Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

20 reviews

klemistry's review

dark fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Eating disorder and Death of parent

mosshaunt's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual assault, Body horror, Sexual violence, Body shaming, and Bullying

Moderate: Death of parent and Cannibalism

Minor: Car accident

ashp's review

challenging dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

This book is if the film “Whiplash” was set in a holistic clean beauty space. The story is jarring and unnerving. An excellent tone of social commentary. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Classism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Body horror, Death, and Eating disorder

librasgroove's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

Interesting Things in the book: Gay stained glassed nightclub, blondes as the ultimate evil, lesbian pining, beauty as a sunk cost, the intensity of being a pianist, parental legacy, and fetishization of Asian women.  

Warning: ALOT of mentions of restrictive eating/new age wellness 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual violence, Vomit, Pedophilia, and Body shaming

Minor: Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

chris_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

The most insidiously disturbing book I've read to date. Good writing and themes of class, consumerism, immigration, sexual exploitation and beauty standards for women. Characters were sympathetic but passive and not very likeable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Medical trauma, Rape, Body horror, Classism, Stalking, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Medical content, Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, Drug use, and Eating disorder

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Murder, Racism, and Vomit

ironandsilver's review

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Gore, Fatphobia, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Animal cruelty

mermaidsherbet's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Violence, Gaslighting, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

Minor: Infertility, Murder, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Animal death, Bullying, Cannibalism, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Classism, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Stalking, Drug use, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

susheela's review against another edition

dark funny sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Body horror, and Body shaming

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Racism, and Eating disorder

Minor: Cannibalism

mrsboomreads's review

4.0

This book was genre defying, though horror and a probably most accurate. The writing was tight and smart, with an interesting examination of the lengths individuals will take to defy aging. 

That being said, horror is not my genre and some of the events and descriptions were…horrifying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Confinement, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Car accident, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

marinabkat's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending this ARC in exchange for an honest review of the book. 

 

I’m hot off finishing this book and ultimately give it a score of 2.75 stars. I think it’s entertaining, but not a must-read. Pros are that it’s a fast-paced, thrilling, thematically rich, cinematic book that creates quick-buy in. It’s really a great concept. I appreciated the incorporation of discussions of race, Western beauty standards, counterculture, and business ethics. The plot pacing was good, and it looks like this book has already gotten picked up for a screen adaptation, which I see a lot of potential in. Writing wise, I liked the egg and mirror motifs, but beyond that, I really struggled to enjoy this as a book. The execution left a lot to be desired. The surreal parts are hard to follow. A lot of the sentences are short-ish in length and stay that short length, which really affected the flow especially during pivotal horror points. The flow was off. I found the climactic scene REALLY difficult to follow. The anticipation isn’t built that well. For example, the character when the main character begins to see a lot of what’s going on and is in a room she knows she’s not supposed to be in, we don’t get any of her feeling of panic until she’s caught: “What was I thinking? I should not be in this room.” In moments like that, more of the main character’s reactions would have added to the horror and clarified the scene. Some of the scenes, even late in the book, felt conveniently timed and crafted for exposition. 

 

Still, if you like Ottessa Moshfegh, Ling Ma, George Saunders, or the song Faceshopping by SOPHIE, you might enjoy this book. To others, I’d recommend waiting for the screen adaptation!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Infertility, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Body horror, Vomit, Eating disorder, and Body shaming

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Torture, Miscarriage, Medical content, and Medical trauma