Linda Cheng’s debut Gorgeous Gruesome Faces initially caught my eye because of its connections with the South Korean brand of music, K-Pop (which I know a fair bit about via my teenage daughter) wondering how this could be spun into a YA horror novel. However, in reality it does not have much to do with K-Pop itself, as the entire novel is set in America and centres around teenage girls auditioning through boot-camp talent and dance routines in the hope of getting chosen for future TV shows. This is certainly the manner in which TV and music bigwigs use to select the members of manufactured K-Pop bands or for related TV shows and the book beautifully portrays the manner in which youngsters are brutally dropped when they do not make the cut. Interestingly, the main character Sunny Lee has already had one shot at fame on a reality TV show and squandered it after a scandal with dodgy photos and making a move on a singer who already had a girlfriend (this sort of thing is a big no-no in the world of K-Pop). The story jumps between ‘now’ when eighteen-year-old Sunny is in bootcamp for a new show and ‘then’ which jumps back three or four years when her TV show and three-piece girl band were on the cusp of stardom before their downfall.

There is a lot going on in Gorgeous Gruesome Faces and I thought this was a very clever novel in which it takes its delicious time in revealing its supernatural intentions. Although brief, it does feature some very gory and shocking sequences. Although South Korea is not featured in the story directly, the supernatural angle the story takes most definitely does have a Chinese or Far Eastern flavour. I enjoyed the way this novel was not in a rush, which also features a LGBTQIA+ story which is developed convincingly, delicately and slowly. Even before the supernatural story arrived this was an unnerving book, main character Sunny Lee was very much alone when in the audition bootcamp with all the girls desperate for success in a totally cutthroat industry, which really shone through. The backstory on how everything unravelled in the ‘then’ story was totally convincing and I loved the manner in which it circled around to the ‘now’ narrative. Sunny Lee was American Taiwanese and the novel also investigated the culture of pushy mothers trying to turn their daughters into the next star. Gorgeous Gruesome Faces is guaranteed to get under your skin, even if you do not like horror much, the idea of being on the scrapheap at seventeen or eighteen was very sad, but sensitively explored. AGE RANGE 13+

I ended up really enjoying Gorgeous Gruesome Faces!
Also look at that cover! It's gorgeous!

I could not put this book down and as it was really fast paced, i ended up finishing it in a day.
I'm definitely really excited for the sequel!
I also thought the writing was really good and so were the characters!
I really especially loved the main character, Sunny.

I definitely recommend this YA horror book!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Hachette and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

Don't let the pretty cover fool you...this has plenty of horror for all the horror lovers! Our main character is Sunny Lee, an 18-year-old Taiwanese-American girl who used to be on a hit k-pop musical show when she was younger. The death of the third member of her group results in the cancellation of the show and everything else, and Sunny hasn't done anything big since. On top of that, she hasn't talked to the remaining member of her trio, Candie, in years.

A vlog from Candie talks about how she's going to a camp with an agency in the hopes of eventually going to Korea to debut. Sunny decides that she has to go, too, if only to try and get Candie to talk to her. Only the camp isn't what she expects - girls keep getting injured randomly and odd things keep happening.

Overall, I really enjoyed this! I devoured it in a day, and was fully immersed in this world of training and horror. The story is split between now and the past, going through the formation of the show Sunny was on and leading up to the death of Mina. You slowly start to understand what's happening, and I'm pretty sure no one will expect what happens. There is a supernatural twist that has a Chinese flair, which I really enjoyed and I can see this being a great film or short TV show.

The side characters were equally interesting, with Faye and Eugenia taking a big role in the present whilst Mina and Candie in the past. Candie is obviously present in the now, but it's more of a minor role.

Another thing to note is that this is a sapphic book! I didn't realise that going in, but if you're looking for a great POC queer horror book then this is definitely one to check out. There's also a great theme of trying to appease parents and cultural expectations. This is framed from an Asian-American perspective, so you have Sunny with her desire to feel wanted and loved with her mum, who only seems to be interested when her daughter is of value to furthering her own career. Sunny's grandparents don't pay attention due to disappointment in her mum's career choices, and her dad is absent. Candie has her own expectations leveller on her, for very different reasons and you slowly see both characters come to realise that they need to do what will make them happy, instead of their family.

My only complaint is that this is advertised as being k-pop inspired, and Sunny was on a k-pop musical show when younger. Despite that, there's almost nothing Korean in the book - having finished it, I understand why in the present, but I don't get why there wasn't more emphasis on Korean culture for the past? Mina is Korean, and a male character is a k-pop idol, but that's it. There's no mention of having to learn Korean or anything, which was a bit odd for a k-pop inspired show. But it wasn't enough to break my immersion, and I enjoyed it all anyway! The lack of Korean in the present will make sense once you read it, but just something to note!

I'm looking forward to seeing what the author does next!

Trigger Warnings: self-harm (characters cutting at their faces, bodies), not sure how to tag it without giving away spoilers, but I’ll say suicide as a character jumps to their death, gore/torture (on page, graphic — pulling out teeth, shaving head to the skin), ritualistic murder and attempted murder, breach of consent (nude photos leaked), body shaming


Gorgeous Gruesome Faces is a riveting read from start to finish, there was no point when reading this where I wanted to put it down. No, I wanted to keep going until I found out the truth of what happened between Sunny, Candie and Mina. And how twisty and tragic it was!

I loved the exploration of Idol culture and celebrity, and how it impacted Sunny, Candie and Mina differently. I thought it was great to contrast the girls experience in their band/their tv show, to the boot camp that Candie and Sunny later became a part of.

Sunny and Candie most certainly have a complicated relationship, and I loved how their story was told (and how the wider plot unfolded) through flashbacks and present scenes. We slowly began to see how their relationship unraveled and became the messed up, tense thing that we saw at the beginning of the book. More importantly, I loved how we began to see their relationship grow over the course of the book. I do wish we had a bit more towards the end, and I liked that it ended without everything 100% resolved between them, but with them committing to work together to heal from the wounds they had inflicted on each other (and had inflicted on them by the world).

This book had moments where the writing truly terrified me! The descriptions were so vivid and so, dare I say, gruesome. At once point my whole body physically CRINGED at what was happening on page and I had to read while squinting my eyes closed because I couldn’t bare to look.

I loved the friendship that developed between Genie and Sunny, just wanted to throw that in there. For a second I did wonder if they were going to become romantically involved, but I’m happy with where the book ended for them.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The plot was riveting and fast paced, and I really enjoyed all the twists. The writing was captivating, and the characters were complex.