great love of her life, another woman, 80 percent of the book is about men and Cecilia really feels very flat and 2 dimensional. The relationship between Harry and Evelyn feels more central to the book than Cecilia ever does, which kind of bothered me. There's only one scene, really, in the entire novel, where they exist together and flirt and you get a sense of why they'd even like each other, the rest is them arguing about the same thing over and over again and then long periods of nothingness. I did think how the novel dealt with Evelyn's race was good, and...that's about it. A lot of the conversation around biphobia in the novel itself was very heavy handed and I think could have been done in a way that didn't feel almost like a 4th wall break. Taylor Jenkins Reed herself is white and straight, and personally as a queer woman, I actually don't have a problem with that. I tend to resent the idea that writers should only write identities they experience and I think it will inevitably lead to white-washed books and a lack of queer rep. However, I do think you can *tell* that she's not queer in how she writes these characters, it very much feels like a book written by a non queer person. And I think it's ok to critique that without then going further and saying she shouldn't have written it at all.

In the vein of Chinese writers - Have you read / Can you do a review of The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li?

You need to read The bable is a great book 😮

Interesting pairing of Evelyn Hugo and Yellowface given the accusations TJR has faced over her use of latinx characters. I enjoyed it as a story but am aware it has since been called out by a number of people, will be good to hear your thoughts.

Hey I like to talk about a thing is you spoiled the first 10 chapter ( maybe more but I've just read first 10 chapter ) it's ok if you are reviewing . But I thought it was a recommendation video . I'll be happy if you give a spoiler warning in the future

I also loved Yellowface! Its so funny and its a perfect book for anyone on booktube!

I never felt sorry for the Karen but I see you mean lol

But, can we agree that the one star review of the assitant was very unprofessional? I would've her fired too!. Why "white" has become an insult? "She is a horrible white woman"🙄 what if I say that June was an awful POC woman? I hate double standard.

bfb

I don't know your channel and I haven't watched the video yet, but I really didn't like Yellowface and I think it's very much not worth the hype. I'm curious why you liked it, starting to listen now 🙂

I disagree strongly. writing skill was spotty. there are two chapters that stop the book cold. the end is a sttetch at best even if you suspend belief for a fun reading experience. the premise was good. the best I can say is I finished it.

Bought it for my wife. Absolute tripe apparently. Woke nonsenses