Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - O Beautiful

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

hyuneybear's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

O Beautiful indroduces us to Elinor Hanson, a forty two year old model turned journalist. As a daughter of an American military father and a Korean immigrant mother, Elinor did not have it easy growing up as a interracial child in rural North Dakota. At 18, Elinor leaves behind small town America for the hustle and bustle of New York City. After her mildly successful model career (mostly catalog work) fizzles out in her later thirties, Elinor switches to journalism. Two years out of journalism school, Elinor has not had any major writing breakthroughs yet. One of her old journalism professors, with whom she was romantically linked to briefly in the past, recommends Elinor to take over a big story assignment for him: the North Dakota oil boom has created thousands of jobs even in the midst and wake of the Great Recession.
It is to the point that the North Dakota unemployment rate is the lowest in the entire United States. Elinor travels to fictional Avery, North Dakota, where she investigates the socioeconomic impact of the region's sudden growth. Elinor wrestles with some of her own inner turmoils as she spends time back in the state where she grew up, a place where she never felt she like she was welcomed or truly belonged.

Contrary to the title and the idllyic-upon-first-glance-cover, O Beautiful was anything but a beautiful story. It was ugly and did not hold back from graphic descriptions of events. The first couple of chapters particularly are downright disturbing, setting Elinor at immediate unease upon landing in Avery and making me as the reader very uncomfortable about starting the story. Also, almost all of the characters are somewhat unlikable to a degree, including Elinor herself. It was hard for me to empathize with her when she exhibited self destructive behavior repeatedly.

Despite the graphic content, Jung Yun's writing style really flowed well for me and the intriguing history of the a North Dakota oil boom drew me in so that I couldn't put the book down. The book ends on a more open-ended note and with many untied loose ends, but it felt more realistic than trying to have Elinor solve all of the societal problems or heal all of her personal wounds. O Beautiful is ultimately a compelling piece of literary fiction, meant to leave the reader challenged and contemplative.

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jeukee's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

nsewes's review

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

cantfindmybookmark's review

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

pun1sher's review

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challenging hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

O beautiful is a small town tale told from the perspective of a woc. It was a little bit like gliding through Bekken along Elinor - examining privilege and prejudice, both her own and the characters. It's easy to connect with the piece and although now very cheerful, it leaves you with a sense of hope.

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mklein319's review

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adventurous emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

readmorgbooks's review

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

What a vivid, gritty picture this story paints. Following Elinor Hanson, a journalist from New York City, as she returns to her home state of North Dakota to write a piece on the town of Avery, recently transformed by the Bakken oil boom. What she unearths has far reaching impacts- both for the community and for her personally.

“That’s probably why this land means so much to her. It’s a reminder of how complicated this country is, how great beauty and terrible ugliness have coexisted here from the start.”

Vivid, gritty, real. Yun does not pull any punches as she explores the greed, misogyny, racism, and classism that simmer on the surface of this small community left unrecognizable by the figurative (and kinda not) bomb Bakken set off. There are just so many parts to the story Yun wanted to tell as a native North Dakotan who, like Elinor, grew up with the tension of being half-Korean in a rural, predominantly white area. So many things are explored in these 300 pages that it was difficult to feel like anything was fully fleshed out. I really thought the profile of the town was well done, but the end left me wanting more. It was also a little too triggering⚠️ for me, with quite a bit of sexual abuse, violence (especially against women), misogyny, drug use, and white supremacy. It’s definitely a timely and poignant story, but I was glad that the book itself is rather short because it was just too difficult of a read for me.

Content Warnings