9 Thought-Provoking Books Like Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Nella is exhausted from years of micro- and macroaggressions as the one Black one who works at Wagner Books. So when one other Black girl named Hazel begins working within the subsequent cubicle over, Nella is thrilled to probably have a brand new ally. When Hazel all of the sudden turns into everybody’s favourite coworker, and Nella’s onerous work will get ignored, Nella wonders if one thing unusual is at play. Her worries are confirmed when she begins receiving nameless messages demanding she go away Wagner Books directly. It’s a darkish, humorous, twisty story of racism in publishing that crosses genres to maintain you guessing by way of the final web page. Even higher, the TV collection adaptation of The Other Black Girl is coming to Hulu on September 13.

Neela Devaki doesn’t make music with a view to get well-known; she’d quite write songs that push boundaries and create issues that really feel fully new. Meanwhile, Rukmini’s pop music has earned her a passionate following on social media. When Rukmini covers one in every of Neela’s songs, and it goes massively viral, they strike up a friendship and inventive partnership. But their careers develop in numerous instructions, and shortly, the entire web questions who ought to get the credit score. If you wish to learn extra books about difficult relationships between artists and authenticity in inventive work, The Subtweet is a must-read.

Mickey’s life was lastly going in response to plan, and her flashy media job was bringing her desires of being an influential author inside attain. But then she bought fired. Furious sufficient to disclose the anti-Black racism she’d confronted in her job, she posted a searing open letter on-line…which nobody learn. It isn’t till Mickey returns to her hometown and considers giving up her dream that one other messy state of affairs within the business attracts her again in. This is one other drama-filled journey by way of the intersection of race, writing, and social media, this time that includes a protagonist contemplating strolling away from the business altogether. It’s a considerate contemplation on what calls for for justice do to the individuals who make them and what sacrifices are made with a view to struggle for change.

Doctoral pupil Nivedita is healthier identified by her on-line alias Identitti, which she makes use of to discover race in modern tradition and her personal German Indian heritage. She needs to observe within the footsteps of her mental influencer professor Saraswati — till Nivedita finds out that Saraswati is definitely a white German who has been passing as Indian. As all the pieces Nivedita understands about racial research is upended, she’s pressured to rethink what she’s discovered from her professor. And like in Yellowface, we see the net reactions to Saraswati’s reveal go viral in a blazing satire of racism, media, and academia.

Harry Sylvester Bird couldn’t wait to get out of his closed-minded Pennsylvania city, away from his white racist mother and father, and dwell his reality in a extra progressive place. He strikes to NYC as quickly as he’s sufficiently old and falls for a younger Nigerian girl named Maryam. But as Maryam pulls away from him, Harry begins to embrace a distinct identification, one he believes is his reality: a Black man who goes by G-Dawg. Chinelo Okparanta brilliantly satirizes white identification, allyship, and the racial tensions of our current second by way of the eyes of 1 misguided protagonist in Harry Sylvester Bird.

Jane and Thalia had an intensely shut friendship whereas finding out inventive writing at Oxford. But they misplaced contact after one disastrously horrible night time. Now Jane is sad together with her writing profession, her marriage, the dilapidated previous home she will hardly afford, and her life basically. When she sees Thalia’s title listed as an writer on The New York Times Best Seller List, she’s decided to trace down her finest good friend and restore their relationship, irrespective of what number of questionable and harmful choices it takes. If you appreciated the poisonous friendship between two writers and the errors from the previous that hang-out June in Yellowface, this twisty thriller/thriller is for you.

One day, a younger white man named Anders wakes up having turned brown in a single day. At first, he hides from the world, telling solely his girlfriend, Oona. But then information experiences begin turning up, saying that white individuals turning a distinct race has develop into a worldwide phenomenon. We observe Anders and Oona as society grapples with the adjustments occurring earlier than their eyes. It’s a thought-provoking dystopian novel that casts questions on white identification and xenophobic anxieties in a demographically altering world. Much like Yellowface, it’s certain to begin fascinating conversations about racism and whiteness.

Alice made an enormous choice to maneuver away from her Mohawk neighborhood and into a brand new residence in Toronto together with her husband Steve, a white professor who simply so occurs to review Mohawk tradition. Now that she’s given delivery to a daughter, Alice feels misplaced and distant from her roots regardless of Steve’s fixed help. When Alice decides to jot down a retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story she grew up listening to, unusual issues begin occurring to her. And though Steve says she’s imagining threats, they really feel dangerously actual. And Then She Fell has the social horror and paranormal parts in Yellowface with a novelist protagonist you’ll always remember.