Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

12 reviews

caroisreading's review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What a wild ride. And what a hell of a debut novel by Ling Ling Huang. I'm still processing the many layers that the author has sliced open, with all its grotesque detail, what it means to be a woman stripped of her own nature, power, choice, financial security, fertility, ethnicity, family and body. Essentially, the reality we live today, only digestible as a work of dystopian fiction. 

Our narrator is a Chinese-American daughter of immigrants, two pianists who escaped the Cultural Revolution. She's absorbed their passion for the instrument and art, and rises as a talented young prodigy, enduring bullying for being praised, different, and poor. After tragedy, she has to give up piano for odd jobs to survive, and finds herself working in retail at Holistik, a beauty shop that feels surreal with its elite clientele, innovative services and beautiful staff of women. As she literally drinks the Kool-aid, she mentally and physically becomes the same brand of beauty, at a huge cost. 

This is a disturbing story, a little too real in its descriptions of an unrelenting capitalist society, with beauty and youth reserved only for the 1%, and a dismissive eye toward the basic healthcare and wellness of the lower and middle class. It sarcastically mimics the marketing extremes of what it means to be "organic" and "zero waste" to the point of nauseating realism. It serves up, very simply, the erasure of ethnic beauty and backgrounds in favor of a homogenous Nordic-type everygirl. It shows us nature's brutality and retaliation when man tries to bend it to his will. It explores the relationship between art and pain, and the sacrifice of self for something to be considered beautiful.

This is a must-read, for a reality check on many of the rights we see ourselves being stripped of, and issues our society are grappling with today. Definitely check the content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexism, Vomit, Fatphobia, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Chronic illness, Death, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Gore, Racism, Body shaming, Xenophobia, Animal death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Bullying, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

claraandthesun's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal cruelty, Gore, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, and Sexual assault

embringaling's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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: Grief, Suicide, Gore, Car accident, Self harm, Rape, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Violence, Cannibalism, Body shaming, Body horror, Sexual content, Murder, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

edhyndman's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Fatphobia, Medical content, Murder, Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Body horror, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, and Vomit

auudrey's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Classism

Minor: Racism and Pregnancy

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Listened to most of this yesterday then finished while coloring moths in a meditation coloring book I own. It felt ironic to read the ending while choosing colors to create art.

This was a grotesque dissection of beauty, marginalization, and the dangers of the male gaze. It was more than that too, I can’t exactly summarize this book into a sentence. The ending felt akin to Carrie Narby’s “Indescribable,” in It Came From the Closet. The nonexistence of beauty, of perception, grants a form of freedom. There is a queerness to ugliness.

Natural Beauty captured the dangers of beauty well. It spoke to the “feminism” of beauty and the cage that surrounds conformity. Reading this was an experience I can’t truly describe in words. But I enjoyed this a great deal. Another example of how the greatest horror stems from reality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Death, Dysphoria, Excrement, Fatphobia, Grief, Medical content, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, and Stalking

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Vomit, Terminal illness, and Sexual violence

Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, Murder, Vomit, and Excrement

jaiari12's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Animal death, Grief, Body horror, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Racism, Rape, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Gore, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

gteng's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Vomit, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death, Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Violence, Sexual assault, Rape, and Medical trauma

malsbang's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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: Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Blood, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Cannibalism

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