All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

This book had me feeling so many things....anger, sadness, hate, love....every emotion you could think of. I was glad that Kellen was there for Wavy when she was younger and didn't have anyone else. But on the other hand, sometimes I felt like their relationship went a bit far when she was a child. Do I like how it ended? I'm still not sure about that....

I really expected to hate this book. Even tho I had people telling me it was controversial and they still loved it, something about the premise made me uneasy and expect the worst. BUT the opposite happened. I literally could not put this book down the last 2 days. I'm not a fast reader but I read over 150 pages both days because I needed to know what happened to Wavy. I found myself rooting for the convict and hating the righteous aunt by the end of the book. You have to keep an open mind while reading this one, but once you do, true love conquers all. 

Many times reading this book, I questioned if I could stomach what would occur and how it would end. I was so hopeful that this would be a book about found family, a father figure, rather than the relationship that came to pass.
Bryn Greenwood has incredible storytelling skills that brings you into a world that at times felt too real to bear.

I think a lot of people skip this book once they read what it's about, but I would definitely give it a chance if you're on the fence. I love how realistic the relationships are in this story. You can understand why the characters do the things they do, and the backdrop of their lives is so well written. The ending felt like a bit of a let down, only because it felt like it shouldn't have ended as well as it did. Overall I had a hard time putting this one down, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Uncomfortable. This book made me uncomfortable. A 13 year age difference isn't a huge deal between consenting adults, but she was 8 when he met her at 21. This book romanticizes pedophilia and sexualizes children and is written in a way to make you sympathetic to the situation. The male character even goes on about how her body is still childlike when she's finally at an adult age. I bought this book because it was very highly rated on goodreads and BOTM, and seriously wtf? Yes, the writing is compelling even if it switched between 1st person and 3rd person arbitrarily, and the romance would have been sweet if he wasn't a raging pedophile and she wasn't a mentally abused child that needed intensive therapy. If you weren't hoping that Butch or Nurse Patty reported it before anything happened between them, then what is wrong with you? This isn't some Renesme bs where the werewolf stays the same age until the girl grows up (which was also gross), this is highly probable friends of the family grooming vulnerable abused children into romantic relationships. This is real and it's not okay. And I don't care that it was the 70's-80's and back in the day this was normalized. You should know better not to publish this crap in 2016. Not okay. And the only character that was trying to point out that this situation was wrong and was actively trying to step in was vilified for it.
And all the people who want to go off about how this book was controversial on purpose, no. You do not write multiple sex scenes involving 13 year olds where you describe their underdeveloped body in detail. No. Arguing that it wasn't pedophilia because it was a one time thing and he was also attracted to adults. You are the problem. Trying to argue semantics when an abused child is being sexualized by a formerly abused adult is pathetic. Nothing about this situation should have been romanticized.

I would have given this more stars as I truly do think this was wonderfully written. I am just having a hard time getting past the fact that she was 8 when this all started and by 13 they were practically having sex. The ending also bothered me that all was just well and felt so neatly wrapped given the complexity of this entire book/situation. Also the twist at the end — wtf why was that even significant? Was that to help humanize a pedifile? Nobody should feel sorry for someone who grooms little girls no matter how “mature” they seem. GROSS! IDK why someone would be okay with even writing about this.

WOW, so I don't think I can write a review that would do this book an ounce of justice, but I'll give it my best shot...



Originally I was going to give this one a pass. The ages of the two main characters , and the subject matter just didn't sit right with me as a mother of a 14 and 11 year old. I just didn't think I could go into this with an open mind. That said, I kept seeing all these 4 and 5 star reviews, and I'll admit, my curiosity got the better of me. And man am I glad it did.

This was one of the most heart wrenching, uncomfortable, and amazingly written books I had read in a LONG time. Each and every character was so well written. There are multiple POVs throughout that slowly peel away layer upon layer of this beautiful and often times disturbing story. Wavy broke my heart. The things this poor girl has been through destroyed me. Kellan was her everything. Her port in the storm that was her life and her his.

Look, this is going to be one of those books that you either LOVE or you HATE. I'm not sure there is a lot of middle ground with this one. Yes the subject matter is disturbing. I'm don't think there will be too many people who are NOT disturbed by the friendship (love) between Wavy and Kellan. In the context of this story though, it worked.

Amazing, simply one of the best books I had read so far this year.