A review by megansmith
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I'm kind of shocked but I liked this way more than I thought I would? The beginning lost me a bit, it took me a little while to get deep into it, but after like 30 pages or so, I was more hooked. For a book with a central theme about not connecting in the world around you and feeling disconnected from others, there's a lot of incredibly relatable moments you see through Adina's eyes. I really loved this idea of feeling alien being taken to a new level in this book, especially through a woman's perspective and how growing up can be such an alienating experience. The writing is really poignant and the end had me in tears a few times. Really glad this (mostly) lived up to the hype!