The Ugly
Many questions have repeatedly crossed my mind in 2018: Yes, it talks about problem but does it do it well? Does it move past starting a conversation to moving conversations? Does it show complexity? This book does not do a good job showing the fullness or even a bit of the realities/ugliness of beauty.
•It deals with the conversation of beauty simplistically
•Too much description. At one point I described it as fluffy, shallow, superficial
•So many interesting details in background but none in foreground (and so much of these details are wasted)
•Billions of subplots but not a lot of work on main plot. I mean think if this story actually spent time developing the antagonist and conflicts instead of useless scenes. We do not five scenes of the antagonist doing evil to get it
•Camellia is so dense like she holds back the story with her naiveté like obvious stuff she does not investigate, she doesn't know when to read the room or shut her mouth
•Antagonist is a cartoony villain- they did not feel dimensional
•Nothing happens for large part of the novel. If I am being honest did the story ever really ever pick up?
•The love interest and their romance was weak
•Is this story reinforcing beauty standards? (Then again I have a post coming about my expectations/assumptions when it comes to this book. As sad as it sounds has any story really been challenging or subverting beauty standards in y.a.?)
•It felt like this novel heavily reinforced negative things without subversion, challenge, or commentary
The Beautiful
•There is a huge list of interesting parts of this world
•It did manage to go against my expectations at points (but then fall back into those expectations but this is the positive section)
•Audiobook elevated this book it is the reason I finished the book
Meh
In a weird way it did make me think about bigger issues
-There are not enough black novels that specifically (fantasy or not) deal with beauty for black girls
-Reinforcing beauty standards. When are we going to start subverting beauty standards?