Beautiful Ugly

Beautiful Ugly 

Beautiful Ugly is the latest novel to be checked off my to be read list. I own all of Alice Feeney’s novels in hardcover, and yet Rock Paper Scissors is the only one I’ve read prior to this. I figured it was time to start reading more of her writing and checking her books off my to be read list. 

This year it is my goal to read more books from my favorite authors to share with you here. My new motto is life is too short, so read the best books. Usually I am more of a mood reader, and also do a lot of advanced reader reading. But I’m taking a break and reading the things I want to read instead of what a deadline dictates I read. 

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Sometimes you have to prioritize your own wants and choices, and that is exactly what I’ve decided to do this year. You can expect a number of my favorite authors this year, and repeat authors being highlighted here in my blog. Alice Feeney is definitely high on that list for me. 

I’ve heard a number of people rave about this book, and I had high expectations of it going in, and I am excited about it. Checking books off my to be read list is always exciting. But I find it even more enjoyable when it is a book I picked instead of what a deadline or schedule tells me I have to read. 

If I were ever going to buy a book based on the cover, it would be this one. It is so beautiful and makes me want to dive right in and read. This would only be if I wasn’t already an Alice Feeney fan. But that cover really is so beautiful. If you judge books based on the covers, or choose to read them based on the cover, this would be a great one. Whoever Alice Feeney hired to design the cover outdid themselves in my opinion.

At the time of publishing this review, this book is available via Kindle Unlimited. If you’re paying for this subscription, you can easily utilize it to enjoy this book. There is a link down below for purchasing, and it will take you directly to the Kindle link. I am a big fan of books that are available on Kindle Unlimited because it makes them more easily accessible to readers without breaking the bank. In this day and age when everything is overpriced, books being accessible is super important to me, and I appreciate authors who use Kindle Unlimited.

Have you read Beautiful Ugly? Come on in and let me tell you about it! 

About Beautiful Ugly 

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.

Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do. 

Thoughts on Beautiful Ugly 

“Marriage is made of a million beautiful and ugly moments stitched together into a shared tapestry of memories, all of which are viewed and remembered slightly differently, like two people staring at the same painting from opposite ends of a room.” 

Alice Feeney, Beautiful Ugly

In Beautiful Ugly we meet Grady and his wife Abby. Grady is a bestselling author who is also grieving the disappearance of his wife. These things simultaneously happened in the span of an hour. The best and worst day of his life were on the same day. Life really is fragile in that regard. 

Grady has lost everything since Abby disappeared. He can’t write, he’s had to sell their home, he isn’t making any money, he’s bordering on a full blown alcoholic, and possibly has some mental health issues exacerbated by the alcohol consumption. 

Abby is an investigative journalist, and her stories may very well be putting her in danger. She certainly wouldn’t be the first journalist to go missing in the world. This has been the subject of more than one true crime documentary. 

I will say that I did not like her articles that were included in the book. Because it would be hard to take her seriously as a journalist if the articles in the book were actually published in real life. They were emotional and meant to stir up feelings of anger, outrage, and disgust. It wasn’t remotely close to unbiased journalism. But it would also make sense that if she wrote those kinds of things, someone would be more than happy to make her disappear. 

This book started off really strong, and then slowed way down. It turned predictable, and I thought I had it all figured out. Right up until I didn’t. The middle of it was important to the overall plot of the story, but it felt boring as hell when I was reading it. Yes, it was worth it. If you’re struggling to get through it, just keep going. The end of the road really makes the journey worthwhile. I just wish the journey was a little more fast paced. 

At the same time as I’m busy complaining about the pace of the book, Alice Feeney was building an entire vibe and atmosphere within the book. I’m not entirely sure I think she could have achieved that if the pace had moved faster. 

The idea of moving to a remote Scottish island to go off the grid and just focus on writing a bestselling novel is romantic though. I have been to Scotland myself, and this idea appeals to me because it is such a beautiful country. I would love to go and spend far more time there than I was allotted the first time. To take a trip there through this novel was wonderful and it made me want to return to Scotland again soon. 

I had to wonder throughout the book if Grady was losing his mind like Jack Nicolson in The Shining. If the residents of the Scottish island he was on was a cult, or if they were actually stalking him. The full-time residents of the island were certainly eccentric and quirky, to say the least. 

Did Abby disappear intentionally? Is she alive? Does Grady really see her on the island? Is this woman really his missing wife? Is she a look-alike? Is she a ghost and Grady is just imagining the whole thing? I had a lot of questions.Which is really what drove me to keep reading Beautiful Ugly. I needed to know all the answers. 

When I got to the end, I was really surprised. The twists the book took me on were really unexpected. They were not shocking or super outrageous. Sometimes an author will put an ending in a book that is just too stupid to believe, just for the shock value. This was a little out in left field, but not so far as I couldn’t see it happening. Which is exactly how I like my twists and turns in a book. 

Final Thoughts on Beautiful Ugly 

“People rarely know what they have until they lose it. They spend their lives searching for a better one, wanting more, needing more, blind to the fact that they already had it all. I think sometimes it’s only when something gets taken from a person that they appreciate what they had.” 

Alice Feeney, Beautiful Ugly

I’m calling Beautiful Ugly a four star read. It was a slow burn, but it took some twists and turns that I was not expecting and that certainly kept things interesting. I can’t call it a five star because it is unlikely I’ll read it again, and it isn’t a three star because it was still enjoyable and memorable. Which is why I’ve settled on a four star rating for it. 

Looking at reviews after I finished writing this, the reviews and ratings are surprisingly low. This surprised me because I enjoyed the book. I often wonder when my ratings don’t match up with others if we’ve read the same book. But that is the beauty of books, it is just like any other art in that it is subjective. 

I highly recommend that you read the book and form your own opinions on it, as mine don’t seem to match the majority of other readers. 

This is the second Alice Feeney book I’ve read, but it definitely will not be the last. I’m glad she is high on my to be read list, as she deserves to be there. 

Discussion 

Have you read Beautiful Ugly or any other writing from bestselling author Alice Feeney? Are you a fan? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! 

Beautiful Ugly Discussion Questions 

• How does Alice Feeney build a growing sense of unease in Beautiful Ugly? 
• Have you ever been to Scotland? Could you picture the Isle of Amberly? Do you imagine it as similar to anywhere else you’ve traveled? 
• Did you enjoy all the twists and turns of the plot? Or did they feel convoluted to you? 
• Which twist was the most jaw-dropping for you?
• Oh boy that ending! Did you expect it? Did it make sense to you? Did you feel it did a good job of tying up loose ends from earlier in the novel? 
• Beautiful Ugly is told from both Grady’s and Abby’s perspective. What does the reader gain by experiencing both points of view? From the way that the novel also jumps back and forth in time? 
• Did you grow to care about Grady or Abby as characters? What about any of the many eccentric side characters on the island? Why or why not? 
• Spoiler alert: Beautiful Ugly features a very unreliable narrator. How do you feel about this authorial choice in novels, especially thrillers? 
• Did you read this or listen to the audio? If you listened to the audiobook version of Beautiful Ugly, what did you think of the narration by Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton? 
• Have you read any of Alice Feeney’s other thrillers? If yes, how did Beautiful Ugly compare? If not, will you be picking any of them up after reading this book? 

About the Author 

Alice Feeney is a New York Times million-copy bestselling author. Her books have been translated into over twenty-five languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Including Rock Paper Scissors, which is being made into a TV series by the producer of The Crown. Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in Devon with her family. Daisy Darker is her fifth novel. 

Purchasing Beautiful Ugly 

• If you are interested in buying the paperback version of Beautiful Ugly, click here.
• For the hardcover version, click here. 
• Click here for the Kindle version.
• Click here for my favorite Kindle I currently own.

More from Alice Feeney 

Did you enjoy my review of Beautiful Ugly? Need another great Alice Feeney book to read? Here are my favorites! 

• Sometimes I Lie 
• I Know Who You Are 
• His and Hers 
• Rock Paper Scissors 
• Daisy Darker 
• Good Bad Girl 
• Beautiful Ugly 
• My Husband’s Wife 

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