Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ling Ling Huang is a writer and violinist. She plays with several ensembles including the Music Kitchen, Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, Shattered Glass, and Experiential Orchestra, with whom she won a Grammy award in 2020. Natural Beauty is her first novel.

Published: April 4, 2023 by Dutton Page count: 272 pages  Formats: audiobook, ebook, hardback, paperback

I picked up Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang on a whim, and wow, what a ride it was!

Natural Beauty follows a gifted pianist, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, who gives up everything after her parents are severely injured in a car crash. When the bills start mounting, she takes a job at an elite wellness and beauty company called Holistik.

Holistik sells more than just skin serums and “inner glow elixirs”, they sell a lifestyle. They also have a CSO (Chief Spiritual Officer). Anyway lifestyle equals a slow, cultish dismantling of their employee’s (and clients, I guess) sense of self.

Their world draws our narrator deeper and deeper, until she hardly recognizes herself. Her skin, her hair, her name all get gradually erased to fit into company’s ideal of beauty. Things happen gradually, but by the time she realizes what’s been done to her, it’s already too late.

What really hit me wasn’t just the corporate satire or the body horror (though both were excellent). It was our narrator’s loneliness. She’s brilliant, disciplined, but also deeply isolated. First by the racism and bullying she faces as a child prodigy. Then by grief. And then by this relentless, silent pressure to assimilate.

It’s not perfect. The ending especially won’t be for everyone since it’s grim and abrupt. But I appreciate how it refused to wrap things up neatly.

Anyway. if you’re expecting a sharp satire, you’ll find it here. The beauty industry critique is clear, but it never overshadows the story. Natural Beauty is about the cost of perfection. About what it does to your body, and what it takes away from your identity. Overall, an impressive debut.

Also, major shoutout to the audiobook narrator. Carolyn Kang nailed it.