Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of O Beautiful by Jung Yun. In exchange I offer an honest review.
The book is now available for purchase.

Having read and loved Sheltered, Jung Hun’s debut, I was very excited to read her newest novel. I will say, the writing is sharp and biting proving that Yun possess incredible talent and skill. However, I found the story disjointed and difficult to connect to. I disliked the main character, Elinor with visceral emotions and reactions. It wasn’t the right book for me, maybe at another time I might have felt differently.

Following the award-winning release of her debut, SHELTER, Jung Yun returns with O BEAUTIFUL. This incisive and insightful portrait of a small town in the middle of a great upheaval fearlessly probes not only the discontent simmering in small-town America, but also the lie of America’s unified front against deep issues like racism and sexism.

“In Avery, North Dakota, the epicenter of the North American oil boom, one might forget that the rest of the country is still struggling to recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” So begins the article that forty-something ex-model Elinor Hanson is tasked to write for Standard magazine when her former professor and lover, Richard, passes his research off to her while he undergoes surgery. Still living off her model savings and smart investing, Elinor is relatively new to the journalism scene, but Richard convinces her that she is born to write this piece --- the one that is sure to make a name for her and cement her career. As a North Dakotan military brat who can speak to North Dakota before the oil boom, she alone seems uniquely poised to write the before-and-after piece that will break open the idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of a small, historically poor town that has started churning out millionaires seemingly overnight.

As a 5’10” Korean American, Elinor never felt comfortable in North Dakota, particularly in the military housing where she, her mother and her sister stood out a bit too much. As such, she has not visited her home state in over 20 years, so she expects things to look different. But even she is not prepared for the changes, especially in Avery, which she remembers as “just a dot on the map.” Once just a main road in and out and often-closed shops, the traffic has morphed into a caravan of dust-covered trucks and tankers, and it has transformed into a near-city of newly built apartment complexes and housing developments, car dealerships and superstores.

Richard already has done a bulk of the research, leaving Elinor with over a hundred articles about the Dakotas, each written through a different lens --- history, business, geology, environmental studies and crime stats --- along with a schedule of interviews he planned before he had to bow out. With his help and her own familiarity with the area, the article should write itself. Yet, when Elinor arrives at Avery’s Thrifty Inn and begins to explore the area, she finds a wealth of topics that Richard could not even conceive of exploring.

First and foremost, the area’s oil boom has attracted tons of workers, mainly men. Though they come from all walks and areas of life --- white, Black, Latinx, poor, educated, elderly, young --- they share one immediately obvious trait: none of them are lifers in the small town. Right off the bat, it is easy to see why Avery is struggling to accept their new neighbors: a town of 4,000 could never possibly be prepared to welcome thousands of itinerant workers. Now traffic is monstrously bad, everything is under construction, and housing --- or even just lodging --- is at an all-time premium.

But as Elinor, both obviously female and obviously “other” (or “exotic,” as so many men like to remind her), notices, they are even less accepting of the Black and other nonwhite workers, often bashing them as job stealers and criminals. The racist overtones were intensified when a young white woman, Leanne Lowell, disappeared a few years ago. Though town council members assure Elinor that there’s nothing more to Avery’s racism than “a handful of closed-minded folks pointing their fingers at certain kinds of roughnecks,” she knows firsthand the insidious nature of racism, and cannot help but reflect on her childhood as a nonwhite citizen.

As Elinor’s investigative reporting continues, she talks to roughnecks, widows fighting back against oil companies, dancers at gentlemen’s clubs, man camp leaders and everyone in between. But the story that emerges is not one of a town whose livelihood is tied up with the oil business, but rather of the patriarchy’s hold on America, and all of the other -isms nestled under it: racism, sexism and classism. How can proud, sensitive men, many of whom are already down on their luck and feeling forgotten, act civilly in an industry and community that constantly tries to belittle them? And more importantly, how can the women who love, work with and serve them protect themselves when they are pitted against one another and forced to swallow and internalize the misogyny that surrounds and controls them? While Elinor explores these deep, difficult subjects, her own life takes a surprising turn as her professor’s controlling nature starts to bleed beyond his notes and into her reflections on her role as a woman.

O BEAUTIFUL is a novel that transcends genre; it is as propulsive as a mystery, as evocative of time and place as historical fiction, and as breathtakingly timely as contemporary fiction or journalism. In a market saturated with stories of a divided, complex America, this book may be easily overlooked, but Yun’s tender, sparse prose and clear-eyed gaze make her sophomore release something truly special and poignant. She is fearless in her probing of the complexities of gender, race and class, but perhaps most striking is her ability to confront these issues head-on while also weaving them into her narrative so seamlessly that you almost forget that, as eagle-eyed as Elinor’s perspective feels, she too is entrapped in these systemic minefields. And so are you.

Insightful, shrewd, and surprisingly tender and heartfelt, O BEAUTIFUL is a searingly current and necessary addition to every bookshelf and library, and a courageous portrait of a country on the brink of unwinding.

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.⁣
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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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣
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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.
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#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.