Book Review: "Natural Beauty" by Ling Ling Huang

Oh alright, I never actually meant to read this book but it was cheap on Kindle. And plus, I'm sick and tired of people and Amazon recommending me David Foster Wallace books. I will say this on behalf of 99% of the female reading community: we cannot stand the man. He's mostly a terrible writer who got lucky once or twice. Anyways, Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang is a book about a woman who goes to work in a high-end beauty shop called Holistik which specialises in all the rubbish wellness routines you see on Instagram and think: wow, that's a scam. So, let's take a look into what actually goes on within...

As we meet the main character, she is having her first-day tour of the shop. She sees a man wearing a strange aura about him, but knows she has seen him somewhere before. After a while, she is informed that this is the CEO of Holistik and yet, she still feels as though he is more familiar than that. After seeing some cream substance turn to stone and people having strange things rubbed on their faces, she recounts her past of being a piano player who left it all behind.

Though I feel this was a great way to begin interweaving past and present narratives - I can't say that as a fellow above-average piano player of the past that I felt any interest in her story. We really are not that interesting at all. I'm sorry but I was just a bit underwhelmed at it throughout the beginning of the story. Although, as the book moves along, it becomes more and more apparent that this is a really important aspect of the narrative. I would say that the author therefore did a good job of weaving this into the narrative from the beginning instead of inserting it later on. So, even though I personally didn't think it was compelling at the beginning doesn't mean it was the wrong thing to do.

(Actually, now that we think about it - the lack of 'compelling' that the piano player past storyline is seems to be on purpose to show us that the main character's life has structure and routine and therefore is boring even though she is exceptional. I don't know why I didn't see that before).

However, as the book moves on, we start to see the true nature of Holistik come to life. The weird in-group and out-group mentality alongside sales techniques that those of us who have watched Buy Now! on Netflix have now heard of and know very well. Our protagonist is told not to be too nice when selling to people and not to fix a problem, rather give them a solution whilst also keeping the result the customer wants to see out of reach. It was all about selling a lifestyle and so, we get this rounded view of Holistik where something strange is bubbling beneath the surface. This expanded over the course to the book towards places we could not even guess it was going.

As she starts getting more and more into the company and its members, we meet shady and shifty characters such as: Saje, a woman who has the big ideas and runs a strange company on the side. We meet Victor, the CEO whom she has seen before but who knows where? We meet Helen and her twin, Henry - a set of siblings with blonde hair and blue eyes who love the company but suffer horribly for it. The suffering is graphic and gory but it isn't what you think at all. I would say that if you're looking for something that is totally unexpected but also makes perfect sense whilst also being an appropriate extended metaphor for the wellness sphere. These aspects of the book are fantastically written.

When we move through the book the other thing we learn about is the main character's parents. I don't want to say too much about them but the idea that they are put through something where the main character associates themselves with being at fault is purposefully damaging but it again, is a brilliant extended metaphor. The wellness industry preys upon women of certain ethnic backgrounds as being the trusted 'faces' through orientalising the experience to make it look 'richer' for white people. If you want to read more about this theory then Edward Said's Orientalism is for you. But this book does a damn good job at expressing this in a new, innovative way.

All in all, I'm not going to take marks off for something I initially didn't think was very compelling because it proved to be something very important to the storyline later on. This is a fantastic book that I don't think I would've read if I had not seen it on social media or in my recommendations. I am quite excited to see medical/wellness horror expand into something new and exciting for the horror genre.