13. Yellowface

By R.F. Kuang (319 pp, ebook)

Wow! This was nothing like I expected. It's about two young authors on the rise, Athena Liu and Juniper Hayward told from the POV of Juniper. Athena is a huge literary hit and Juniper barely noticed. Juniper is present when Athena dies in a freak accident and can't help but run off with Athena's freshly finished manuscript about Chinese laborers in WWI. Juniper publishes the work as her own and has huge success but also lots of folks questioning why this writer is telling this story. There is a lot going on with respect to publishing and ethnic identity that I appreciated. The writing is wonderful. I think the story went a bit off the rails at the end but I still enjoyed it. I have this author's fantasy trilogy in my TBR stack and hope to read soon.