Unhinged Women and What I Read in December
This month, I wanted to write less of a personal ramble and more a deep dive into the woman unhinged trope. After finally reading Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang I have thoughts. This is probably the most hyped book of 2024, it’s distinct yellow cover spotted in every book shop I’ve been in for the last few months and one everyone has been talking about. Now I’ve read it I can see why.
The premise is simple: Two young authors, rising star Athena Lui and struggling debut novelist Juniper Hayward are celebrating Athena’s latest success when she chokes to death in a freak accident. What follows is a spiral of chaos and lies. Juniper takes Athena’s latest unpublished manuscript and puts her name, or rather her racially ambiguous pseudonym, June Song, to it.
The novel plays the lie out in excruciating detail. There is June’s initial wrestling with herself as she decides whether or not to submit the work, a historic novel about Chinese labourers during the first World War, followed by the high of acclaim. It seems, June finally has everything she wants – literary acclaim, wealth, a spot on the New York Times bestseller list – and yet there is the small matter of deception and self-deception. Her unravelling begins with an editorial assistant critiquing her authority on the story and a series of online accusations and outings become her downfall.
Kuang’s writing is clever, funny and thrilling. The story gets darker as it progresses, even veering into ghost story territory when June starts seeing – or imagining seeing – Athena showing up at her readings. June’s Fleabag-esque quips to the reader, “Okay, yes, I know how bad this looks. Like Taylor Swift, I had no intention of becoming a white supremacist Barbie”, give you an insight into the stack of lies she is telling herself and others around her. She is a deeply unlikeable and unreliable narrator and that’s what really makes the book tick.
Yellowface tackles a lot of topics, crucially racism, cultural appropriation and the publishing industry, but I think a huge part of the success of the book is the woman unhinged element. Although not a new concept, every now and then we are presented with a character that goes against everything that a woman ‘should’ be, Gone Girl springs to mind as an equally celebrated example, a character so dark and immoral that it’s impossible to turn away. What Kuang does well is craft not one but two deeply unlikeable female characters, as Athena is by no means a stereotypical victim in this story.
What do we find fascinating about these characters? I wonder if Yellowface would be as good of a read if one of the characters was male. June’s ruthlessness feels more shocking played off against Athena because of their shared experiences of womanhood, “Not every girl has a rape story. But almost every girl has an “I’m not sure, I didn’t like it, but I can’t quite call it rape” story” and because it seems fated that two women from the same MFA programme can’t be equally successful. June knows the spheres she’s operating in, she knows what people expect from her and instead of doing the right thing she doubles down, ‘No one says explicitly that 'Song' might be mistaken for a Chinese name’, leaving the reader a sense of ‘How much worse can she get?’
I really recommend giving Yellowface a read, it’s gripping and will leave you with a lot to think about. If you enjoyed this post, please hit the subscribe button below!