I thought I was going to DNF this at around 10% to be honest. It was so sad, and I wasn’t getting it at all, and I didn’t like the writing style, everything was going wrong for me with this. I persevered a bit longer, and around the 12% mark I started to enjoy it…then love it.

It does start sad, it is a bit sad, but I just loved Adina. Is she an alien, is she just a bit special? Is she both? Oh, I just love her so much.

I think this story will live in my heart forever.

My thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The fragmentary nature of this novel made it hard for me to engage - this happens often to me with novels consisting of vignettes. I just couldn't connect with the main character and that's pretty fundamental here as it's all about the development of special, little Adina and how she interacts with (other?) humans.

Lyrical and other worldly, I was swept away by the beauty of the writing and the wealth of ideas in this most unusual story.

Loved it, hated that it’s not scifi
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Ah, the unreliable narrator: an expected trope in literary fiction but what about the unreliable blurb? ‘Meet Adina: a woman who has never felt at home on Earth’: so far, so clear. ‘As a child, she recognises she is different, not least because of her strange knowledge of a faraway planet’: is she an alien? ‘Then a fax machine arrives at home. Her mission is clear: she must report on the oddities of humankind’: via fax? To a distant star system?

There is perhaps a world where this is science fiction, but I read this as a forerunner toe Life Hacks For A Little Alien, about neurodivergent people and their reactions and responses to the world in all its exasperating everyday weirdness. Adina is a delightful character but an alien? I think not. Loved the book, hated that it wasn’t scifi.

I want to read this again and again and again. Possibly the best thing I have read this year, it's incredible

This is a fascinating journey through and uncovering of alienation and belonging, It is exquisite. The characters are nuanced and you don't always like them. But it's a strong observational novel.

Alien or alienated.
Adina is born in Philadelphia, she is an awkward child with some strange traits. Her Father tries his best but finally leaves when she is five tears old. Her Mother struggles to cope financially and the memory of bargain hunting and cheap food haunts Adina. She is not popular at school but has a friend Audrey. Adina's Mum has a fax machine which she does not use, Adina acquires it and uses it to send messages to Aliens on another planet, they wish to know facts about humans as their world is doomed. Adina messages them regularly, she is asked to send emotionless messages, she questions people about situations she needs to pass on.
Mrs Leadfeater, a neighbour takes Adina away for a month to a run down holiday bungalow, Adina fends for herself and meets Dominic, the brother of a friend of hers Toni, Dominic is a constant friend and support throughput her life. She meets a group of popular girls who let her join their dance troupe, at the last minute she is thrown out just before their performance. Her Mother sees different men, none of which are permanent. Adina leaves school, attends college and works in a diner, the older women there are kind and protective towards her.
The next stage of Adina's life is in New York, she works as a receptionist has a boyfriend Miguel, and is near the 9/11 buildings when they are attacked. Her friend Toni is a supportive friend and encourages her to get her notebook about her interactions with Aliens published. The book is a great success and she gives a talk about it.
When Toni is diagnosed with cancer, Adina helps nurse her along with Dominic.
With the passing of her dog and her upset over Toni, Adina goes into a deep depression and stops leaving home. Will her renewed contact with the Aliens help her?
Thank you Marie, NetGalley and Random House for this ARC

I liked this book but I also think I was not the target audience for this book. I love Marie Helene Bertino's older books more. I didn't feel a particular connection with the characters but the writing was good

I struggled to really get into this story and just couldn't connect with Adina at all.
I was disappointed to find this as it seemed like this was one for me. I didn't really find the "aren't we all a bit alien" plot plausible to be honest and in general it read as a regular coming of age story of a teenage girl with an interest in space.

What a book of two halves! The first half of this book was deeply boring and the second was wonderful. So I guess that means that the book is, overall, okay?

It’s the story of Adina, an alien in the body of a human child, who is sent to Earth to collect data on how human beings live. The first half of the novel is concerned largely with Adina's childhood, and it is slow-moving. Adina's mom features heavily, as does her best friend, Toni, nothing really happens to anyone over the course of the first 200 pages. Adina reacts to the human world as an alien would and her observations are pedestrian and don't make for much of a good time to read.

I can't quite put my finger on what changed around the 50% mark - aside from following Adina as an adult - but the book becomes much better from there on out. I think she's a less frustrating narrator as an adult - I found her just a little too naive in the first half, which made her frustrating to read. Adina's relationships grow as she does; in the final quarter of the novel, she publishes a memoir which strikes a note with alienated humans & achieves a moderate amount of success. Showing how Adina can connect with human beings despite her alien nature is the heart of the book and was best illustrated in this instance!

Overall, I did enjoy this one, especially the second half, but it felt a little drawn out, especially in the first half. If you like stories about misfits, girlhood, and what it means to live life on our planet, though, you will love this one.

Beautifully written, sci-fi meets literary fiction.
With a great coming of age storyline.
The character Adina is observing and honest, sweet and brave.

If you like coming of age story with lyrical prose and narrated from a perspective of a woman. Author has portrayed how it feels to be an outsider and if not accepted by anyone. Author’s writing is absolutely compelling. Adina was sent to earth to share her observations about it. Adina’s character is raw, emotional and full of depth. She go through variations of emotions. She feels everything and she finds herself at a place where she didn’t want to be. I felt completely connected to her. Loved the 80s vibe. The book is a blend of science fiction and coming of age story. As someone who comes from another planet, life isn’t easy for them but they have to make sense of it. And even worse if something unthinkable happens and they gets stuck. So, I liked the writing, plot, and characters.

Thanks to the Publisher

Adina is an extra terrestrial born the day Voyager 1 launches, sent to earth to live as a human girl and to report back to her 'home' via a fax machine her mum finds dumped by the neighbours. Her people's planet is in danger and they need to find a new home. Adina's mission is to find out if Earth is inhabitable for their kind. She finds her self in a family whose father leaves and is raised by a single mother and has to navigate the trials and tribulations of human life, growing up in the 80s and 90s.

It is a very interesting concept and when I was offered the eARC I jumped on the chance. In reality, the writing style is what let it down for me.

The book is written from the perspective of Adina, who doesn't understand the world, especially human emotions. We as the reader are often left in this position, and not just for things Adina herself does not understand. It was an excellent and quite clever idea; putting the reader into the position of 'other'. Whilst the book is quite overt about the extra terrestrial theme, I did wonder if the author was using this as a metaphor for neurodiversity; putting the reader into the perspective of feeling lost and confused as to why things are this way and learning how people are the way they are; navigating growing up and being a teenager (which is awkward enough). Whilst I felt this was a brilliant idea, it did make it a difficult read. I felt it dragged on too long. By 30% it felt more like 70% and I was getting fed up. I persevered as I felt it important to give the book its dues and a fair chance. Whilst it definitely got better the further into it I got, unfortunately, ultimately, it just wasn't for me. It also didn't help that my copy was missing all the 'fi' and some 'fl's throughout, so words such as filled were printed 'lled' and I was left to interpret their meaning from context. I often found Adina's replies from her 'superiors' were blank; with a box in its place. I don't know if we, the reader, weren't meant to see their replies or it was an error with it being an unfinished copy.

I feel this book could be very divisive; I looked at other reviews whilst mulling this over and got the impression that it's a bit 'like Marmite'; love it or hate it, splitting entire book clubs. Whilst I can easily say I'm not team hate, I feel this book definitely wasn't for me.

I struggled with this story about an alien growing up in Philadelphia in the body of a human child and sending faxes to their home planet. For me, it was neither a satisfactory science-fiction story or a coming-of-age one and the link to the shopping mall called Beautyland was not so significant that it should be the book’s title. Maybe I just didn’t get it.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read the book.

Adina is born into a world that she knows she doesn't belong in. Her dreams take her to the night classroom where she learns she has been sent to Earth to take notes on humans. Her own planet is dying and her observations on human behaviour will be reported back, via fax machine, to her superiors to help them decide whether they can survive on this planet.

Her notes and observations become a published memoir with surprising success. Apparently there are others who relate to her feeling of alienation.

We are with Adina on her journey from birth to death. I felt a deep connection to Adina and her sense of confusion at human behaviour. The way humans say one thing but mean another. The casual cruelty they demonstrate in big and small ways.

We also see Adina try out romantic relationships and realise they are not for her ("But what is one for? Husband, boyfriend. People want them so much but I can't understand what they're supposed to do. They take so much energy".)

The deep soul connection she finds with best friend Toni and her dog Buttercup. The ease she feels with these two souls that she never feels with anyone else. And the grief that is the price for this connection, is all consuming, as anyone who's experienced loss will know:

'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'.

The writing is of such quality and such beauty that it evoked deep emotion in me and made me feel seen in a way I rarely do:

'There's a reason it's called alien-ated. Because I am an alien, I am alone...when you're alone, you are in the right place to watch sadness approach like storm clouds over an open field'.

Beautyland connected to my soul in a way that only a few books truly do. It is a reminder that though we may feel alone and misunderstood, there are others out there who feel the same way. Books are portals to other worlds, they can sooth our souls and help us find our way in a world that feels so alienating. Beautyland is such a book.

Holy hell I loved this book.

Beautyland is one of those precious, treasured novels that makes you love humanity at least a little bit more after you wipe a tear from your eye and flip the last page. One of those that makes you remember that it is a beautiful thing to live and to create and to love in all its forms in our imperfect, broken world.

Right from the start, Marie-Helene Bertino’s prose is a thing of beauty. It is immediately clear that she is as perspicacious a writer as Adina is a character, skillfully capturing the many facets of, among other things: family, love, womanhood, living in the modern world, and art. I highlighted throughout; if you’re a tabber, you’ll want to have a set ready for this. Adina’s faxes back to her people in their faraway planet absolutely floored me in their deceptive simplicity, and I was an emotional wreck by the end, on the verge of tears for the last quarter of the book.

Beautyland’s protagonist, Adina, is such a lovely character that I was taken by her from the first page. It’s rare, in contemporary literary fiction, to find a character that I love without reservations, but Adina is undeniably deserving of this. She was a truly gentle soul and it felt like an honour to be inside her mind. Her friend Toni was also wonderful, particularly her acceptance of Adina’s quirkier traits and her loyalty to Adina. And Adina’s relationship to her mother was so layered and compelling, too – the mother’s arc in the background genuinely touched me and the love between them was palpable.

If you loved Klara and the Sun, E.T., Orbital, or Writers and Lovers, and you want to feel the warmth and depth of experiencing those stories again this HAS to go on your TBR. It’s definitely going to be one of my top reads of the year!

This is a fragile and tender novel which at its heart is about the difficultly of not fitting in and of feeling like an alien in your own home. Stunning.

This seems to have gripped so many people and I can see why. A real outsider story of Aida, the way she views humanity and our behaviours. Off-kilter, emotional and a little eccentric. I'm sorry to say this one just wasn't a good fit for my reading tastes. I really struggle with this type of observational writing, so it was never going to work for me but I'm so glad it's found an audience.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. An alien is sent to take notes on the universe and humanity and send it back to her home planet. It was a unique book, despite the familar premise. It has an incredibly strong start that flounders mid way, but overall I enjoyed it and the main character's coming of age journey.

Through Adina's eyes, you are invited to explore the joys and sorrows of life on Earth, finding in her observations a reflection of human experiences that many can relate to. There is a power in her perspective and you applaud her enduring quest for connection in a vast and sometimes unkind world.

It wasn't very sci-fi based despite it being about a literal alien, more of a mundane day to day of someone's life as they try to navigate growing up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher.