A review by starrysteph
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Beautyland is a peculiar little book that hit me at just the right moment. If you’ve ever felt like an alien, if you’ve ever stood with your back to the wall at a party and tried your very hardest to understand all the intricacies of the community at the center, if you’ve ever flip flopped between optimism and despair for humanity, then this is a book for you.

Adina Giorno has always been a step apart from humans: she’s been activated as a child to report on Earth to her superiors, alien relatives who live on some distant planet.

We watch Adina grow up, reporting on all her human findings through a fax machine. She experiences adolescent isolation, deep friendships, grief, fear, and all those other peculiarities in between.

I always appreciate a book from the perspective of an othered individual looking into humanity (and all the bafflement that comes alongside that). There are so many quotes and observations here that were deeply moving, and that only could have been made by someone who has been cast out.

Adina is asexual and probably autistic, but don’t fret about this falling into those tired alien tropes. It feels so earnest and fresh, and heart-wrenchingly relatable.

“Grief is a bad mirror. It shows you manipulated images of yourself, your will, and the future. It cannot show you how the small work you do will add up to yourself. Inch by inch.”

Even though I sobbed, so much of this story also made me laugh. The response transmissions from Adina’s alien superiors were SO good, along with her charming little dog Buttercup, and the relationship of a precocious little girl and her single mom.

Adina’s reflections - including of her past selves as she reexamines old memories with new knowledge- were always spot on. And the characterizations of the entire cast of characters were SO rich and well-developed.

To be clear: Beautyland is not science fiction. It’s a slow, character-driven, contemplative piece that’s using aliens as a piece of narrative framing to allow Adina to collect very direct observations.

This is the sort of story I’m going to tuck away for decades to come.

“Language is pitiable when weighed against experience.”

CW: death, animal death (pet), cancer, grief, terminal illness, sexual assault, suicide, abandonment, xenophobia, child abuse, classism, pregnancy, dysphoria, xenophobia

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