The Beauty by Aliya Whitely

Well, that was fucking disgusting (complimentary).

Mushroom horror seems to be really popular right now and the best thing about it is that, like mushrooms, every take I've read on it so far has been so unique, despite belonging to the same species. THE BEAUTY is extra bizarre because it's got queer-coding, body horror, feminine rage, and eldritch terrors. What would happen if women turned into mushrooms? What if the sex was disfiguring and weird?

WHAT THEN?????

This did not scare me so much as make me very uneasy and squeamish, although I did like what it was trying to do. THE BEAUTY is a literal dismantling of the patriarchy via literal emasculation, and in today's current political climate, there's something kind of satisfying about that. I did give the frozen mushrooms in my fridge an extra side-eye, though. Maybe I won't be eating those anytime soon...

My only dissatisfaction was actually with the ending, which felt way too abrupt. I wanted closure and I didn't really get that. I also had a lot of unanswered questions, and maybe that was the point, but I don't have to like that.

3.5 out of 5 stars