Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Natural Beauty

Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

32 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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punk_flower_child's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh my God, once I got about halfway through this book I just couldn't stop. This was such a profound commentary on beauty standards and so much else I couldn't even begin to express. One of my favorites so far this year

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emilywemily6's review

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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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aleesquer's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

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farrahwho's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Holistik has changed everything. Natural beauty doesn’t exist here—it’s created.

i really wanted to be more invested in this story, but i just couldn't bring myself to care more. the pacing is all over the place, the chapters are broken up in a way that ruins the flow of certain scenes, and the mc is so frustratingly passive at times making this whole reading experience more arduous than it should have been. the "action" towards the end felt shoehorned due to a lack of sufficient build-up and the ending wasn't satisfying

(despite being somewhat hopeful/optimistic)

. doesn't really bring anything new to the table in terms of commentary on consumerism and beauty/wellness culture. if anything, this is just a slightly more grotesque, unnecessarily sexual version of rouge by mona awad (which i didn't really vibe with either!)

i will say, the body horror in this was well done (i.e., managed to actually gross me out)

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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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