Ling Ling Huang is a writer and violinist. She plays with several ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, ProMusica, Chamber Orchestra, and the Experiential Orchestra, with whom she won a Grammy Award in 2021. Natural Beauty is her first novel.
A Good Morning America Buzz Pick
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
One of WIRED's Best Books of 2023
A SELF Well-Read Book Club Pick
One of the New York Post's "best new books to read"
One of Bustle's “36 Best New Books Of Spring & Summer 2023”
One of the New York Public Library's "Engrossing Thrillers To Put
Into Your Beach Bag This Summer"
Featured in Book Riot’s “25 Best Horror Books of 2023”
One of Powell’s Books “Hot Book Summer” recommendations
One of Katie Couric Media’s “13 Books by AAPI Authors To Read
This May and Beyond”
An April LibraryReads Pick
“Her talents…harmonize most seamlessly when she writes about music,
managing the near-impossible feat of crafting descriptions of the
compositions that are as airy and adroit as the melodies
themselves. And she is at her best when she skewers the
narcissistic, corrosive version of self-care that can be mistaken
for empowerment…The novel is a meditation on vanity, the ways in
which the pursuit of physical beauty can betray the other sources
of beauty in one’s life, and how horror can lurk beneath the
surface of even the most poreless skin.” –Jazmine Hughes, The New
York Times Book Review
“Absorbing . . . Natural Beauty starts out frothy, offering an
enticing dip into how tech could beautify and perfect our bodies
and faces in the near future . . . It quickly veers into subversive
horror, turning into a cautionary tale on societal themes we’re
currently seeing IRL.” –Vogue
“The promise of self-improvement is darkly seductive. In Ling Ling
Huang’s Natural Beauty […] a former pianist working at a
biotech-funded wellness store initially thrills at her regimen’s
effects (defined eyelids, opalescent skin). By the end, her
dismissal of rigid aesthetics is what lingers: ‘That fine line
between beauty and ugliness, ripeness and rot, is what keeps an
audience listening with held breath.’”—Vanity Fair, “The Pursuit of
Beauty Fuels a Dark Streak in Fiction”
“A must-read . . . We’d recommend it to anyone intrigued by
girlboss discourse, sci-fi, love triangles, mysteries, and
injectables, or who has ever thought, What if there was an
episode of Black Mirror inspired by Goop?”—SELF, A
Well-Read Book Club Pick
“A thriller mixed with horror and laced with a biting dose of
social commentary, Natural Beauty is a book you won’t be able to
stop thinking about”—Glamour, “New Thriller Books of Summer
2023”
“This is a darkly absurd and hilarious skewering of the luxury
beauty industry, as well as a heart-wrenching story of a woman left
alone in the world. It’s definitely not one to miss.” —Buzzfeed,
“30 Books Coming Out This Spring That You’ll Love”
“Goopcore body horror…Natural Beauty is a delightfully baroque
grotesque. It can achieve a folkloric power in its creepiest
moments—a scary story you’d tell in a posh spa’s sauna instead of
around a campfire.” –Kate Knibbs, WIRED
“Natural Beauty is a cautionary tale about wellness…intriguing from
page one…great for book clubs, prompting discussions of beauty
standards, where to draw the line and how the growing industry is
unregulated.” —Associated Press
“Natural Beauty is a horror novel that digs deep into the evils of
exploitative industries.” –Shondaland
“Natural Beauty is a satirical horror that brilliantly skewers the
beauty and wellness industries, specifically their participation in
white supremacy and anti-fatness.” —Autostraddle, "65 Best Queer
Books of 2023"
"A propulsive, captivating read, Natural Beauty pulled me into its
world like a fever dream. A prescient look at the dirty underbelly
of society's beauty standards, it also carries a moving reminder
that true beauty is often found in the very things we've been
taught to abandon." —Constance Wu, star of Crazy Rich Asians and
author of Making a Scene
“Insidious Western standards, fears about bodily autonomy, and
queer desire intersect as Huang’s precise and subtle portrayal of
the beauty industry builds to an explosive climax. Alternatingly
poignant and deeply unsettling, this is an outstanding first outing
for an immensely talented author.” —Publishers Weekly, *starred
review*
“Haunting and immersive . . . The novel seamlessly blends sci-fi,
literary fiction, suspense, and body horror while also exploring
the oppression of the beauty industry and the Chinese immigrant
experience in America. The writing is lyrical even when plot events
are profoundly tragic, and the protagonist’s journey will captivate
readers throughout. Highly recommended.” —Booklist, *starred
review*
“This is a smart, savage book about the horrors of the modern
beauty and wellness industry, and how capitalism can twist anything
to look like a good idea. Written by a musician with immigrant
parents, the novel’s visceral depiction of growing up poor and
musical feels absolutely lived in, as does the examination of what
our protagonist needs to do to survive living in the big
city.”—Criminal Element
"This horror story is scarier than the latest celebrity after
alleged buccal fat removal. Explore the darker side of beauty
obsessed culture."—Betches, "Best Summer Reads"
"Precise, unflinching, and utterly unforgettable, Natural Beauty is
both a razor-sharp critique of the beauty industry and a
startlingly tender story of family and sacrifice. This book will
swallow you whole." —Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author
of Portrait of a Thief
“A surreal, dreamlike thriller where art and darkness are woven
together in unexpected ways. The main character is tortured and
brilliant, and possesses immense appeal and heartbreak. The
cinematic storytelling shows what happens when businesses trade on
the most extreme levels of human desires. Gripping!” —Frances Cha,
author of If I Had Your Face
"A modern-day Picture of Dorian Gray shot through a Cronenbergian
lens, Ling Ling Huang's Natural Beauty has big things to say about
art, society, and the obsessive pursuit of youth. Huang's
writing is as austere as a flawless arpeggio, but there is great
warmth in Huang's portrayal of her characters." —Nick Cutter,
author of The Troop, The Deep, and Little Heaven
“Huang frets the ‘fine line between beauty and ugliness, ripeness
and rot’ in this alluring tale of estrangement, body horror, and
possibly a new genre, Dark Wellness—pierced through by a daughter's
love for her immigrant parents. Ardent and unsettling.” —Lisa Hsiao
Chen, author of Activities of Daily Living
“Eerie and entertaining, Natural Beauty intertwines a terrifying
critique of the beauty industry with a poignant ode to the power of
music and the devotion of immigrant families. Ling Ling Huang is a
fearless storyteller, and this book is as luminous as it is
thrilling.” —Pik-Shuen Fung, author of Ghost Forest
“Ling Ling Huang amplifies and expands the future of horror fiction
with a book so riveting it is impossible to put down.” —Rikki
Ducornet, author of Phosphor in Dreamland
“Natural Beauty uses elements of sci-fi, fantasy, and body horror
to cut to bone-deep truths about consumerism, race, identity,
appearance, and the exhausting pursuit of perfection.” —Jessica
DeFino, The Unpublishable
"Gaudy consumerism and body horror at face value, the true terror
resides in the predatory nature and question of other people’s
desires. How much of our lives are a result of other people’s
desires? What does it mean to seek beauty?... I recommend this
novel for Capitol residents of 'The Hunger Games' series, and those
who want to be ahead of the game, because this story is meant for
the screen."—Mochi Magazine
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