![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Natural Beauty
Author: Ling Ling Huang
Published: Penguin Publishing Group, 2023
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 524,010
Text Number: 1905
Read Because: my TBR notes say "queer UIR/horror, jank but cannibalism" but don't note a heard-of-this-from source and I think it was Goodread's also-liked feature, but wow I wish those notes were as accurate in tone as they are in a list of vague impressions from other reviews, because: yes! all those things are true! but almost not at all in a sexy way; anyway, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I didn't love this when it felt like a hyperbolic satire of the beauty industry, but that was mostly a personal disconnect between tone and reader; I liked this less when it developed a speculative plot, which exchanges the oversized strangeness for overexplained answers. It's still fine. The focus on race elevates it, providing what character and depth of commentary there is. But this is a debut and feels like it: interesting style, but clumsy execution.
Author: Ling Ling Huang
Published: Penguin Publishing Group, 2023
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 524,010
Text Number: 1905
Read Because: my TBR notes say "queer UIR/horror, jank but cannibalism" but don't note a heard-of-this-from source and I think it was Goodread's also-liked feature, but wow I wish those notes were as accurate in tone as they are in a list of vague impressions from other reviews, because: yes! all those things are true! but almost not at all in a sexy way; anyway, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I didn't love this when it felt like a hyperbolic satire of the beauty industry, but that was mostly a personal disconnect between tone and reader; I liked this less when it developed a speculative plot, which exchanges the oversized strangeness for overexplained answers. It's still fine. The focus on race elevates it, providing what character and depth of commentary there is. But this is a debut and feels like it: interesting style, but clumsy execution.
