Challenge Corner discussion

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063250833.

Through Ch. 5 or 25%

(view spoiler)[Wow! June is something else! She has NO confidence in herself at all. I can't even imagine how awful it would be to constantly look over your shoulder to see if anyone is discovering that you didn't write a book you presented as yours. Especially of someone who died and in your presence with you being the only one there.

I think Candice might be on to her and that could be why she is the only one at Eden who doesn't like June. (hide spoiler)]

Through Ch. 12 or 52%

(view spoiler)[Well, we knew that was going to happen. Whoever @AthenaLiusGhost is, and whether or not that person knows something or not, it's definitely gotten under June's skin. Everyone who looks at her sideways now, June will worry that they know something. What's weird to me is she's afraid of people finding out, but at the same time she's upset that others will ruin "her" career. I feel like whatever career she has is not hers. I'm curious to know what ends up happening and whether or not she gets found out for sure and has to suffer any consequences other than humiliation and embarrassment for what she's done.

It's fun to see Goodreads and Choice Awards Winner mentioned a few times. (hide spoiler)]

Through Ch. 17 or 75%

(view spoiler)[I don't know how June has managed to continue to dupe people the way she has. At least she realized she was believing her own lies, which I've seen happen in real life.

I think Geoff probably did know about some of Athena's writing. It would be highly unusual for there to really be no one who knew anything. And her mother, too...does she know deep in her heart that June somehow stole her daughter's ideas at the very least?

It feels like her career/following is definitely going downhill. I think too many people are suspicious of how she got her book and if it's really stolen from Athena. It also seems like Athena wasn't totally honest, either. (hide spoiler)]

Finished

(view spoiler)[I see why people hated the ending and June, but even though I didn't like what June did and all her lies and deceit, etc. I was into the storyline. I suspected Candice long ago, but kind of lost sight of her once she "got another job" elsewhere. But it all made sense to me in the end. (hide spoiler)]

I'm interested in joining this one as well !

Great, Isabel!

I just started this one

Chapters 1-4 (view spoiler)[Lol I go into books blind so I actually thought this was a historical fiction book. I’m finding it interesting though with everything in the publishing aspect. I’m not loving that she is pushing this whole friendship thing online just to create buzz. (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 5-11 (view spoiler)[Well I’m not surprised that all these lies are making her feel this way. I mean I don’t know why she stole the book in the first place. She should have just done a joint name instead of claiming it as only hers. I feel like this person who left the bad Goodreads review will come back. Also the ghosts definitely knows what’s going on. (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 12-17 (view spoiler)[I’m kind of getting bored with her being so paranoid about stealing this work. I mean even the mom was like “I don’t want to know.” Clearly she can’t write another story herself. I mean she even stole her other one from her dead “friend.” But what I wasn’t expecting was for Athena to have stolen the words that she said in college about what happened to her and write a book about that. (hide spoiler)]

Finished (view spoiler)[Okay, I get that she was haunted by the ghosts, but that was cruel. And I can’t believe she ended up being pushed down those stairs. But then she thought about pushing the other girl down the stairs. I really didn’t like either of their characters. (hide spoiler)]