haxxunne 's review for:

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

4.0

funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

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Loved it, hated that it’s not scifi

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Ah, the unreliable narrator: an expected trope in literary fiction but what about the unreliable blurb? ‘Meet Adina: a woman who has never felt at home on Earth’: so far, so clear. ‘As a child, she recognises she is different, not least because of her strange knowledge of a faraway planet’: is she an alien? ‘Then a fax machine arrives at home. Her mission is clear: she must report on the oddities of humankind’: via fax? To a distant star system? 

There is perhaps a world where this is science fiction, but I read this as a forerunner toe Life Hacks For A Little Alien, about neurodivergent people and their reactions and responses to the world in all its exasperating everyday weirdness. Adina is a delightful character but an alien? I think not. Loved the book, hated that it wasn’t scifi.