Natural Beauty

A Novel

Hardcover, 272 pages

English language

Published Oct. 4, 2023 by Penguin Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-0-593-47292-7
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3 stars (4 reviews)

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 …

2 editions

uh, wtf

2 stars

Content warning Spoilers.

Review of 'Natural Beauty' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This is honestly more of a 2.5 rounded up. I had a bizarre experience with this one. It was short and a breeze to read, so I did go ahead and finish, but it was kind of a mess.

I really enjoyed the writing style in general. The descriptions were evocative for me, and I'm someone who generally has a hard time caring about description. I also thought a lot of this was grotesquely creative. The disgusting imagery and the types of "spa treatments" Huang came up with got pretty wild.

Ultimately, though, it had too many problems for me. There was too much going on - between the narrator's past with the piano and her parents, the farm, the spa, the sex work, the pregnancy fix, Helen, Lilith, the cannibalism, Victor's attachment to the Conservatory - for such a short book, I needed more focus.

My other main problem …

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rated it

3 stars
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rated it

4 stars