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meghan111's review
3.0
After I started this book, I didn't look forward to finishing it. The narrator of the story, Hobbie, has really bad acne. His common-law wife is away at a weight-loss clinic. Their life together consists of moving from one suburb to another, working as bank tellers and shopping at large chain stores so they can remain as anonymous as possible. When Hobbie and his dog are attacked by a bear, things start to change.
magnetgrrl's review
1.0
This book was wedged in between a bunch of Douglas Coupland books, and one day on a therapeutic book-shopping bingy I decided that a book about love gone awry by a well-loved author was something I *needed* to read ASAP. If only my eyes hadn't been blurred by tears, I would have realized this was not by Douglas Coupland but... someone else. Whatever, I'm about 40 pages in and though it's not Douglas Coupland style writing it's not terrible, so....
mhall's review
3.0
After I started this book, I didn't look forward to finishing it. The narrator of the story, Hobbie, has really bad acne. His common-law wife is away at a weight-loss clinic. Their life together consists of moving from one suburb to another, working as bank tellers and shopping at large chain stores so they can remain as anonymous as possible. When Hobbie and his dog are attacked by a bear, things start to change.
acinthedc's review
3.0
An interesting concept. Unfortunately the book seems to never really get into the emotions of its traumatized characters, staying close to the surface. The ending is also conventional and anticlimatic.
kowwie's review
1.0
BLAH!
I picked this book up purely because of the cover and title. My first instinct was that it might be an interesting book about plastic surgery or something.
Boy, was I wrong. Instead of plastic surgery, I got a cast of characters who are completely unable to communicate and are awkward and unrelatable. Every form of conflict felt forced, and like it was supposed to pull at my heart strings.
It's a quick read, but it's not easy. I spent the majority of the time trying to figure out who the audience was supposed to be, but I still am not sure. The fact that the 37 year old main character is so shallow and developmentally stunted at age 16 makes me think it was aimed towards young adults, but there is a lot of sexual content that is obvious for an older crowd. The unclear demographic left me feeling often confused and frustrated at the unrealistic interactions between characters.
I would not recommend this to anyone. I've read better fan fiction. Also--trigger warning--there are some pretty graphic but poorly written rape scenes in this book.
I picked this book up purely because of the cover and title. My first instinct was that it might be an interesting book about plastic surgery or something.
Boy, was I wrong. Instead of plastic surgery, I got a cast of characters who are completely unable to communicate and are awkward and unrelatable. Every form of conflict felt forced, and like it was supposed to pull at my heart strings.
It's a quick read, but it's not easy. I spent the majority of the time trying to figure out who the audience was supposed to be, but I still am not sure. The fact that the 37 year old main character is so shallow and developmentally stunted at age 16 makes me think it was aimed towards young adults, but there is a lot of sexual content that is obvious for an older crowd. The unclear demographic left me feeling often confused and frustrated at the unrealistic interactions between characters.
I would not recommend this to anyone. I've read better fan fiction. Also--trigger warning--there are some pretty graphic but poorly written rape scenes in this book.
sarahconnor89757's review
5.0
I think this is one of those books where you are suppose to follow someone on their journey and learn something about yourself along the way. If you ignore that, it's a great book.
I have this odd fetish for books about ugly people so I was all for this book, even planning on giving it a 5 star rating just on principal but it was actually GOOD. The characters are so realistic (for me, at least) that even someone as heartless as myself felt emotion. Real emotion. Almost Oprah-esque You-Just-Won-A-Car emotion.
I have this odd fetish for books about ugly people so I was all for this book, even planning on giving it a 5 star rating just on principal but it was actually GOOD. The characters are so realistic (for me, at least) that even someone as heartless as myself felt emotion. Real emotion. Almost Oprah-esque You-Just-Won-A-Car emotion.
moreadsbooks's review
3.0
"Thanks to Ugly Betty, America is finally ready to read a love story about a couple who isn’t sleek, slick, tucked, pulled, or plastic." Way to be, America. This book seems less to me about ugly people in love & more about the ramifications of getting molested by your friendly neighborhood deacon.
torts's review
2.0
Not what I thought it would be, but still amusing and a little perplexing. Given the title and what synopses I'd read, I expected this to be a quirky romance about ugly people (with flawless skin, naturally). But it wasn't really any of those things. It was a pretty sweet story, and kind of realistic for the amount of goodness and true love that it had. But the narrator-protagonist has the opposite of flawless skin (and is in fact *not* ugly) and is *already* in a relationship...So there's not really any romancing going on. The book starts out with him alone, yes, but he's alone because the woman he's been with for thirty years is away at fat-camp (and she's not ugly either, just kind of obese).
The thing that was *most* misleading about this title, though, and what went most against my preconceptions, was that these people in their idyllic little romance world are NOT representative of Real Life or Romance For The Rest Of Us or whatever else its title/reviews seem to purport. Most annoyingly (SPOILER), by the end of the book neither the protagonist-narrator nor his love interest (commonlaw wife, who is pretty much absent and pined-for throughout the novel) are ugly or even unhappy. They move on from their sexual abuse, reconcile with their pasts, come out of their isolation (to meet wonderful and well-meaning people who help fix their lives, of course), and (in what I guess is supposed to be the most symbolic/meaningful bit but just felt kind of cheap) lose the physical unattractiveness that had been so fundamental in how they defined themselves and their relationship.
Like, okay I get that they can improve their lives and stop being so cowardly or whatever but isn't it wrong for this to be accompanied by their no longer having anything to hide? He's getting rid of his zit-face, she's just come back from fat camp returned to her beautiful slenderness...This isn't a revolutionary take on anything. This is more of the same disappointing superficiality that you'd expect from the "romance literature" genre.
I was going to give this more stars because it has its sweet moments and there's a bear attack and it's clearly an effort to write about moving on from abuse with its symbolism and simple everyday heroes. But too many aspects of this novel left me feeling like I'd been tricked into reading something preachy** and facile*, which was exactly what I'd been led to believe that I was avoiding.
Neat cover art, though.
*Pretentious word alert. I mean it as in this book kept to the conventions of uplifting-story and aint-love-grand triteness. The fundamental goodness of these characters, their willingness to love and the way that this love is effortless and unquestioned, makes this book ridiculously simplistic.
**Preachy as in inundated with religion and love and a woman who wants nothing more than to be reunited with her rape-baby.
The thing that was *most* misleading about this title, though, and what went most against my preconceptions, was that these people in their idyllic little romance world are NOT representative of Real Life or Romance For The Rest Of Us or whatever else its title/reviews seem to purport. Most annoyingly (SPOILER), by the end of the book neither the protagonist-narrator nor his love interest (commonlaw wife, who is pretty much absent and pined-for throughout the novel) are ugly or even unhappy. They move on from their sexual abuse, reconcile with their pasts, come out of their isolation (to meet wonderful and well-meaning people who help fix their lives, of course), and (in what I guess is supposed to be the most symbolic/meaningful bit but just felt kind of cheap) lose the physical unattractiveness that had been so fundamental in how they defined themselves and their relationship.
Like, okay I get that they can improve their lives and stop being so cowardly or whatever but isn't it wrong for this to be accompanied by their no longer having anything to hide? He's getting rid of his zit-face, she's just come back from fat camp returned to her beautiful slenderness...This isn't a revolutionary take on anything. This is more of the same disappointing superficiality that you'd expect from the "romance literature" genre.
I was going to give this more stars because it has its sweet moments and there's a bear attack and it's clearly an effort to write about moving on from abuse with its symbolism and simple everyday heroes. But too many aspects of this novel left me feeling like I'd been tricked into reading something preachy** and facile*, which was exactly what I'd been led to believe that I was avoiding.
Neat cover art, though.
*Pretentious word alert. I mean it as in this book kept to the conventions of uplifting-story and aint-love-grand triteness. The fundamental goodness of these characters, their willingness to love and the way that this love is effortless and unquestioned, makes this book ridiculously simplistic.
**Preachy as in inundated with religion and love and a woman who wants nothing more than to be reunited with her rape-baby.