Yellowface

R. F. Kuang

Book cover for Yellowface

About a white writer stealing a story from Chinese American author and passing it off as her own, while making her penname be racially ambiguous hence the title "yellowface". The main character doesn't think of herself as a racist but is very obviously one (a lot of little microaggressions throughout the whole book like being surprised when an Asian character speaks good English). So you start off by obviously hating her, but the way it's done feels quite heavy handed. And as she gets sucked more into her lie towards the end you can't help but feel some sympathy for her but at the same time you don't want her to succeed so it feels pretty conflicting. The ending also acts more as a set up for a second novel but I can't help but wish it was resolved a bit more satisfyingly.