Yellowface

Kuang played with me as a reader. I enjoyed the game. I at times became frustrated however I did not lose interest. The novel is a cautionary tale of hubris, self absorption, and a complete lack of self awareness on the part of four key characters: Athena, June and the spirit lives of both Athena and June. The wander through the forest of fits and starts of the publishing world is intriguing. I did find of greater interest the authors take on success. The primary characters are obsessed with notoriety and financial success. They are at once humbled by accolades and expectant for more, always more.
Kuang pokes fun at herself in real time between the lines where the mystique of who she is as an author may become bigger than the stories within the novel.
The writing is fast paced with financial success, online visibility and virtual fans and book tours popping up everywhere . . . until all that stops. There are a death and a resurrection (a second publishing run a better choice of words!)
I recommend this book with great cloak and dagger (and pancakes) The crux of one of the threads in the novel is captured thus, when June reflects on 'Mother Witch' her second (or her actual first?) novel. "No one in their right mind could call this stealing. That's what's most fucked up about this whole debacle. Mother Witch is my original creation. All Athena contributed was a couple of sentences, maybe some underlying imagery . . . and yet it's this story that brings me down."