Yellowface by R. F. Kuang (audiobook)

 genre: contemporary fiction

June Hayward's dream, her passion, it is be a best selling author.  It's not like she hasn't been published, it's not like she's not a skilled writer, but her agent was the worst and her book tanked. Not like the books of her friend and fellow college student Athena Liu, whose novels fly off the shelves and whose life seems to just magically rearrange itself for good around every corner.  June's fate as a White Girl just seems to be always one step ahead of her "diverse writer" friend.

But then in a tragic accident, Athena dies. And June makes a sudden but deliberate choice to steal a manuscript from Athena's apartment.  Instead of just being curious, June decides that she can actually tell Athena's story even better than she could.  And thus June's rise to the top of the charts begins, but at what cost?

Okay, this is satire of the highest order.  It made me think SO MUCH.  It made me think about publishing and the whims of audiences, about ethics and racism and ethnicity and culture and so many important things. It's about social media's power to cancel people and bring their celebrity right back from the brink. It's sharp and well-written, the reasoning here is so close to honest sometimes that it really makes you think about how people can convince themselves that doing bad is actually good.  Speaking of bad,  June is just the worst, I'll be honest with you.  There is nearly nothing redeeming about her.  She has no functioning relationships and it made it a little hard to ever connect with her, but I'm not completely sure we were supposed to.  

A great four star novel that took my brain to an important place, even if some parts were so cringe-worthy I almost wanted to cry myself I was so uncomfortable.