Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

5 reviews

rice_cooker's review

4.5

one of the scariest books i've read in my life 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Gore, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Classism, Death, Racism, Blood, Body shaming, Death of parent, Grief, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Eating disorder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Murder, Violence, and Car accident

Minor: Body shaming, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

babywren's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Rape

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

arayo's review

dark funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Rape, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Vomit, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Racism, Gore, and Bullying

Minor: Cannibalism, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

edrickashay's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-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

5.0

A fever dream. A story that progressively gets weirder and weirder until you yourself are left with no other option than to accept the reality of these character’s lives. Lit Fic? Horror? I’m not sure. This book is so wrapped in our narrator’s head we don’t notice the subtle commentary; we, just like her, long only to return to pretty descriptions of playing piano.

It reads like a grown-up, tangible version of [b:Uglies|24770|Uglies (Uglies, #1)|Scott Westerfeld|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1654202671l/24770._SX50_.jpg|2895388]. Just look up the trigger warnings as this book deals with body horror and a lot of consent issues.

This book is a graceful unfolding, a slow-build, beautifully crafted piece of storytelling and writing. Clues are masterfully left. Concepts of natural beauty, wellness, and genetics blend well with heart-wrenching topics of immigration, assimilation, and belonging and estrangement. It has a dream-like, otherworldly quality that is done so artfully I cannot describe how it was achieved.

I will be processing and thinking about this book for a while, and will one day revisit it to look at analytically for self-study in developing my own writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, Sexual assault, Death, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

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