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.
NATURAL BEAUTY
Ling Ling Huang
This book feels like pulled skin, claustrophobic conversations, and creatures that only existed in your mind, until now.
It’s a horror book that feels like a mix between literary fiction and sci-fi. It comes out tomorrow and I think it will appeal to the right type of reader.
Are you that reader?
Our main character looking for both the warmth and the cold that comes from a family starts working at an extreme beauty store in New York City. She soon becomes enveloped in something that gives her a new sense of purpose. We watch as slowly she begins to lose herself. Becoming someone and something else entirely.
I enjoyed my time reading NATURAL BEAUTY but it wasn’t pleasant. At times, it reads very romantic, almost pretty, and then it curves and morphs into something hideous, nearly unrecognizable. Some of the concepts and passages will get under your skin and some of the themes explored will trigger you.
NATURAL BEAUTY is visceral, and it cuts a little. Huang is a new voice, and it feels like we’ve been dancing around subjects she makes clear and plain. Her new piece of fiction is about all the horrible things we allow in the name of perfection, the violations we concede to that happen every day and the dissociation required to exist.
It’s as terrifying as everyday life.
NATURAL BEAUTY has already been optioned as a tv series. Get a jump and read it first.
Get your pre-order in because this book is coming tomorrow, April 4, 2023!
Thanks to Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Dutton, and Penguin Random House Audio for the advanced copies.
NATURAL BEAUTY…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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