Reviews with content warning for Blood - Natural Beauty

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

18 reviews

rice_cooker's review

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4.5

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

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danimacuk's review

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dark mysterious sad 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

I had a great time with this book up until about 3/4 of the way through it. The climax felt rushed and messy, with so many questions left unanswered (and not in a mysterious, intentional way). Overall, it was a decent read but a letdown towards the end.

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caroisreading's review

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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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mfrisk's review

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dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

This book is equal parts a reflection on living up to the standards of parents and navigating our relationships with family as it is a critique on predatory business practices and people in the beauty industry and spaces which prey on those with insecurities or areas of perceived weakness.

There were so many quotable moments related to beauty, grief, and art and we really get into the head of our unnamed narrator through her experience which with time becomes gradually more horrific. That aspect I liked but I do wish there had been less characters to keep track of besides our main narrator. That to me got confusing though I can understand why they may have made that choice. The book really goes off the rails with its ending which in some ways I enjoyed but in other ways left me feeling confused/wanting more.

A few things that made me unsure how I feel about this book. I genuinely may have missed this but the book alluded that our narrator had something to do with her parents’ car accident however I’m still confused about that part. I’m also a bit stumped by the implication of who is writing the weird letters at the end and wish more had been wrapped up about Connor and hers experiences at the conservatory. They didn’t need to spell everything out but I do feel like I needed slightly more spelled out for me to fully get all that was being alluded to.

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irenemarie's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

5.0

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bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

HOLY SHIT WHAT DID I JUST READ?! I am still processing and I am completely creeped out😭

Our nameless Chinese American main character/first-person narrator takes a new job at Holistik, a wellness and beauty store (and infamous empire!) to make more money, after her parents get into a horrible accident and she is months late on their care facilities rent. She was once a promising classical music ingenue, but gave it up because of her parents’ tragedy. From the beginning, Holistik emits a bit of a cult-like aura, and it only gets darker and darker as the novel goes on! She starts to “drink the Kool Aid,” as one would say, as she gets more and more procedures done and implements hours-long nighttime skincare routines.

Our narrator (who takes on the name Anna to appease customers/her employers) takes on a second night job within a different branch of Holistik, but she never remembers what happens during those sessions and typically just wakes up in her bed a bit woozy. She begins to uncover darker and darker secrets about the company, at dire consequences for herself and those she loves dear. I had such a dreadful feeling reading this, just knowing something more sinister was waiting for her around the corner (not an *actual* monster, but moreso the monster of beauty standards, the wellness industry & the constant sell of achieving eternal youth & beauty!

Huang's writing of the narrative voice was searing, unimpressed and straightforward. She posited our narrator as deeply caring towards her parents, but once their accident happens, she is clearly deep in the wells of her grief. I can’t say too much else without spoiling this, but I will say that I was on the edge of my seat for most of this book, and for some reason, the scene with “Anna” having to tell an unhoused man who looked like her Ba to move from the Holistik storefront has stayed with me. She became so pulled to what Holistik wanted her to be, that she strayed so far from being the kind of person that her parents would be proud of. It’s an all too familiar push and pull of being a first-generation child of immigrants who is cautiously towing the line between wanting to assimilate and feel as if they belong in predominantly white spaces, like at Holistik, or be a child that your parents are proud of, and to prove that their sacrifice paid off in you. That moment really pained me.

Anyway, I will absolutely read more of LLH’s work, and am so impressed with this piece of dark, haunting horror!

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