All the Ugly and Wonderful Things All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

A Novel

    • 4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
    • $9.99
    • $9.99

Publisher Description

- A New York Times and USA Today bestseller
- Book of the Month Club 2016 Book of the Year
- Second Place Goodreads Best Fiction of 2016

A beautiful and provocative love story between two unlikely people and the hard-won relationship that elevates them above the Midwestern meth lab backdrop of their lives.

As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It's safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold.

By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. When tragedy rips Wavy's family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world. A powerful novel you won’t soon forget, Bryn Greenwood's All the Ugly and Wonderful Things challenges all we know and believe about love.

31 Books Bringing the Heat this Summer —Bustle

Top Ten Hottest Reads of 2016 —New York Daily News

Best Books of 2016 —St. Louis Post Dispatch

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2016
August 9
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
352
Pages
PUBLISHER
St. Martin's Publishing Group
SELLER
Macmillan
SIZE
1.6
MB

Customer Reviews

Angele's IPOD ,

Loved

This book was disturbing but oh so good! My heart went out to little Wavy as she struggled with her drug addicted mom, abusive father, an aunt who didn’t understand her, and a boyfriend that was too old for her. Through all her anguish, she managed to persevere!

lisasdevotion ,

It’s captivating

I read this book back when I was in sixth grade myself and I decided to buy and reread the book at sixteen since I think I can understand it more than I did at 12 years old.
It has a certain something that makes you want to just keep reading it. Now, I’m aware of the controversial relationship in the book and I don’t think the book at all is trying to romanticize pedophilia. It’s more complex than that if anything. There are lives out there that are just awful and tragic. I don’t think the author at all is trying to say that the relationship between Wavy and Kellen is okay. What happened between them is obviously not okay when she was a minor but neither was the rest of her childhood. Wavy was emotionally stunted and affected. Wavy’s messed up background and the way she acts gears toward the fact that her life was never going to be normal. Including her love life, the love she could have would never be what any of us consider normal. Do I agree with pedophilia and the grooming of minors? No. This book just completely gives you a new perspective on young, vulnerable women who have lived harsh, tragic lives and how they’re forced to grow up too fast. They don’t see what’s wrong or right because they didn’t have guidance or stability since day one.
The title of the book says it all. Things are ugly and it is a book that really shows how the world can be. The book is very beautiful and well written yet haunting. You really do need an open mind to read this book.

MontMarHam ,

My whole heart!

This book was amazing. I can understand the controversy over the age difference but when you go through a hard life you mature much faster than others, I speak from experience. This was phenomenal, from the way the author jumped between narrators to give thoughts and sides of all characters… I have nothing but great things to say. I finished this book in two days!

More Books Like This

Walking Through Shadows Walking Through Shadows
2010
Back Roads Back Roads
1999
Between, Georgia Between, Georgia
2006
Gods in Alabama Gods in Alabama
2005
Sister, Sister Sister, Sister
1996
Secrets She Left Behind Secrets She Left Behind
2020

More Books by Bryn Greenwood

The Reckless Oath We Made The Reckless Oath We Made
2019
Lie Lay Lain Lie Lay Lain
2014
Last Will Last Will
2012
Wszystko, co brzydkie i cudowne Wszystko, co brzydkie i cudowne
2020
Unser leichtfertiger Eid Unser leichtfertiger Eid
2021

Customers Also Bought

The Push The Push
2021
The Sound of Gravel The Sound of Gravel
2016
My Dark Vanessa My Dark Vanessa
2020
This Is How It Always Is This Is How It Always Is
2017
Ask Again, Yes Ask Again, Yes
2019
A Woman Is No Man A Woman Is No Man
2019