Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

 

After witnessing the death of her famous author rival, Athena Liu, June steals her manuscript for a novel on Chinese labor camps in World War 1 and publishes it under her own name.  This story follows June's inner battle after the publication until her world comes falling down around her when someone finds out her secret.

First of all, I think that June got everything that she deserved.  She deserved the sense of guilt, the anxiety and the blackmailing.  She stole someone else's work after watching the poor thing choke to death and published it and lied about it.  Yes, she rewrote part of it and yes, Athena did take other people's life stories and write about them.  But to take all the credit is sickening.

I think this story brings up a great point that in this quest for total diversity, we prevent people from actually being free.  There is no problem with a white woman writing about a historical event if she does her due diligence.  Should I as a woman never write about man because I am not one? No, it's a ridiculous thought.  We put so much stake in being politically correct that we forget that we should be immersing ourselves in different cultures and ways of thinking, not segregating people that don't fit a certain racial profile.

Parts of this book were a little too liberal for me but it wasn't a bad book.  It's a 3 star for me and I will probably not read it again.