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4.0
Natural Beauty
By Ling Ling HuangPublisher Description
Sly, surprising, and razor-sharp, Natural Beauty follows a young musician into an elite, beauty-obsessed world where perfection comes at a staggering cost.
Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.
Holistik is known for its remarkable products and procedures—from remoras that suck out cheap Botox to eyelash extensions made of spider silk—and her new job affords her entry into a world of privilege and a long-awaited sense of belonging. She becomes transfixed by Helen, the niece of Holistik’s charismatic owner, and the two strike up a friendship that hazily veers into more. All the while, our narrator is plied with products that slim her thighs, smooth her skin, and lighten her hair. But beneath these creams and tinctures lies something sinister.
A piercing, darkly funny debut, Natural Beauty explores questions of consumerism, self-worth, race, and identity—and leaves readers with a shocking and unsettling truth.
Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.
Holistik is known for its remarkable products and procedures—from remoras that suck out cheap Botox to eyelash extensions made of spider silk—and her new job affords her entry into a world of privilege and a long-awaited sense of belonging. She becomes transfixed by Helen, the niece of Holistik’s charismatic owner, and the two strike up a friendship that hazily veers into more. All the while, our narrator is plied with products that slim her thighs, smooth her skin, and lighten her hair. But beneath these creams and tinctures lies something sinister.
A piercing, darkly funny debut, Natural Beauty explores questions of consumerism, self-worth, race, and identity—and leaves readers with a shocking and unsettling truth.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities57 Reviews
4.0
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Created 27 days agoShare
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Diverse charactersMulti-layered charactersBeautifully writtenDescriptive writing
Milana
Created 30 days agoShare
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Bevi
Created about 1 month agoShare
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“Going in knowing this was listed as a horror involving the beauty industry, it felt a little average/unoriginal and not very "horror". But then….THEN it went from only predictably suspicious to awfully horribly gross. The last few chapters made me feel so effectively icky that my rating of this book went from maybe a 2.5 to 4.
There are questionable consent moments that made me double take bc of how weird the set up was? There are also very obvious moments of SA.
Taking all of the horrible things that happen in this book into consideration, the MC hardly ever has a reaction to any of it. There’s moments where she’s scared and when she questions her reality for a bit, but never for too long and she just goes right back to her routine. This is pretty much explained, but sometimes it was a little frustrating.”SuspensefulRealistic settingDarkSexual assault
ry ❁
Created about 2 months agoShare
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“i think this is a great case of…sorta mundane horror. most of it exist in body horror aspects which i found pretty effective but i think most of the horror just comes from being a woman of color navigating society. i found it to be well paced, i enjoyed the prose and i did find myself attached to the narrator but not many others. nonetheless i was intrigued and invested with the story and the ending! not earth shattering but definitely memorable and something id re-read”
Easy to readFast-pacedRealistic setting
Leslie Navarro
Created 3 months agoShare
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