Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

21 reviews

cheyison's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Gore, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Vomit, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death and Cannibalism

battysbooks's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Medical content, and Blood

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, Gore, Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Drug use, Pregnancy, Grief, Violence, Cultural appropriation, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Vomit, and Sexism

Minor: Animal death, Car accident, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Cannibalism, and Child abuse

Various levels of questionable/lack of consent, including outside of a solely sexual context. General exploitation and manipulation. Lots of themes around beauty standards and "healthy" lifestyles, including unhealthy levels of adherence thereto.

bookrascal's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Vomit, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, and Blood

Minor: Cannibalism

probablynisa's review against another edition

dark

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

3.0

Started off strong then got really weird, like could’ve been maybe a little more poignant if the point wasn’t SO in your face. I’m also not the biggest Sci-Fi fan so that is more than likely what’s influencing me but it felt so unrealistic at the end that I feel like it took away from the point by trying to make it so clear . 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Infertility, Medical content, Body horror, Misogyny, Rape, Trafficking, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

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

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

simplyammee's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Car accident, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Rape, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Murder

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