Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

5 reviews

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

sam_smith_of_tencendor's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Classism, and Racism

Minor: Body horror, Trafficking, Vomit, and Toxic relationship

spicyspookypotato's review

challenging dark reflective 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? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Drug use, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body horror, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Dementia, Death of parent, Death, Car accident, Animal cruelty, Violence, Toxic relationship, Dysphoria, Sexual violence, Classism, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

sarahholliday's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

Like other reviewers, I think the premise of Natural Beauty is brilliant, but the execution is lacking. The book starts off with somewhat awkward pacing and so-minimalist-as-to-be-problematic descriptions of what's happening, and those problems only increase as the story progresses.

Typically, if a story is vague in terms of plots you at least get deep character studies, but that's not the case here. I kept having to flip backwards to remind myself who characters were—they all sort of blended together because no one had much of a personality to begin with.

The final few chapters of the book are expected to do way too much of the heavy lifting, trying to explain (almost fully) what we've only gotten glimpses of for the first 200 pages. We finally get some self reflection on the part of "Anna," something that might have helped make her complete lack of agency throughout the story easier to understand.

Overall, I was left with the frustrating feeling that a lot of really fascinating and horrific things were happening, but we just never really got to see them. Having read interviews with Ling Ling Huang, it's obvious that she had a clear vision of what she wanted the story to accomplish. Unfortunately, clumsy execution (that should have been better shaped by an editor) keeps readers from actually being able to engage with the issues—wellness, beauty, power, racism—with any sort of nuance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Blood, Grief, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Car accident, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism

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