2.8/5The writing was good, but it is not that which I remember. It was interesting, in the way that an animal in a zoo is interesting: it catches the eye, but then is soon forgotten. The only common thing we had with the protagonist was that we share the same first name. Maria! Nothing else. There were lots of interesting ideas and something ought to be done with them. But it wasn't in there. They sat there, docile in the paragraphs, and even when the tragedy came—the tragedy that I knew would c...

Thanks to a few friends here, I now know that there are lots of (great) short stories on tor.com - and they are for free!This particular story is a wonderful futuristic take on the beauty industry. For everyone not knowing, the title when translated means "Beauty without Virtue" and that is exactly what this story is about. It was good that the author made it out to be futuristic because that offered more possibilities than a contemporary setting probably would have and drove the point home even...

Well I expected more from it judging by the look of that gorgeous cover but not when the story ends like this. It's disappointing...1. There’s the occasional complaint, of course (from outside, always, those inside a couture house wouldn’t dream of it). But it’s a precision business. The models don’t even suffer phantom aches from their old arms. The doctors clean up anything else that’s wrong while they’re in there, as a special service—faltering thyroids and kidney troubles and moles that are

The only reason why I read this was because of the cover and now I am disappointed..🙄

This read was a 3am choice based solely on the fact that it was a short story with the most beautiful cover I’ve ever seen. I looked at it for a solid twenty minutes before I could move on. The illustration was made by Tran Nguyen, and I think it goes without mentioning that I spent hours looking at their previous works... what is sleep??La beauté sans vertu by Genevieve Valentine is a vicious little swipe at the fashion industry as certain disturbing trends are amplified in the future and a

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest These days they use arms from corpses—age fourteen, oldest, at time of death. The couture houses pay for them, of course (the days of grave-robbing are over, this is a business), but anything over fourteen isn’t worth having. At fourteen, the bones have most of the length you need for a model, with a child’s slender ulna, the knob of the wrist still standing out enough to cast a shadow. LA BEAUTE SANS VERTU is set in a dystopian socie

19-year-old Maria is a model in an industry where model's arms are replaced with looser, younger arms. She's known as the Princess of Roses and Diamonds, and hints of the fairy tale Diamonds and Toads interplay with the hottest fashion show of the season. It's an interesting read, and can be read for free here: http://www.tor.com/2016/04/27/la-beau... 3.5/5

Rating: 4/5As I read this story, I was expecting some indictment of the fashion industry, something about the unnaturalness of what it does to women's bodies. I was expecting the transplanted arms to come to mean something significant in relation to the message of the story, and... oh, heavens, did they ever!I recently read a book called The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, which talks about the lengths women go to to attain beauty. What they do to themselves is abusive and insane, just like what's do...

Read via the Worlds Seen in Passing anthology.Valentine’s story takes place in a world where models are horribly disfigured for the sake of “beauty”, and the parallels run chillingly deep to how our own society treats young women. What I found most profound was the presence of a “feminist” protest group, who ultimately doesn’t care about any girl’s well-being nearly as much as they care about the length of her skirt.

Actual rate: 4.50 starsThis was a very short but intense story. As the premise promised, it's the story of a girl having to deal with the absurb world of the fashion industry, and all the pain girls like her go through. It's a very metaphorical story, with incredible symbolism, and the hyperbolic tones of a few details aren't even that much exaggerated compared to reality. The writing style was very pretty but also easy to follow, and the only thing I can complain about is a particular metaphor

There should always be more to look at than anyone can catch, that sense of being doomed to miss something wonderful; that’s how a presentation becomes a show.i had really high hopes for this one. when its summary promised a vicious little swipe at the fashion industry, and it opens with this intriguing passage about how models in this story's world are surgically altered to make them more appealing, i figured i was in for a dark journey about unrealistic standards of beauty and the lengths peop...

One of the shorts made available for free through Tor.com, this offering from Genevieve Valentine is an unsettling, satirical swipe at beauty standards, and the hidden cruelties of the fashion world. Speculative sci-fi that flirts with body horror, the story explores a concept more than it tells a narrative, as we see the build-up to and aftermath of a catwalk show. With the pursuit of eternal youth having reached horrifying heights, its is now common practice for models to undergo disturbing su...

Beautiful writing but very underwhelming story, at least for me. There was too many threads left unfinished and what I thought to be the main message at the beginning, didn't have much importance in the end, which made me wonder what was the point of this story after all.

Very beautifully written, but with large gaps and ambiguity that proves detrimental to the story. As much as I'm all for a writer not making everything overtly obvious, I wanted to have more context to the arm replacement that opens up the story, as well as some more weight to the fairytale that is referenced, about two girls that have very different fates. There are some things this short story did well - creating an atmosphere, poking fun at some of the ridiculous details and situations, makin...

3.5 stars, rounding up. Final review, first posted on www.FantasyLiterature.com in our Short Fiction Monday (SFM) feature:In a near-future science fiction tale, high-fashion models for couture fashion houses routinely get their arm bones replaced with those from corpses of young teenagers, just for the slenderness of the bones, despite the fact that it leaves the tips of their fingers blackened. And that’s just one of the often torturous treatments that models are subjected to in the highly arti...

this honestly was so much better than i thought it would be when i began reading it. it's dark, divine, and mysterious.

I read this because the cover was super beautiful and I was interested in the commentary on a futuristic fashion industry, but overall nothing from this story really stood out to me and it was pretty confusing even tho it was so short.

All short stories and novellas I've come across recently have been horrific, but also so good. This was absolutely gorgeous! Set in a dystopian society, the story shows us a fashion industry that takes everything to extremes, to the extend of surgically enhancing its young models with the body parts of dead children. While we see fashion as a form of art - choreography, visuals, and music coming together to create a magnificent spectacle - the tale is also a strong criticism of the industry and,...

“It will fall apart,” Rhea explains to her in a voice like a church, as the six assistants ease Maria into the gown and weave the entry panel closed. “It’s supposed to. This is the chrysalis from which the moth emerges and takes flight. Help it.”Maria looks at the mirror, where the last two assistants are looping the final threads. Rhea’s looking at the mirror too, her eyes brimming with tears, and Maria realizes this must be a masterpiece, that she must be wearing something that will be

A beautifully told but haunting story of the fashion/beauty industry that didn't quite fully form. I would certainly look for more work by Valentine to get a complete picture of her writing talents. it looks like she has quite a bit to choose from!