One of the most interesting and timely novels I've read in a long time! It encompasses everything from gender, race, class, and more in gorgeous prose and a fascinating story about one woman's life, her land, and her community. I alternated between the print and audio versions, and both were fantastic. I highly recommend either format!

I really enjoyed this book! It addressed some fascinating topics and the protagonist felt very real. I would definitely read from this author again.

Elinor is a very interesting character and I must say that I like her. This book has many elements and is very thought provoking. It will have you analyzing your opinions on various subjects and injustices. It was a very in depth novel.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The first book by this author that I read, Shelter, started off pretty slow, but eventually picked up enough to make the time spent worth it.
This one never really got to that point. It was slow the whole way through, and by the time it ended, didn’t say much.
Elinor returns to her childhood home in North Dakota after about twenty years to write about how the oil boom is affecting the place. Why she seems shocked to be surrounded by misogyny and racism is a mystery to me. She’s supposedly a beautiful woman, close to forty years old and is not completely inured at this point? Hmm.
Also, very little story was actually included in this story. I kept waiting for the plot to actually get going and then realized I was already more than halfway through the book.
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this ARC of #obeautiful in exchange for an honest review.

I understand what the author was trying to achieve in her description of a community that is changing, but I feel that the story was incomplete. The writing was good and the story was good to a point. Without revealing too much, that is about all that I can say.

After being super impressed by the propulsive force of this author's previous novel Shelter, I definitely wanted to read O Beautiful asap.

The story is interesting - Elinor is in her early 40s and back in North Dakota near where she grew up to write a story about the Bakken oil boom. She's been handed preliminary research by her mentor and former lover, but the story feels like it's about something else, especially from her perspective as a Asian-American woman.

The story is interesting, but lacks the heightened reality and momentum of Shelter, which was more of an unputdownable book. Still worth a read.

I adored Jung Yun’s debut, 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳, so my expectations for her sophomore novel, 𝐎 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 were high. Very high. This is the story of Elinor, a former model turned freelance journalist trying to make a name for herself after being handed an incredible opportunity to write an article for a highly-regarded magazine. Of course the opportunity comes with catches: it was passed off to her by her former professor/lover, and it’s bringing her back to North Dakota where she grew up and has little desire to revisit. Being brought up in a divided house with a strict military father and an unhappy Korean mother, Elinor easily finds her story of a booming oil town, also divided. The tensions abound, both within the rapidly changing town and within Elinor herself.⁣
⁣
While I had no actual problems with this book, it didn’t live up to my expectations. In 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳 the sense of tension was palpable and evolving throughout the story, but in 𝘖 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭, the same level of tension just wasn’t there. Instead, a couple of serious issues/problems surfaced over and over again, until they lost their impact amidst the repetition. Despite being a little disappointed, I still love Jung Yun’s writing style and will most definitely look forward to whatever she writes next. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣
⁣
Thanks to @stmartinspress for an electronic copy of this book via @netgalley.

📖Book Review📖
O Beautiful by Jung Yun
My Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Elinor Hanson is a beautiful woman, a former model now in her 40’s. She aspires to be a writer and has started the journalist path late. She grew up in North Dakota, born to a Caucasian father and a Korean mother. Growing up, she has known she was different, she and her sister look different from almost all of the girls in school. Nevertheless, they both are beautiful. Exotic as they say. Elinor is also a very troubled and complicated woman. She drinks a lot and makes rush decisions. She aims to prove something about her newly found journalism degree. Caught between the end of modeling career and newbie writer, she was tasked by her professor and former lover to write an article about the oil boom and fragging business of the place that once was her childhood.

This novel is rich and heavy. It was a slow paced for me but very impactful. The writer somehow managed to give us a picture of all the present issues around us, all the while giving focus on the main character specifically. It made me take a second look on corruption, fraud, racism, sexism, misogyny, injustice, transient population and pollution- every little catalyst for crime. Its utterly thought-provoking and very beautifully written with dynamic flow. A good pick for bookclubs and reading assignments. There is seriously too many valid issues that are great for heavy opinion discussions and debate.

I love how impulsive Elinor gets but I also love how she flourished and got braver towards the end. Her thoughts are loud and her struggles are eminent. It made me realized that beauty, in all shape and form, runs alongside with ugliness and one could not exist without the other.

Special thanks @stmartinspress via @netgalley for the e-copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.
.
.
.
#obeautiful #netgalley #netgalleyreads #bookreview #aapi #aapiwriters #bookclubsofinstagram #bookhoarder #bookfeature #bookworms #bookworms #bookishfeatures #bookishlove #kindle #bookstagram #bookstareview

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but perhaps my high expectations were detrimental to my absorption of the story. I could not get past the writing; I wanted to be immersed in the story, but all I could focus on was why the author strung certain words together. I also could not connect with the protagonist, Elinor. The first fifty pages had very little to do with the oil boom in North Dakota which drew me to the book.

A suspense filled book that runs many stories but seems to leave many of them I ended. I am hoping there is a sequel to fill in the blanks. Written in a easy read manner that will help you get lost in the lives at oil fields. Touches on several women’s issues that are relevant and timely. It is still a mans world even now!

When a young Korean American woman returns to her childhood state of North Dakota to report on the oil boom there, her past haunts her as she researches the article she is to write. She arrives to find the place infested with newcomers looking to make their fortune in the oil fields. Elinor has never felt at home here and has often wondered about her Korean mother who left the family. As an adult, Elinor realizes that her father didn’t marry her mother for love, but instead he wanted a quiet, subservient wife who didn’t make waves. Elinor’s childhood in North Dakota helps shape the direction her article is to take, that of the hatred of minorities and women which has always been there. Elinor is continually finding more questions than answers. And as her perspective moves from that of the male point of view to that of the women she interviews, the descriptions of the locals and the experiences of women who seek work here are fascinating. Yun’s attention to detail makes this book important and sadly seems to reinforce the ideal that we can be told over and over that there is no hatred for those not white or those women who refuse follow the stereotype set for them, nothing has changed.

It pains me to say this since I thought Shelter was a phenomenal read, but this book tries to do too much. It attempts to cover: fracking, the impact of oil money disrupting traditional communities, rural/urban dynamics, absentee parent/family issues, sexism and misogyny (including academic sexual harassment, rape, and assault), racism (being biracial, the experience of Native Americans, and more), and the rise of white supremacy. Ultimately we end up with a very uneven book where instead of interlacing these areas with the complexity they deserve, we end up with pockets of topics that start and stop with little cohesiveness.

I also found Elinor an unsympathetic main character who reminded me a lot of the MC in The Flight Attendant.

What a perfectly and beautifully crafted book. Shelter was an all time favorite and O Beautiful absolutely lived up. This is a story I will never forget.

A look at misogyny in an oil boom town where a former resident and model goes to write a story for the Standard, given to her by her mentor and former lover. Violence frays the edges of this raw story of women outnumbered by rough necks and the desolation over the overpopulation. Outsiders aren't wanted and the place overflows with them. The mystery of a missing girl changes the trajectory of the main characters story as she finds some things out about herself.

Copy provided by publisher and NetGalley

My thoughts are here My thoughts here: https://www.bethfishreads.com/2021/11/what-i-read-in-november.html and on GoodReads.

This is a melancholy book about a Korean American woman facing mid-life, embarking on a second career in journalism, and coming to terms with her fate. Elinor is a flawed character, beautiful on the outside, but overcome with self-doubt and an endless inability to connect with other people. The book is full of abuses: alcohol and drug abuse, sexual abuse, the abuse of power. It also covers society’s ills of the day such as racism, sexism, hegemony, unfaithfulness, oh my.
The author presents a book full of problems, but only presents them. There are no problems solved, no relationships mended, no minds changed. All talk, no action.
The writer has a compelling style and will probably go on to greater works in the future. This just was not my type of literature.

An original book that is interesting and revealing. Elinor’s beauty and stature helped her financially--she had an early modeling career, a profession she recognized as superficial and driven by the male gaze. Elinor returns to North Dakota where she grew up when her father was stationed there with the Air Force. Throughout her life she has felt like an outsider due to her mixed parentage, but had enjoyed a career in New York, modeling, and decided to reinvent herself as a writer, earning a degree and being given the opportunity to write an article about the changes wrought by the oil boom to her home state. A complex story begins with a victim and ends when she becomes a survivor. This is a complicated, and multi-layered book with much to mine. The stories of all the locals she interviewed/met/came across were extremely raw and powerful. There are many well-drawn characters. Yun covers broad themes subtly, without reducing it to topics. She lifts contrary and contradictory conundrums from the page into our lives, a universal experience, and executed without platitudes or stereotypes; Yun rules the unruly and untamed wilderness with a controlled narrative. She conveys our shortcomings with a blend of realism, idealism, and desire.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy.

I tried my hardest to like this book as it sounded so wonderful. I wound up not finishing it at about 40% through it. I did really like the main character, she felt so real and dimensional. However, I felt the story moved too slow for my liking.

This is a well-written and thought-provoking book. It's an interesting look at a topic I haven't really seen covered much before - the effect of oil drilling on farm land in the midwest. It also addresses the inequity of police and public interest in missing Native American women (something which has just recently been in the news)

I enjoyed the book - but it felt a little unfinished to me. Maybe just because I wanted to know more. It's a worthwhile read.

O Beautiful is a story about America – a specific part of America, but it reflects attitudes and issues found nationwide. So it’s fitting that there’s a lot going on in this novel. Maybe a bit too much at times, but it definitely held my interest.

Elinor is a Korean-American in her early forties, previously a model, who went back to school and is now trying to carve out a career as a writer. After an affair with her professor, he volunteers her to write a story about the Bakken oil boom in North Dakota. Elinor grew up in the area, so she brings her own point of view to the story.

She’s meant to focus on the tensions between locals and outsiders (the “roughnecks” who come for oil jobs), but Elinor begins to see other stories, like tensions caused by the huge imbalance of men to women, and whether families have been cheated out of their land rights by corrupt oil corporations. And then there’s the woman who mysteriously went missing…

In this remote area of the country, Elinor experiences racism and sexism from many of the people she encounters. Even though she’s actually from the area, being Asian-American immediately marks her as “other” while the men also treat her as “exotic”. I enjoyed the play of insider versus outsider in this story, and how that same theme plays out in Elinor’s academic and family life as well. I especially liked Elinor’s troubled relationships with her sister, her father, and the mother who came to this country as a bride and then abandons her family. I also appreciated Elinor’s struggles with her own appearance, from capitalizing on her attractiveness as a petite, beautiful Asian woman, to marking her body with tattoos to end her career as a model, to now struggling to be viewed as competent based on her intellect. The title seems like a comment on both the United States (its physical beauty contrasted with its ugliness) and the way women (or all people) are objectified based on their appearance.

While I very much appreciated the complexity of the story, and enjoyed seeing this part of the world through Elinor’s perspective, it also felt like too many issues were raised and then discarded. As a journalist, Elinor seems a little like a dog chasing squirrels; she has a new story idea every day and her decision-making and work ethic leave a lot to be desired. Is her story about violence against women? Is it about hate crimes? Is it about corrupt land rights? Is it about children and women disappearing on reservation land? Is it about homelessness and the lack of economic opportunity for most blue-collar workers in the U.S.?

Most novels would tie all these disparate pieces together in some way. For example, the woman gone missing would be part of an evil corporate plot to bury a lawsuit for poisoning the water and giving all the locals cancer. I find books that connect every moving part unrealistic, so I appreciated that Yun didn’t go that route. I also appreciated that Elinor learns a lot over the course of this novel, about the people she’s interviewing, and about herself and how her own history is coloring her perceptions.

It’s a dark and often haunting book, from sexual assault and harassment to racism to environmental destruction. At the same time, Elinor meets genuinely interesting people, and where she’s expecting to see one conflict (locals versus “roughnecks”) the conflicts she encounters are much more complicated. It’s not easy to see which parties are the victims.

As a warning, I found the conclusion disappointing, but that’s often the case for me with a novel that raises so many complicated issues. I felt it fell off abruptly with little resolution. But then I also appreciate books that don’t end too neatly. I’d rather a book closes in a way that leaves me thinking about it, and this one did.

Note: I received a complimentary advanced review copy of this book from publisher St. Martin’s Press. This book published November 9, 2021.