Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

33 reviews

mlo_reads's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review!

Non-spoiler synopsis:
Man is writer. Man’s wife disappears. Man cannot write. Man gets sent away to remote island to finally write again. Mysterious things happen. “Is this my wife?” man says at least 10 or 20 times while on the island. Maybe!

Review:
Honestly, I’ll keep this one short – did not love it. I felt like I knew every twist and turn before it was about to happen. Maybe it would be shocking if you turned your brain off after the first chapter while you read the middle of the book up until the last 20%. Honestly, the thing that shocked me most was the random loud ass noises in the audiobook!

Please read Beautiful Ugly if you love women, hate men, and want to be gaslit, but read it with the expectation that the twist probably isn’t as big as you think it might be; it published on January 14, 2025 and is OUT NOW!! And if you do, I’m curious to hear what you think of it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Suicide, and Alcohol

archetypewriter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Grief, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

katies_bibliotherapy's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my new favourite Alice Feeney book! I read it in two sittings in a 24-hour period. If I could've read it all at once, I would've. And THAT TWIST?! I was gobsmacked! I saw a few reviews that said it was unrealistic, but if you pay close attention at the beginning of the book, there's a part that sets it up and makes it make sense. At least it did for me. Grady was an unreliable narrator, and for much of the novel, I had *no* idea where the story was going, but the atmospheric setting and the locked room vibe made it unputdownable! 

This one releases on Tuesday, and you're going to want to grab a copy! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Suicide, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

uranaishi's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, Stalking, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy

carlyjb16's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, and Murder

jmariejones's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This was my first read by Alice Feeney & I enjoyed the entirety of this book. The hidden message at the end was fun, as I’ve never experienced one before. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

• Non-linear timeline
• Multiple POV
• Broken marriage
• Unreliable narrator(s)

My personal questionable thoughts:
* I enjoyed hating the main character
* If I was single, I would live on Isle of Amberly

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicide and Murder

ashleyj_reads's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A huge thanks to Book of the Month for the early release access to this novel (December 2024)!

No details in this review because I'm afraid it will spoil the good parts. 
There wasn't a single moment in this story when I thought I knew what was happening and ended up being right. Every page is an unexpected twist written in a beautifully captivating way. I absolutely LOVE that the switch in POVs occurred on the page through font switch; this is the first time I've seen it done and it should be common practice. Feeney is a master at weaving every piece together. I will think about this book for a while.

Book 1 of 2025, and it's going to be hard to top!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cursing, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

readingwithrylanne's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I've read (almost) all of Alice Feeney's books and go back and forth every few years on which is my favorite by her. For several years, it was Rock Paper Scissors, but by the fifty percent mark of Beautiful Ugly, I knew this book would surpass my current favorite. Something about Feeney's thrillers are so quotable, and I've started noticing that with her most recent two books. I tabbed and highlighted so many little sections of this book, making me fall in love with the prose before we even got too deep into the mystery, which had me hooked from early on. I loved the isolated setting of Amberly and all of the creepy things going on, which made me need to know how the book would end. I wasn't ever quite sure what or who to believe on the island, which made the plot twists feel absolutely shocking and threw me off. The final chapter was the only part that almost made me feel frustrated, as I wanted to know the shift behind what happened to Grady on the island, but overall, this book had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and I didn't want to put it down. A new Alice Feeney favorite!

CW for disappearance, murder, plagiarism, alcoholism, sexual assault, abandonment, loss of loved one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual assault

kimveach's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book had a long, slow build-up to the twist.  I liked it, but I preferred other books by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

saralandes's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol