A Beautiful, Terrible Thing

A Beautiful, Terrible Thing: A Memoir of Marriage and Betrayal by Jen Waite was provided to me for an honest review through netgalley. Thank you to all parties for letting me take part in this heartbreaking journey of love, lose, and rebuild. What would you do if the man you married turned out to be nothing like you thought he was. Every girl wants her dream guy and what Jen Waite got was a total nightmare with a side of sunshine in the form of a beautiful little girl. First off I love the setup of this book. The before and after headings made it extremely easy to fallow. You get to see how the romance started how the love bloomed and in the end how the whole thing falls to pieces. This story is one of love and lose where Jen did everything right thought she was living the perfect life only to have to start over. Although I have a background in psychology and have a very good understanding of the husbands disorder I find it really hard to find one redeeming quality in him. Although I understand sickness I don't feel that anything positive will be done seeing as the husband does not wish to receive help. Over all I feel that this is an honest read that everyone can relate to in some cases even live through nicely done 5 stars all the way.

I DON'T feel good critiquing memoirs because it essentially feels like critiquing the person and their very personal story. This was interesting to read because I love listening to other peoples drama, sue me, but I had a couple issues with this.
There were so many unnecessary details & dialogue included throughout. There were multiple passages included that were basically like, “My parents came over. My dad took my Subaru (why did we have to hear multiple times about her Subaru) to pick up moving boxes at the store. I looked at my baby and felt sad. We packed up. I got in the car. I looked at my baby. I got to my parents house. I felt sad.” AND ON & ON. These details were not! important!
Not to mention the hate that was constantly spewed at the girl Marco was cheating with. She was only referred to as “the Croatian” or “Cro-ella (Croatian + Cruella), even though her name is known. She is frequently made fun of for wearing a lot of makeup and posting selfies on Instagram. I understand Waite's anger with her but if Marco really is a sociopath, or even if he's just a manipulative, lying asshole, this girl is being victimized as well! Sure, she made a mistake sleeping with a man that she knew was married but as Waite states herself, we have NO idea what Marco told her. Waite also seems to gloss over/forget the fact that Marco cheated on a previous partner WITH HER.
My biggest issue with this is Waite presents the idea that her husband is a sociopath as fact after Googling some shit. Her therapist, who has never met her husband, confirms Waite's armchair diagnosis - which is super.. unethical? Weird? Definitely not recommended for therapists to do? There is nothing that actually confirms this diagnosis. Is Marco a gigantic asshole? Sure! Is a sociopath? Don't know!
Other reviewers idea that Waite should have let more time pass before writing this memoir is a good one. Would not really recommend unless you want some ~TeA~

This is a book that's best read without reading the full synopsis first. While this is a memoir, it feels more like a psychological thriller that you don't want to put down. I felt so swept up in the meet cute and love story and the building of their lives together, that I didn't see the red flags. There were times when I felt the author was overreacting to this or that, because of hormones or sleep deprivation or general neuroticism, but then... was she? Because if she'd just ignored the things that happened altogether and stopped digging, how much longer would the lies have gone on? This book lets you live simultaneously through the infatuation of the honeymoon phase and the moment-to-moment panic, fear and shock about the things that happened as she discovered them. Heartbreaking and powerful.

Received advance reader copy free from Penguin Random House's “First to Read” program. My opinions are my own, blah blah blah. You know the drill.