Ling Ling Huang

this is really well written, and well done overall, but a little too 'out there' for me personally. it kept getting weirder and weirder, just when i thought it couldn't go further, it would. and maybe that's also part of the point she's making, that society goes further and further to harm women, when you think it couldn't get worse it does. i could believe that and buy into it, so maybe it's okay that she takes us down this road she does.

there is so much to think about here, and all of it show more interesting and well presented. i am super impressed by her, and that as a debut that she was willing and able to take these risks and allowed to take us where she did. a really, really interesting book about assimilation and whiteness and music and group think and family legacy and the beauty industry (and beauty standards) and how women help and harm each other, and so much more. she does so much here. show less

This was utterly insane, and I’m obsessed.

The prose is perfect, weaving an impossible to describe narrative. It was both straight forward and exquisitely complex, keeping my mind whirling even once I’ve finished. I want so many more books from this author, the beautiful weirdo.

I’m left with so many unanswered questions, but in the best way. There’s no way they could be sufficiently answered and so I’m left to simply marvel at the concept of it all. The social commentary, show more especially regarding race and beauty standards, is not heavy handed and yet potent, keeping you thinking while you navigate the insanity. The theme of assimilation made me deeply sad and freaked out. Humans should not look like clones of eachother.

This reminded me of The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz for its sapphic, fever dream quality, and A Better World by Sarah Langdon for the cult-like and beastly narrative. However, this is even better and more unhinged. I will read this again someday. show less

A gross and disturbing critique of the beauty & wellness industry and how far people and companies go to achieve the "ideal" standard of beauty. It also touches on exploitation of both animals and humans.

As someone who used to spend a disgusting amount of money at Sephora this book made me glad that I don't feel the need to try and fit myself into that mold anymore. The shine started to come off the industry for me when I found out that some brands labeled as "cruelty free" were still being show more tested on animals if that brand was sold in China, since China has a law that requires beauty products to be animal tested. It became exhausting to find cruelty free products that worked and that weren't sold in China, so much so that I just said "Fuck it," and gave up entirely.

OK, back to the book. This is some of my favorite kind of horror. I really enjoy the creeping dread of something is wrong but you're not quite sure what. This also has a fair amount of body horror towards the end, which I also do love.

Overall, I liked this book more than I thought I would and definitely recommend it. show less

Natural Beauty is the literary horror story of a piano prodigy who falls on hard times and ends up working for Holistik, a high-end store for organic beauty products and treatments. There she discovers the dark underbelly of a corporation focused on a singular objective standard of beauty and pursuing it at all costs. The writing has beautiful moments of profundity balanced with the grotesque.