Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

80 reviews

kaitlinlovesbooks's review

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Murder and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

embringaling's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Gore, Car accident, Self harm, Rape, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Violence, Cannibalism, Body shaming, Body horror, Sexual content, Murder, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

seagullsaga's review

dark emotional sad fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Classism, Racism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Body horror, Drug use, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Body shaming, Rape, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Dementia, Eating disorder, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Fire/Fire injury

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

suereadsslow's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Rape

savvylit's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Natural Beauty is a novel with so much to love. It's an addictive page turner. It's deeply creepy and unsettling. It's culty as hell - in a believable slow burn, capitalist sort of way. It's about the dissonance between cultures as a first-generation American with Chinese immigrant parents. It's an examination of white, Western beauty standards. It's a tale of wlw obsession. It's an exploration of the innate sense of duty a daughter feels to her ailing parents. It's a glimpse into the pressures facing professional musicians. It's inherently anti-work, highlighting the ways that employers ask too much of employees facing precarity. It's a fucked up deep dive into our culture's obsession with physical "self-improvement."

I was so absolutely riveted by this novel. Each new horror that unfolded had me simultaneously surprised and disturbed. Natural Beauty is the perfect example of what I love about horror - it holds up a mirror to society's ills and forces us to look. This was an absolutely stunning debut from Ling Ling Huang and I eagerly anticipate her next work!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, Death, Grief, Car accident, Medical content, Death of parent, and Medical trauma

renicula's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.25

I liked this. Disturbing in a way that cuts close to the quick. I did find the way the plot jumps and does a bit of telling-not-showing over long periods of the narrator’s employment jarring, even if it is a deliberate choice to convey her detachment. I didn’t mind that the main character is largely not a very active protagonist - it makes sense for the paralysis of grief she’s continually held in - but some of the events that step in to move the plot along are a bit… pat (at one point, critical information is revealed literally by a wayward cat jumping on a computer keyboard). That being said, it’s a quick read and viscerally fascinating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexual content, Murder, and Sexual violence

Minor: Trafficking, Pregnancy, and Cannibalism

brotestantethic's review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Like grotesque magic. This book was so good, it made me want to throw up. It is very rare to find a book that is so poignant and powerful while simultaneously strange. Huang covers a lot of ground masterfully. INCREDIBLE!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death of parent

Moderate: Racism, Death, Sexual content, Vomit, and Pedophilia

Minor: Car accident

agavette's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent, Medical content, Dysphoria, Xenophobia, Racism, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Sexual assault, Cannibalism, and Pedophilia