Yellowface

June Hayward, a little-known novelist whose debut Over the Sycamore has failed to launch her career, spends an evening with former Yale classmate Athena Liu, now a literary celebrity. June is jealous of Athena's success and resentful of their unequal friendship, but she also enjoys Athena's attention. After drinks, they go to Athena's apartment, where Athena shows June a typewritten manuscript, The Last Front, about the Chinese Labour Corps in the First World War. Athena calls it her newest novel, and June sees its potential. During an impulsive contest to eat pandan pancakes, Athena chokes. June tries to dislodge the food, calls emergency services and watches paramedics fail to revive Athena. In the aftermath of the death, June secretly takes the manuscript from Athena's apartment. June's account establishes the fatal choking but also the deliberate act that makes the subsequent authorship fraud possible.

After Athena's death, June gives interviews and posts about their relationship while privately experiencing confusion, resentment and guilt rather than the uncomplicated grief she publicly performs. At the funeral she speaks about Athena to an audience that includes Athena's mother, Patricia Liu. Back home, she reads the manuscript she took and finds that its mosaic of Chinese Labour Corps stories is powerful but uneven and not yet ready for publication. June restructures sections, rewrites extensively and fills unfinished narrative gaps, telling herself that she is rescuing the project. She submits the resulting novel to her agent Brett Adams as her own work, never disclosing the source of the draft. After June's original publisher declines its right of first refusal, the project draws substantial interest and is acquired by Eden Press with Daniella Woodhouse as editor. June's sudden professional breakthrough depends on a concealed manuscript theft, not merely on independent historical inspiration.

June turns directly to the reader to defend what she has done. She argues that Athena's draft was an unfinished collection of vignettes rather than a publishable novel, and emphasizes the considerable prose, structure and characterization she contributed. Her account treats revision as evidence of ownership while minimizing that Athena conceived the Chinese Labour Corps project, researched it and wrote the text June obtained without permission. June invokes an argument about obligations to the dead once made by a male student she dated at Yale, asking whether a deceased writer can be wronged by a living writer who brings a work to readers. She admits that taking the manuscript was ethically uncomfortable, but repeatedly recasts it as a collaboration Athena cannot object to. Her insistence on deserving success also hints that she believes Athena previously took something from her, without yet explaining the incident.

At Eden Press, Daniella Woodhouse edits The Last Front with June, urging a more commercially accessible account of the Chinese Labour Corps. Their revisions soften or remove some passages about racist treatment, alter characterization and emphasize sympathetic white perspectives. June agrees even when she knows a change moves the book farther from Athena's original purpose. She also cultivates the image of Athena as a friend and influence while keeping their actual manuscript relationship secret. June worries that Athena's remaining handwritten notebooks might contradict her account. When Patricia Liu considers donating Athena's papers to Yale's literary archive, June visits and encourages her to postpone access to material that might expose the original project. The resulting publication is neither Athena's untouched manuscript nor June's independently conceived novel: the publisher's edits and June's self-protection further obscure the text's origins.

As The Last Front approaches publication, Eden's marketing and publicity staff question whether a white writer can convincingly promote a novel about Chinese laborers. June insists she has done sufficient research and accepts a branding strategy that makes her background seem more cosmopolitan without explicitly claiming Chinese ancestry. The team favors her real middle name, Song, and she begins publishing as Juniper Song instead of June Hayward, knowing the byline may lead readers to assume she is Asian. Editorial assistant Candice Lee, who is Korean American, presses for a Chinese sensitivity reader and challenges the team's treatment of cultural authenticity. June resents Candice's objections, rejects additional scrutiny and uses her position as the celebrated author to have Candice taken off the project. Their conflict escalates over a negative Goodreads review and Candice's professional conduct, laying the groundwork for Candice's later grievance against June.

The Last Front launches with treatment very different from June's unsuccessful debut. Eden sends champagne, major reviewers cover the book, and a large crowd fills Politics and Prose for her reading. June selects an excerpt she believes is largely her own prose and confidently answers questions about research and craft, performing the public identity of Juniper Song. In the audience, however, she sees a woman she is certain is Athena, apparently alive and wearing a familiar green shawl. The sight destabilizes her reading and signing, but the narrative provides no independent confirmation that Athena was present. Back at her apartment June suffers an acute panic attack. She searches social media for evidence of the appearance, finding only praise for her event and a figurative comment about Athena's ghost being in the room. The incident introduces the apparent haunting without establishing a supernatural return.

The Last Front enters the New York Times bestseller list at number three and remains on the list for weeks. June initially has no confidant who would understand the accomplishment, realizing Athena would have been the first person she called. Bestseller status transforms June's career: established writers flatter her, literary events invite her, and the former editor who neglected Over the Sycamore now seeks her approval. After royalties exceed her substantial advance, she upgrades her apartment, pays debts and takes care of neglected medical needs. June makes a donation to the Asian American Writers' Collective and volunteers to mentor Emmy Cho, a young Korean American aspiring novelist. June tells Emmy that minority identity makes publishing easier, trivializing her concerns about representation. At the end of their first mentoring call Emmy asks whether June is white, and June admits that she is, explaining that Song is her given middle name.

Despite sales success, June compulsively reads negative reviews, especially criticism by Adele Sparks-Sato, Kimberly Deng and Xiao Chen of The Last Front's treatment of Chinese laborers and its sentimental white characters. The contested Annie Waters episode is partly June's own revision: Athena had portrayed the missionary's daughter recoiling from the men, while June added an affectionate kiss that critics see as fetishizing Chinese workers and elevating white innocence. June rehearses rebuttals and, at a Cambridge event, answers Chinese American student Lily Wu's challenge about who should profit from this history by arguing for artistic freedom. Her self-justifications shift into a recollection of Athena interviewing a veteran at a Korean War museum and later transforming testimony into fiction. June calls Athena a thief of other people's suffering, but this conclusion remains June's interpretation rather than evidence that Athena appropriated a manuscript in the same manner June did.

The Cambridge exchange generates a brief online dispute. Seeking proof of her support for Asian American communities, June accepts an invitation from Susan Lee to speak at a Chinese American social club in Rockville. During the drive from the station Susan assumes, based on the byline Song, that June is Chinese or Korean; June says she is white and that Song is her middle name. The event itself proceeds without public confrontation, although June is increasingly uncomfortable with audience expectations and her own ignorance. At dinner she meets Mr. James Lee, whose uncle served in the Chinese Labour Corps and whose family history has often been dismissed. He sincerely thanks her for bringing that history to readers. June feels genuine shame at receiving his gratitude for work originating with Athena and abruptly leaves, inventing an excuse rather than disclosing the deception.

June withdraws from most public events after criticism but continues attending awards ceremonies. The Last Front earns nominations and wins the Goodreads Choice Award, producing another boost in sales. Her agent Brett arranges a meeting with Justin and Harvey of Greenhouse Productions, who are interested in an option for a film adaptation. June expects Chinese American filmmaker Jasmine Zhang, but she does not attend. The producers instead discuss enlarging a minor British officer into a leading role played by a recognizable white actor and using a Chinese pop star to reach overseas markets. They make racially dismissive remarks while claiming to protect the story's integrity. June objects weakly, then authorizes whatever packaging seems commercially viable. No firm offer or contract is made at this meeting; Brett tells her the company is still considering the property. June nevertheless imagines a blockbuster and a much larger career.

An anonymous account calling itself Athena Liu's ghost posts that June Hayward stole The Last Front and misleadingly markets herself as Chinese American. The central accusation is true, but the account also invents details, including that June befriended Athena intending to obtain the manuscript and repeatedly searched her apartment. June knows that whoever wrote the thread lacks those particulars and may have no direct evidence. Nevertheless, the allegations spread, bringing threatening messages, demands for publisher action and a severe panic attack. June falsely assures Brett the allegations are baseless; he advises silence, and Eden publicly declines to engage. As the scandal grows, June obsessively monitors criticism and suffers insomnia and physical distress. She recalls a previous sustained racist and misogynistic online attack on Athena but still centers her own victimhood and refuses to acknowledge the theft.

Two existing appearances force June out of her apartment during the scandal. A visit with young students at a DC library is uneventful because the children know little of the literary controversy. At a Virginia literary festival, however, June arrives late for a panel about East Asian-inspired fiction and mispronounces fellow writer Ailin Zhou's name. The panelists distance themselves from her. When June describes the erasure of Chinese labor in the First World War, artist Diana Qiu points out the hypocrisy of using uncredited Asian creative labor and accuses June of stealing Athena's words. Moderator Annie Brosch intervenes, but the public confrontation dominates the remainder of the event. June flees humiliated and seeks comfort in the 'Eden's Angels' chat, where Marnie Kimball and Jen Walker mock Diana instead of examining the accusation.

At a family barbecue in Alexandria, June asks her brother-in-law Tom, who works in IT, whether a Twitter account can be traced to an IP address. He explains that he cannot obtain Twitter's private records but can locate an address captured by a website she controls only approximately. June builds a hidden WordPress page designed to look like an anti-June evidence site, then sends its link to the anonymous AthenaLiusGhost account through a fake account named LazarusAthena. Meanwhile, another anonymous thread attacks Athena's reputation and raises disputed claims about how she used family histories, shifting some online hostility away from June. When the ghost account visits June's site, Tom's geolocation lookup points to Fairfax, Virginia, not a specific person or house. June immediately suspects Athena's former boyfriend Geoffrey Carlino, but that suspicion is not verified by the location data.

June recounts Geoffrey Carlino's troubled career and contentious breakup with Athena, mixing public disputes with rumors that she cannot substantiate. Geoff has echoed the anonymous accusations online, reinforcing June's certainty that he is behind them. She summons him to Coco's Coffee and secretly records their meeting. Geoff says Athena discussed research on Chinese laborers and that June's book resembles the project, but he produces no manuscript or proof of the theft. When June tentatively pretends to admit taking it, Geoff proposes being paid part of her earnings for his silence. June reveals her recording of this attempted blackmail and threatens to make it public. She then issues a calculated false statement denying plagiarism and claiming her agent and editor investigated her innocence. The ghost account disappears, and public sentiment shifts. Brett subsequently reports Greenhouse's $15,000 option offer, to be negotiated, not a completed film.

As The Last Front's publicity fades, June is financially secure but unable to draft a successor, hearing Athena's critical voice whenever she tries. She now reveals she took not only the typed novel on the night of Athena's death but also loose pages and notes. One handwritten paragraph inspires a new novella, Mother Witch, about a girl pursuing her immortal mother; June conceives much of the plot herself but uses Athena's opening text. June also recounts their freshman year at Yale, when she told Athena about an alcohol-related sexual encounter she could not fully remember. Athena compassionately helped June seek counseling, then published a short story that reproduced distinctive details of June's private disclosure. June interpreted that story as a betrayal, a grievance she later uses to justify her own theft. Mother Witch is published to respectable reviews but modest sales, and June temporarily believes she has established her independent talent.

Two weeks after Mother Witch's publication, Adele Sparks-Sato documents that its opening duplicates a paragraph from Athena's unpublished story Her, supported by dated workshop materials and eight witnesses. Unlike the first plagiarism allegations, this textual overlap is directly evidenced. June withdraws from social media; colleagues, her informal support network and mentee Emmy Cho distance themselves. Eden's editor Daniella, publicist Emily, Jessica, Brett and lawyer Todd Byrne confront June. June admits borrowing the opening paragraph but still denies taking The Last Front, even when Daniella proposes acknowledging collaboration with Athena's estate. Eden agrees to manage the immediate legal exposure by revising Mother Witch's opening; Patricia Liu does not seek damages. Brett reports that notoriety has boosted sales. Patricia then calls about Adele's request to examine Athena's notebooks. June nearly confesses but instead gives evasive assurances, persuading Patricia not to open the materials. She remains untruthful about the original novel's authorship.

June's reputation continues to deteriorate, but the public controversy makes her books sell better as conservative commentators portray her as a victim of cancel culture. She considers leaving publishing, yet cannot abandon her desire to be read. Unable to formulate a new project, she scours historical topics and travels to DC's Chinatown seeking stories she thinks would appeal to readers. At a dumpling restaurant, June tries to interview staff about their lives while making condescending assumptions about their ethnicity and language. A waitress recognizes her as the writer accused of stealing Athena's work and asks her to leave. June pays without eating. Later, Brett proposes that she write work-for-hire fiction for the packaging company Snowglobe. Its pitch turns China's one-child policy into a sensational dystopia about controlled reproduction. June rejects it as politically and historically reductive, though another author soon accepts the project.

With most literary invitations withdrawn, June travels to Massachusetts to teach the Young AAPI Writers' Workshop, organized by Peggy Chan. Her initial sessions with high school students revive her pleasure in writing, although the ideas she records afterward closely resemble their submissions. She then overhears students discussing evidence against her and speculating about Athena's death. To reassert authority, June singles out talented student Skylar Zhao for a deliberately humiliating critique, using minor procedural faults and exaggerated literary objections to punish her. Several students report June's conduct as bullying. When Peggy calls, June refuses to acknowledge what happened and invents a story that her mother is ill, allowing her to leave the workshop under the appearance of a family emergency. The episode demonstrates June repeating an exploitative pattern toward younger writers and abusing the authority she claims to value.

After leaving the workshop, June actually visits her mother near Philadelphia. Her mother is preparing to sell the house and move to Melbourne, Florida, a decision June learns about only upon arriving. In her childhood bedroom, June finds composition notebooks filled with imaginary worlds and unfinished stories. They recall a time when writing brought pleasure rather than competition, money or scrutiny. Over dinner, however, the familiar argument resumes: June's mother urges her to find a stable profession or join family in Florida, while June insists that creative success and being remembered are essential to her identity. She fears her only memorable work depends on borrowing Athena's talent and experiences. The visit reveals a private motivation behind June's publishing ambitions and leaves her still without a viable new manuscript.

Back in Virginia, June remains unable to write and repeatedly searches for praise and condemnation of her published work. A perceptive anonymous review of The Last Front speculates that it was composed by two writers and wonders whether a novel about June and Athena's relationship would be worth reading. June seizes on the idea of a fictionalized autobiography that would blend real theft with invented scenes and regain control of the scandal. Recalling both jealous and loving memories of Athena, she drafts rapidly and begins to feel creative again. She posts a hopeful Instagram update about a new manuscript. Soon afterward, Athena's long-inactive verified account posts a grotesquely manipulated photograph that displays both The Last Front and Mother Witch, directly taunting June. June finds no public reaction and suspects the image was meant only for her. She confronts Geoff, who denies involvement, and threatens him with the old recording if he will not meet.

Geoff meets June again at Coco's Coffee and examines the revived Instagram account. He identifies the image as an alteration of an older photograph, though neither knows who has access to the account. June considers implausible explanations, including a concealed sister or Athena's survival, but knows she witnessed Athena die. Geoff admits that Athena repeatedly mined emotionally painful arguments from their relationship for fiction, leaving him unsure whether he had been loved or observed for material. June begins to describe her own experience of Athena using personal disclosures, but still cannot explicitly confess her theft. During the conversation June briefly sees a woman she takes for Athena outside the window, then finds no one there. Geoff advises her to stop engaging with the account and build a life outside Athena's influence. June recognizes a shared history of resentment without obtaining proof of any supernatural event.

Athena's compromised Instagram account begins posting daily images purporting to show her alive, including mockeries of the way she died. June unsuccessfully tries muting the account and turns to Chinese ghost stories, incense, food offerings and paper rituals to calm her fears. Her fictionalized autobiography deteriorates into a disorganized ghost story because she cannot find an ending that resolves the moral problem of Athena's authorship. June acknowledges privately that a real confession would credit Athena as at least a coauthor of The Last Front, but insists she cannot sacrifice her future. At a cafe, June sees a woman in a green shawl, chases her, grabs her and discovers she is critic Diana Qiu. The resemblance collapses at close range, exposing June's unreliable perception; Diana threatens pepper spray and flees. Distressed, June calls her former therapist Dr. Gaily, who cannot treat her remotely across state lines and offers referrals. Another Instagram post apparently places Athena at the cafe, and June demands a meeting. The account specifies the Georgetown Exorcist steps at eleven the next night.

June goes to the Exorcist steps in Georgetown after the Instagram account names the meeting place. She assumes this proves Athena is alive because the stairs recall a race they once ran together. In the darkness, she hears what sounds like Athena's voice questioning her motives. June admits taking Athena's manuscript, acknowledges the theft was wrong and promises reparations. A figure steps forward: it is Candice Lee, the former Eden editorial assistant who lost her job after the Goodreads dispute. Candice explains that she gained access to Athena's account through Athena's publicist, created manipulated posts and used recordings to provoke a confession. She has filmed June's admissions and intends to sell her story as Yellowface. Candice also describes how the publishing industry both commodified Athena's ethnic identity and denied opportunities to other Asian writers. June demands the recordings, attacks Candice and pins her near the steps, even contemplating how she might disguise a fatal fall. Candice bites June and kicks her free. June falls backward into empty space as the chapter ends; her survival is not established until chapter Twenty-four.

June survives her fall at the Exorcist steps, spending four days in hospital with a broken clavicle and ankle and a concussion. A stranger summoned emergency services using her phone, but the caller was gone when responders arrived; June suspects it was Candice, whose recording can now expose her. A New York Times interview reports Candice's tapes, and Eden publicly expresses interest in making amends by publishing Candice's account. June isolates herself, experiences depression and briefly considers suicide without acting on it. A month later Candice sells a memoir proposal for seven figures to Penguin Random House. Rather than accept the exposure, June sees another opportunity: she plans a rival nonfiction narrative framing the encounter as an elaborate hoax and herself as a victim of stalking, coercion and discriminatory publishing politics. She intends to contact Brett, seek a new deal and undermine Candice's credibility. The novel ends with June planning this reversal, not with publication, vindication, legal judgment or any confirmed outcome of her proposed counterattack.