This was a very interesting book. Adina was born in 1977 and grows up believing that she is an alien sent to Earth to report back to her home planet. Bertino uses this plot device to allow Adina to make wonderful observations about humans. She is "activated" into her existence as an alien at age 4 and grows up with a single mother and experiences life as any female human but with the twist that she is an alien. Bertino presents her an an alien and as the years pass Adina's behavior is odd but fits with her belief about her being an alien. The book has the humor of observations made about humans that really do point to the absurdities of our existence. Adina does make some connections with a friend, her mother, and her beloved 5 pound dog but in the end the book left me with a good insight into how we can look at the world once we strip away all of the things we have created such as culture, class etc that at their best are arbitrary and would appear so to a visitor from another planet. I would suggest giving this book a chance and go with it. A very worthwhile read and I may read her earlier works. ( )

When I first saw the cover of this book, and knew nothing about this book at all, I gave a sigh of relief, as it was the rare book I could automatically give a pass to reading. Beautyland?Not for me. I thought it was about cosmetics and appearances -- and it IS a little bit. Beautyland is the name of a store that sells such things, but it's a very small part of the book. BUT THEN I read more about the book and it's about a girl who was born in 1977 thinking she is an extraterrestrial. So yup -- I then had to add it to the insanely large TBR. I really wish it had been given a different title, as I'm sure many people will gravitate to or away from this book just from the title alone. But "Beautyland" for me, after reading the book, also means Adina appreciating the little human things in the world, finding beauty in everything. The book is so pleasing, just whimsical enough, yet funny, so heartfelt. So HUMAN even if it's about an alien girl. I like that it is vague and unclear what Adina really is, which makes it perfect. But Adina learns what it means to be human, even through her grief. I loved the pop-culture of it all. However, in all of the alien pop-culture Adina mentions, I take issue with her forgetting about the all important alien film Mac & Me! Great book -- an instance when I'm excited to get around to reading an author's past books. (She also says she is working on a speculative fiction trilogy which I already can't wait for!) This is the second book this year that I might love even more, simply because I almost passed it over. ( )

This is a beautiful and heartbreaking story that, at times, is also laugh out loud hilarious. Adina is a character that I will never forget. For the first time in a while, I found a book that I did not want to end ( )

3.5 ( )