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mlewis's review
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Body horror, Sexual violence, Fatphobia, and Sexual content
Moderate: Classism, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Drug use, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, and Death of parent
Minor: Domestic abuse, Infertility, Pedophilia, Bullying, Alcohol, Miscarriage, and Vomit
jaymebeetus's review
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Medical trauma, Classism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Body horror, Trafficking, Grief, and Racism
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Car accident, Cannibalism, and Dysphoria
livlamentloathe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a grotesque dissection of beauty, marginalization, and the dangers of the male gaze. It was more than that too, I can’t exactly summarize this book into a sentence. The ending felt akin to Carrie Narby’s “Indescribable,” in It Came From the Closet. The nonexistence of beauty, of perception, grants a form of freedom. There is a queerness to ugliness.
Natural Beauty captured the dangers of beauty well. It spoke to the “feminism” of beauty and the cage that surrounds conformity. Reading this was an experience I can’t truly describe in words. But I enjoyed this a great deal. Another example of how the greatest horror stems from reality.
Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Death, Dysphoria, Excrement, Fatphobia, Grief, Medical content, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, and Stalking
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Vomit, Terminal illness, and Sexual violence
Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, Murder, Vomit, and Excrement
clara_mai's review
Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Grief, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Cannibalism, Bullying, and Classism
jaiari12's review
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
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
sarahholliday's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
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.
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
- 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
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
mrsboomreads's review
4.0
That being said, horror is not my genre and some of the events and descriptions were…horrifying.
Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Confinement, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Car accident, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Death of parent