Natural beauty

 -Novel by Ling Ling Huang

What does it mean to be a natural beauty? What does it take to become one?

This book poses some very deep questions, from identity crisis's made by modern day beauty standards to the idea that to become beautiful we are all just looking more alike, that beauty comes not from similarity but from difference.

In this book we follow our narrator who was a musical prodigy, but is now living a less than sub par life. She lives in the past, trapped by youthful ideations and foolish fear and guilt. Working as a dishwasher her once nimble and calloused fingers, made so by hours of playing piano, are scorched clean by the scalding water she uses to wash dishes. A small baptism of sorts, to start over, and maybe even a punishment for leaving her loves.

One night a woman enters the restaurant after closing hours. She immediately recognizes this prodigy and asks her to come and work for her all natural cosmetics company. Jumping at the chance to become someone new, someone worth loving and being proud of the narrator jumps at the chance.

The job seems like a dream come true, it draws attention and gives her status. But after some time working there it becomes clear that all is not as it seems and that the words "all natural" might be worse than they seem.

Personally I loved this book. It felt like a fever dream brought on by deep philosophical musings about what it means to be a natural beauty, because what is beauty? And what makes it natural?

I loved the authors way of highlighting the strength that comes from knowing who you are and how your beauty isn't comparable with others standards. I love how she danced on the knifes edge of what is culturally acceptable and how different cultures have influenced our views on normalcy and beauty. She also kept the book at a slow pace at first, drawing and sketching the horrors in the sidelines, silently preparing the reader for what was to come so that when the time came, and you are exposed to the truth, you wont die of shock or pull back in revulsion.

She showed how truly repulsive beauty and its connotations can be and how an obsession with this and this only can lead to dark paths.

I also enjoyed that the ending wasn't necessarily happy/cookie cutter in the fact that the MC gets all that they want or that you want for them. Showing how all actions, no matter how noble or naive have lasting consequences.

One negative I must pose is that some of the pages became so long that it would become confusing and clunky.

Well written and full of deep meaningful concepts that need to be discussed and looked at more.

Check TW!!!!

4/5 stars for the plot

5/5 stars for character development

4/5 for writing

4.75/5 for the book as a whole