#43 in Humour
Yellowface
- 352
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 1 week on the list
- Reese's Book Club
- New England Book Award
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Our view
A satire of publishing built around a protagonist you are meant to dislike: a white writer who passes off a Chinese American author’s work as her own. Its strength is the discomfort it sustains: there are readers who find themselves anxious on behalf of someone they cannot stand. Some find the point heavily made, and others feel its topical references are already ageing. For readers who enjoy an unlikeable lead and a tense, uneasy read.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Yellowface is a 2023 satirical novel written by R. F. Kuang. The book was described as a satire of racial diversity in the publishing industry as well as a metafiction about social media, particularly Twitter. Although Yellowface is written as a stand-alone project, Kuang has not ruled out a possible sequel.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 1,777 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 92% of the weight and the score stays at 7.7 — the Humour average of 7.8 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 16 | 1% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 1.8K | 99% |
Frequently asked
How long is Yellowface?
It has 352 pages — longer than 69% of the ranked books in Humour.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Humour — with scores between 7.6 and 7.8, closest to this book.
