📘 "Beautyland" by Marie-Helene Bertino
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"Beautyland" by Marie-Helene BertinoI was expecting to enjoy this book, but I didn't. It started off somewhat promising and then kept deflating.
It's promoted as a book about a girl who thinks she's an alien. I guess you could summarize it like that. It's a book chronicling a (probably neurodivergent) woman's life. She's described as being so different, but she grows up, goes to school, works a 9 to 5, drives a car, goes to the gym, drinks wine in restaurants with a friend, visits her parent, cares for a dog. She has a hard time understanding human's behaviors and social cues, and reports on this to aliens. That's it.
I don't know. It's written well. The story flows. It's an okay book. That's it. It's just so... safe and generic. In certain ways it's like every book about girlhood, like every coming of age book, like every small-town-moves-to-the-big-city book, like every contemporary book about being fully functional but not feeling like you fit in, like every mediocre book giving a little mild critique on the hypocrisy of people and grief. It feels completely average in the category of American general fiction.
I wish it had done anything at all. Anything. To me, this book felt like a potato (so much potential) that was peeled and cooked without any spices added. There were two grains of salt on there at the beginning, but they quickly ran out.
One positive thing is that this book (in combination with a recommendation on Masto) motivated me to pick up Carl Sagan's book "Cosmos". I'm having a good time with that so far.
PS: This book 100% spoils the ending to the tv show "The Good Place", just a warning if you'd still like to watch that unspoiled.
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"Beautyland" by Marie-Helene Bertino
I was expecting to enjoy this book, but I didn't. It started off somewhat promising and then kept deflating.
It's promoted as a book about a girl who thinks she's an alien. I guess you could summarize it like that. It's a book chronicling a (probably neurodivergent) woman's life. She's described as being so different, but she grows up, goes to school, works a 9 to 5, drives a car, goes to the gym, drinks wine in restaurants with a friend, visits her parent, cares for a dog. She has a hard time understanding human's behaviors and social cues, and reports on this to aliens. That's it.
I don't know. It's written well. The story flows. It's an okay book. That's it. It's just so... safe and generic. In certain ways it's like every book about girlhood, like every coming of age book, like every small-town-moves-to-the-big-city book, like every contemporary book about being fully functional but not feeling like you fit in, like every mediocre book giving a little mild critique on the hypocrisy of people and grief. It feels completely average in the category of American general fiction.
I wish it had done anything at all. Anything. To me, this book felt like a potato (so much potential) that was peeled and cooked without any spices added. There were two grains of salt on there at the beginning, but they quickly ran out.
One positive thing is that this book (in combination with a recommendation on Masto) motivated me to pick up Carl Sagan's book "Cosmos". I'm having a good time with that so far.
PS: This book 100% spoils the ending to the tv show "The Good Place", just a warning if you'd still like to watch that unspoiled.
@reading_recluse I have, now had, this book on my TBR. From the summary I thought it would be more like a Sayaka Murata book (Earthlings, Convenience Store Woman). Sad to see that it’s more generic. At least it’s one less book on my list now.
Thank you for the review. -
@reading_recluse I have, now had, this book on my TBR. From the summary I thought it would be more like a Sayaka Murata book (Earthlings, Convenience Store Woman). Sad to see that it’s more generic. At least it’s one less book on my list now.
Thank you for the review.@alphonzs I wish it would have dared to be even just 10% more like Sayaka Murata. It vaguely touches the sentiment of Earthlings in the far distance -but very tamely.
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"Beautyland" by Marie-Helene Bertino
I was expecting to enjoy this book, but I didn't. It started off somewhat promising and then kept deflating.
It's promoted as a book about a girl who thinks she's an alien. I guess you could summarize it like that. It's a book chronicling a (probably neurodivergent) woman's life. She's described as being so different, but she grows up, goes to school, works a 9 to 5, drives a car, goes to the gym, drinks wine in restaurants with a friend, visits her parent, cares for a dog. She has a hard time understanding human's behaviors and social cues, and reports on this to aliens. That's it.
I don't know. It's written well. The story flows. It's an okay book. That's it. It's just so... safe and generic. In certain ways it's like every book about girlhood, like every coming of age book, like every small-town-moves-to-the-big-city book, like every contemporary book about being fully functional but not feeling like you fit in, like every mediocre book giving a little mild critique on the hypocrisy of people and grief. It feels completely average in the category of American general fiction.
I wish it had done anything at all. Anything. To me, this book felt like a potato (so much potential) that was peeled and cooked without any spices added. There were two grains of salt on there at the beginning, but they quickly ran out.
One positive thing is that this book (in combination with a recommendation on Masto) motivated me to pick up Carl Sagan's book "Cosmos". I'm having a good time with that so far.
PS: This book 100% spoils the ending to the tv show "The Good Place", just a warning if you'd still like to watch that unspoiled.
@reading_recluse Aww, sorry you didn't enjoy this book. I loved it because it made me feel seen. How often have I felt like an alien from outer space and wondered if the mothership was coming.
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"Beautyland" by Marie-Helene Bertino
I was expecting to enjoy this book, but I didn't. It started off somewhat promising and then kept deflating.
It's promoted as a book about a girl who thinks she's an alien. I guess you could summarize it like that. It's a book chronicling a (probably neurodivergent) woman's life. She's described as being so different, but she grows up, goes to school, works a 9 to 5, drives a car, goes to the gym, drinks wine in restaurants with a friend, visits her parent, cares for a dog. She has a hard time understanding human's behaviors and social cues, and reports on this to aliens. That's it.
I don't know. It's written well. The story flows. It's an okay book. That's it. It's just so... safe and generic. In certain ways it's like every book about girlhood, like every coming of age book, like every small-town-moves-to-the-big-city book, like every contemporary book about being fully functional but not feeling like you fit in, like every mediocre book giving a little mild critique on the hypocrisy of people and grief. It feels completely average in the category of American general fiction.
I wish it had done anything at all. Anything. To me, this book felt like a potato (so much potential) that was peeled and cooked without any spices added. There were two grains of salt on there at the beginning, but they quickly ran out.
One positive thing is that this book (in combination with a recommendation on Masto) motivated me to pick up Carl Sagan's book "Cosmos". I'm having a good time with that so far.
PS: This book 100% spoils the ending to the tv show "The Good Place", just a warning if you'd still like to watch that unspoiled.
@reading_recluse This was strangest slice of life I've ever encountered. I feel like it was, like some other books I've read, SciFi only peripherally. I also feel like it's the kind of book wanna-be pretentious wine snobs would love. I finished it but I'm still not sure why.
