Yellowface

Writers June Hayward and Athena Liu, who both started at Yale in the same year and had their publication debuts, were expected to be twin rising stars. Nevertheless, June didn't even have a paperback edition, whereas Athena is a cross-genre literary sensation. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

As a result, June acts impulsively after seeing Athena die in a strange accident and takes her recently completed experimental book, which is about the unsung contributions of Chinese workers to the British and French military efforts during World military I.

What happens if June revises Athena's book and submits it to her agency under her own name? What if she allows her new publisher to rename her as Juniper Song, replete with an author headshot that seems suspiciously ethnic? Whoever tells this historical tale, doesn't it deserve to be told? June says as much, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to support her.

However, June is unable to escape Athena's shadow, and new information poses a danger to the (stolen) success that June has achieved. June learns precisely how far she will go to maintain what she believes she deserves as she scrambles to preserve her secret.

Yellowface addresses issues of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation in the publishing business as well as the ongoing erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white culture via its fully immersive first-person narration. The book by R. F. Kuang is very accessible, razor-sharp, and current.