megansmith 's review for:

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

4.5

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I'm kind of shocked but I liked this way more than I thought I would? The beginning lost me a bit, it took me a little while to get deep into it, but after like 30 pages or so, I was more hooked. For a book with a central theme about not connecting in the world around you and feeling disconnected from others, there's a lot of incredibly relatable moments you see through Adina's eyes. I really loved this idea of feeling alien being taken to a new level in this book, especially through a woman's perspective and how growing up can be such an alienating experience. The writing is really poignant and the end had me in tears a few times. Really glad this (mostly) lived up to the hype!