Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

I don't understand why "Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang has such mixed reviews. It's brilliantly simple and simply brilliant in the way it makes us reconsider cancel culture, online warriors, as well as what is and what isn't culture appropriation. A page-turner, easy to read and difficult to put down.

Blurb:

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.