A review by readmorgbooks
O Beautiful by Jung Yun

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

What a vivid, gritty picture this story paints. Following Elinor Hanson, a journalist from New York City, as she returns to her home state of North Dakota to write a piece on the town of Avery, recently transformed by the Bakken oil boom. What she unearths has far reaching impacts- both for the community and for her personally. 

“That’s probably why this land means so much to her. It’s a reminder of how complicated this country is, how great beauty and terrible ugliness have coexisted here from the start.”

Vivid, gritty, real. Yun does not pull any punches as she explores the greed, misogyny, racism, and classism that simmer on the surface of this small community left unrecognizable by the figurative (and kinda not) bomb Bakken set off. There are just so many parts to the story Yun wanted to tell as a native North Dakotan who, like Elinor, grew up with the tension of being half-Korean in a rural, predominantly white area. So many things are explored in these 300 pages that it was difficult to feel like anything was fully fleshed out. I really thought the profile of the town was well done, but the end left me wanting more. It was also a little too triggering⚠️ for me, with quite a bit of sexual abuse, violence (especially against women), misogyny, drug use, and white supremacy. It’s definitely a timely and poignant story, but I was glad that the book itself is rather short because it was just too difficult of a read for me. 
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