Karma is the Gift That Keeps On Giving: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

So, I’m completely hooked on “The Traitors.”

My daughter and I actually started watching the reality competition show based off the buzz around Season 2, ahead of its filming. We binged Season 1, were wildly entertained and now are hooked — I think I might be all in on #TeamCT.

Reading R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface” at the same time as watching that show had me thinking about both narratives and the exhaustion that comes with the art of deception. Could it be that Juniper is Phaedra?

Karma is a delicious theme to lean into, and Kuang takes full advantage in her story of authors June Hayward and Athena Liu. I mean, there’s a healthy dose of karma served up in the first chapter — you’re going to tell me someone choking to death in a pancake eating contest ISN’T karma for something?

What do you blame or give a shout out to when someone gets canned over a social media post? Karma. What gets all the flowers when someone in a position of power loses it based on their own idiot decisonmaking skills? Karma. What angel gets its wings when a person plots a murder only to the be the one that lands in the hospital? <insert angelic choir here> … Karrrrrrmmmmmmaaaaa …. </ce’st fin>

Jealousy, envy, desire and drive — all of the machinations that propel the protagonist, June, into a chapter by chapter descent toward near madness — ultimately elevate her central torment, which is loneliness. If that is the result of the career she chose, or the reason she became a writer, you could probably argue either way. At the end of the day, she’s just like most of us, seeking out validation and scrolling through social media to find it. (And we can all agree, that’s the worst place to look.)

She’s also tired. Just tired of it all. The game June started has her keeping multiple balls up in the air, and the aforementioned exhaustion is creeping in. Like Phaedra on The Traitors, she appears resigned to her fate.

Unless …

This novel was on everyone’s “Best Of” lists late last year, and I’m only sorry I didn’t get to it sooner. Fast-paced, thoroughly readable over a weekend and great story arc — all the elements that make it a great pick for adaptation, if we get to be so lucky. Don’t miss this one.