Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

52 reviews

linfardts's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

For the first half of this book i was so sure it was going be be a 5 star read. I loved everything about it. The prose, the setting, the pacing and build up were done SO well and i was hooked.

The second half kinda fell off for me. I found some parts a bit hard to picture or follow what was happening. I felt there were some really great themes that could have been explored more in-depth but were really only touched upon at a surface level. I thought the ending was just okay.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Rape

caileigh's review

dark mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Car accident, and Fatphobia

punk_flower_child's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh my God, once I got about halfway through this book I just couldn't stop. This was such a profound commentary on beauty standards and so much else I couldn't even begin to express. One of my favorites so far this year

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Rape, Grief, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Gore, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Cannibalism

laura_et's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

wiitchycats's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

The first 2/3 of this book were amazing, but the final 1/3 felt like it didn’t contain the same depth. Nonetheless this was a novel I couldn’t put down! 

This story had so much to say about the beauty world, homogenization, white supremacy, and capitalism. It was such a devastating read and the ending was too real. The writing and craft of this was artfully done and absolutely beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

Minor: Suicide and Pedophilia

mybestfriendisabook's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

pretty quick entertaining read. helped thru reading slump. mostly read in slightly sleep deprived delusion states. enjoyed the weirdness and body horror. plot is like Rogue by Mona Awad and this one came thru. 

touches on beauty standards and the lengths we’ll go, chinese immigrant parents

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Medical content, Torture, Violence, Rape, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cannibalism

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

emilywemily6's review

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? It's complicated

4.25

In some ways, this book gave more than I expected, and in other ways, it didn’t quite fulfill what I was hoping for while I was reading. I really liked the conversations on the cosmetic industry, European standards of beauty, the privileges afforded to the privileged, etc. However, there is a lot jammed into this book, and by the end I felt a little unfulfilled in these discussions and plot points that could have gone farther than they did. Also, the main character’s lack of awareness/acceptance of the changes she went through was irksome. If I was suddenly 6 inches taller I would have been startled and run away from Holistik, for one thing, let alone all the other things that happened. She also felt so bad about her relationship with her parents but did nothing to truly fix it or come to terms with it. So I wasn’t a huge fan of the main character. I also felt like the book was over-sexualized. While this novel gave me a lot to think about, it won’t be quite a favorite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Alcohol, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Bullying, Death, Cursing, Medical content, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Drug use, Gore, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Miscarriage, Infertility, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Animal cruelty

sheereads's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Vomit, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

aleesquer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Car accident, Drug use, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment