Book Review - Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

Title: Natural Beauty
Author: Ling Ling Huang
Genre: Horror/ Fiction
Published: 2023
 
Description: Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents – 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.
 
Review: In “Natural Beauty”, debut author Ling Ling Huang delivers a razor-sharp, surreal critique of the modern wellness industry that lingers long after the past page has been turned. This books is much more than your average horror; it is an uncomfortable mix of body horror, social commentary, and a deep meditation on art and identity.
 
The story follows an unnamed narrator, a piano prodigy and daughter of Chinese immigrants. When a tragic accident leaves her parents disabled, she must give up her musical dream to pay for their care. She finds work at Holistik, an elite wellness store in New York City where the world’s richest spend fortunes on bizarre treatments. As she is drawn deeper into the world of owner Saje and her mysterious niece Helen, she begins to use the products herself, transforming her appearance to a Western ideal of beauty. But beneath the glossy surface of optimal health lies a gruesome truth that threatens to cost her everything.  
 
The focus on the experience of a first-generation Chinese-American woman adds a crucial layer. The book explores how cultural identiy is brushed away in the pursuit of a universal (read: Western) standard of beauty.
 
For fans of body horror, this is a treat. The transformations and medical procedures are described with a clinical coldness that makes the reader shudder. But despite the sometimes grotesque content, the prose is beautiful and poetic, creating a fascinating contrast to the dark plot twists.
 
This book is a bit of a slow burn and you really need to have some patience, because it takes some time for things to get really interesting. But once you’re there, it’s worth every minute.
 
It’s a disturbing story that makes you think twice before putting that new miracle cream on your face.
 
Rating: 4/ 5