Reviews - The Beauty | The StoryGraph

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

575 reviews for:

This was very Lord of the Flies meets TLOU. There were a lot of questionable lines along the way and it took me a while to get used to the, how do I say it, metaphorical or floweriness of the writing? it did grow on me tho. Overall I think I'd like to do a queer re-reading of this, as I think the evolving gender roles thru all of this were super interesting.

fourfootedbeasts's review against another edition

4.25

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tsbooks's review against another edition

2.0

I honestly don’t like short stories. I have yet to find one that I enjoy. I can never get into them.

laurenreadingbooks's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

gburkas's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

One of the most disturbing books I've read in a hot second

kitty_kat21's review against another edition

3.0

Originally posted here

And the prize for the most bizarre and gross book I've ever read goes to The Beauty. It is a short novella chronicling some future event where all of the women worldwide are dying from disgusting fungal infections resulting in yellow mushrooms sprouting from their corpses. Now I hate mushrooms in general, and I don't understand why they are even a food as they are gross tasting IMO. Well I hate them even more now thanks to this weird little book.

I don't want to spoil anything but I will say that the men left behind are fairly lost without their women, and perhaps unsurprisingly they start to have intimate relations with each other. The human race is doomed, unable to breed or adapt to this new desolate future... or is it? Just when I thought the story could not get any weirder, it does. It goes to places that made me feel physically sick and yet I was really confused at the same time.

The prose is my favourite thing about The Beauty. It is so lyrical, so beautiful to read that I am not sure I would have continued otherwise. I feel like this little novella had so much to say about gender, gender roles, evolution - it was all a bit lost on me I'm afraid. The Beauty would suit readers who like the grotesque or experimental stories. Unfortunately it was just a bit too 'out there' for me.