Just finished Bunny? Next up read Natural Beauty…
If Bunny left you craving more deliciously twisted takes on modern life, then Ling Ling Huang's debut is about to become your new obsession. Like Mona Awad's razor-sharp dissection of MFA culture, Natural Beauty serves up biting social commentary wrapped in the most unsettling of packages—this time targeting the wellness industry's cult-like promise of perfection.
When Beauty Becomes Beast
Our unnamed protagonist stumbles into Holistik, an upscale beauty emporium that feels part spa, part laboratory, part fever dream. Sound familiar? Just as Bunny's creative writing workshops harbored dark secrets beneath their pretentious veneer, this gleaming temple to self-improvement conceals experiments that would make even the most devoted beauty influencer think twice about that next facial.
What makes this transition from Bunny so seamless is Huang's masterful handling of outsider anxiety. Both protagonists are young women desperate to belong, willing to compromise their values for acceptance into exclusive worlds that promise transformation.
The genius of Natural Beauty lies in how it escalates the familiar into the fantastical. While Bunny gave us literary students literally creating monsters from their friendships, Huang takes the already surreal world of premium skincare and pushes it just far enough over the edge to make you question every serum in your medicine cabinet.
Dark Humor, Darker Truths
Huang's prose sparkles with the same sardonic wit that made Bunny such a page-turner, but she brings her own distinctive voice to the conversation. Her exploration of beauty standards, consumer culture, and the immigrant experience adds layers that will resonate particularly deeply with readers who felt seen by Bunny's outsider perspective.
At under 300 pages, this is the perfect literary binge—dark enough to satisfy your taste for the macabre, smart enough to fuel book club discussions for months. If Bunny taught you that sometimes the most beautiful things hide the ugliest truths, Natural Beauty will show you just how far we'll go in pursuit of perfection.
