Beautyland

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide and anti-asexual bias.

In Beautyland, Adina’s identity as an alien, either as a metaphor or a literal fact, explains why she never quite feels that she belongs to or understands the human communities around her. In always feeling that her home and her people are somewhere else that she cannot reach, Adina’s life is defined by a sense of alienation. Loneliness, too, becomes a defining characteristic of her life, one that she is increasingly aware of and embraces. Accentuating both her loneliness and sense of alienation is grief, first over what she does not have, and then over losing several of the few relationships that do have meaning for her. The novel suggests that a search for belonging can occupy someone’s life and lead to despair if unfulfilled.

Adina’s loneliness begins as a child when she longs for affection and attention from her single mother but doesn’t get it. Visiting Beautyland, Adina’s joy at spraying the perfume is mostly due to sharing this moment of happiness with her mother. For the most part, she spends evenings doing homework alone while her mother talks on the phone to Mark.