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ampersandread22's review
3.0
Read this and other reviews at Ampersand Read.
I either like books about privileged, upper class people, or I hate them. I don’t love the woe is me I’m so rich but so unhappy message that so many stories seem to bring to light. I do like when the privileged protagonist learns something from his/her actions, or changes the game somehow. It can be a kind of escapist fantasy, reading about a character who can go out and buy $600 handbags and thousands of dollars of furniture without batting an eye. For a moment, you can imagine doing that too…and then the crippling reality sets in, about the mortgage/rent, that credit card payment you’ve been putting off, etc. etc. etc.
ANYWAY. We Could Be Beautiful is a story about a rich woman. Of the trust fund variety. Catherine West (even her name sounds rich) doesn’t worry that her bespoke stationary boutique never turns a profit. She never frets about rent, clothing herself, or pursuing her hobbies. Every month she gets a hundred thousand dollars or so, and that is that.
Enter William Stockton (again: rich-person name). Because Catherine is just not as happy as she feels she should be, and she’s had troubled relationships in the past and here comes this guy who seems just too good to be true. And surprise, surprise: he is. And we spend the rest of the story puzzling out just why he is.
William as a character comes across as very stilted. In a way, this makes sense: Catherine is so blinded by the fact that she is desperate for someone to love her that she can’t see just how hypocritical and downright rude her partner is being. But William is kind of an ass. The whole time. It is hard to see what is appealing about him, what truly draws Catherine to him. He belittles her when she uses foul language, her best friend immediately dislikes him, they have consistently disappointing sex, and he never speaks a word of his past. On their own, these little things are just character quirks. Aspects of a personality that would make a well-rounded character more interesting. But piled up like this, it feels like the author is just trying to bang us over the head with how bad William is. It would have been far more compelling for me if William were more appealing, and this his secrets were slowly and viciously revealed. As it sits, you just see it coming from a mile away.
Overall, the story and character development felt like they were plodding along to me. I’m not sure if it’s the writing style, or the story’s actual events, but although finding out William’s secret is the main hinge of events, I did not feel overwhelmingly compelled to find out what it was. This was partly because I could already see he was Bad News and that this book would come to that conclusion eventually, and Catherine would move on. But it was also because there seemed to be a lack of urgency. Catherine was in no hurry to confront several facts about her life: that there is something wrong with her boyfriend, that there is something wrong with her family, and that money cannot buy everything (especially when that money starts to run out…)
It’s an escapist read, but Catherine doesn’t really learn anything from the story’s events. I don’t feel like she has grown emotionally at the story’s close, and that leaves a lackluster taste in my mouth. It’s a light read, with an intriguing central mystery, but it’s not my favorite beach or summer read.
I either like books about privileged, upper class people, or I hate them. I don’t love the woe is me I’m so rich but so unhappy message that so many stories seem to bring to light. I do like when the privileged protagonist learns something from his/her actions, or changes the game somehow. It can be a kind of escapist fantasy, reading about a character who can go out and buy $600 handbags and thousands of dollars of furniture without batting an eye. For a moment, you can imagine doing that too…and then the crippling reality sets in, about the mortgage/rent, that credit card payment you’ve been putting off, etc. etc. etc.
ANYWAY. We Could Be Beautiful is a story about a rich woman. Of the trust fund variety. Catherine West (even her name sounds rich) doesn’t worry that her bespoke stationary boutique never turns a profit. She never frets about rent, clothing herself, or pursuing her hobbies. Every month she gets a hundred thousand dollars or so, and that is that.
Enter William Stockton (again: rich-person name). Because Catherine is just not as happy as she feels she should be, and she’s had troubled relationships in the past and here comes this guy who seems just too good to be true. And surprise, surprise: he is. And we spend the rest of the story puzzling out just why he is.
William as a character comes across as very stilted. In a way, this makes sense: Catherine is so blinded by the fact that she is desperate for someone to love her that she can’t see just how hypocritical and downright rude her partner is being. But William is kind of an ass. The whole time. It is hard to see what is appealing about him, what truly draws Catherine to him. He belittles her when she uses foul language, her best friend immediately dislikes him, they have consistently disappointing sex, and he never speaks a word of his past. On their own, these little things are just character quirks. Aspects of a personality that would make a well-rounded character more interesting. But piled up like this, it feels like the author is just trying to bang us over the head with how bad William is. It would have been far more compelling for me if William were more appealing, and this his secrets were slowly and viciously revealed. As it sits, you just see it coming from a mile away.
Overall, the story and character development felt like they were plodding along to me. I’m not sure if it’s the writing style, or the story’s actual events, but although finding out William’s secret is the main hinge of events, I did not feel overwhelmingly compelled to find out what it was. This was partly because I could already see he was Bad News and that this book would come to that conclusion eventually, and Catherine would move on. But it was also because there seemed to be a lack of urgency. Catherine was in no hurry to confront several facts about her life: that there is something wrong with her boyfriend, that there is something wrong with her family, and that money cannot buy everything (especially when that money starts to run out…)
It’s an escapist read, but Catherine doesn’t really learn anything from the story’s events. I don’t feel like she has grown emotionally at the story’s close, and that leaves a lackluster taste in my mouth. It’s a light read, with an intriguing central mystery, but it’s not my favorite beach or summer read.
jessmed3's review
3.0
So I didn't mind this book at all for the reason I see most others didn't care for it--namely the main character/narrator, Catherine West. She is a ridiculous character in a lot of ways, but I actually believe that when one may have that much money (she is an $80k-a-MONTH, self-proclaimed Trust Fund Baby), one has a lot of insecurities. The book is basically her inner thoughts (e.g. "I do look skinny today") that go along with a pretty basic storyline of--girl meets boy...is he too good to be true?
I thought the characters were fairly well-written and some of the family drama was interesting...but to call this a psychological thriller everywhere is misleading. There wasn't a whole lot of excitement at all in the book. It moves along, and I found it interesting--admittedly I sometimes have that celebrity obsession of "how the 1% lives"-- reading about lavish parties, clothes, food etc.
I thought the characters were fairly well-written and some of the family drama was interesting...but to call this a psychological thriller everywhere is misleading. There wasn't a whole lot of excitement at all in the book. It moves along, and I found it interesting--admittedly I sometimes have that celebrity obsession of "how the 1% lives"-- reading about lavish parties, clothes, food etc.
robinsbooks's review
4.0
This is being promoted as "psychological suspense," and while it had a myserious element running throughout the storyline, it was more of a psychological character study. The development was a little on the slow side but I had a tough time putting it down.
Added comment: What I enjoyed about this book was the character study of a very privileged trust-funded woman who receives so much money each month that her life is pretty much a continual cycle of shopping, getting massages, decorating her large NYC house, going to the gym, and occasionally dropping into the greeting card shop she owns. She really has no idea what it's like to live as a regular person and at times her sense of entitlement is more than annoying but seemed very true to life. But the author makes her somewhat likeable and Catherine really does try to be a "nice person" by giving larger-than-required tips, money to street people, and being nice to kids ("I had to meet him at eye level, which was really, really nice of me. I was so nice."--note: this quote is from the advance reading copy). And does she ever get a clue and become humble? You'll have to read it to find out...
Added comment: What I enjoyed about this book was the character study of a very privileged trust-funded woman who receives so much money each month that her life is pretty much a continual cycle of shopping, getting massages, decorating her large NYC house, going to the gym, and occasionally dropping into the greeting card shop she owns. She really has no idea what it's like to live as a regular person and at times her sense of entitlement is more than annoying but seemed very true to life. But the author makes her somewhat likeable and Catherine really does try to be a "nice person" by giving larger-than-required tips, money to street people, and being nice to kids ("I had to meet him at eye level, which was really, really nice of me. I was so nice."--note: this quote is from the advance reading copy). And does she ever get a clue and become humble? You'll have to read it to find out...
lornaflowerday's review
2.0
The beginning of this book was tough to get through. Slow moving, only a few hints of secrets and the psychological thriller it promised to be. The last third picked up quite a bit and had me enthralled, but I was very easily able to get the surprise, twist ending which bummed me out. The writing was good, but I'm just a little disappointed in the ending.
how1710's review
4.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. I did struggle at times relating to the characters, especially Catherine because of her complaining even though she was very wealthy. I hate waste and her taking one bite of her food and then leaving the rest drove me crazy. On the other hand I did enjoy the twists in this story and it did hold my attention.
bellatora's review
2.0
Catherine is the living embodiment of Arrested Development’s Lucille Bluth’s quote, “I mean it's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? Ten dollars?” In fact, Catherine would fit snuggly into the Bluth family. Unfortunately, this book is not a comedy. Her shallow obliviousness appears to be played straight.
Don’t get me wrong, I like unreliable narrators and villainous protagonists. They can be interesting. What I don’t like is a character that is only blandly insufferable and a narrative that rewards their poor behavior.
It is not a good sign when I am rooting for the sinister, misogynistic con artist over the heroine. I didn’t like William (her fiance who it is immediately clear is Up to No Good) either and wanted to see him go down, but I was rooting for him to take Catherine with him.
The author tried to give Catherine “pet the dog” moments by making her marginally less horrible than her mother and sister (for example, she learned the staff’s names). But you can’t buy me off with an occasional bone. I don’t care that you give your staff healthcare, Catherine. You still threw your last undocumented maid out when she got sick, refusing to provide any accommodations and letting her go die in poverty. No good intentions in the world can help you recover from that moment.
So you can have an unlikeable main character, but when the tension is whether someone is trying to do her harm, and the reader is rooting for that harm to be done, then something has gone awry. Usually authors solve the problem of the villainous protagonist by making the bad guy a worse guy than the villainous protagonist or making the villainous protagonist fun or making them do a bad thing for a sympathetic reason. Ripley in the [b:The Talented Mr. Ripley|2247142|The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley, #1)|Patricia Highsmith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1634841836l/2247142._SX50_.jpg|1817520] and Maud in [b:An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good|40104741|An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good|Helene Tursten|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526077553l/40104741._SX50_.jpg|62169561] are not good people in any sense. But they are protagonists who draw you in. Catherine is not intriguing; she is repulsive.
The bright spot in this novel is Huntley’s deft handling of Catherine’s mother’s dementia. You could feel an intelligent woman trying to claw her way through the haze, sometimes caught in the mists unable to find her way through, sometimes slyly using it to her advantage to hide from questions she doesn’t want to answer.
Don’t get me wrong, I like unreliable narrators and villainous protagonists. They can be interesting. What I don’t like is a character that is only blandly insufferable and a narrative that rewards their poor behavior.
It is not a good sign when I am rooting for the sinister, misogynistic con artist over the heroine. I didn’t like William (her fiance who it is immediately clear is Up to No Good) either and wanted to see him go down, but I was rooting for him to take Catherine with him.
The author tried to give Catherine “pet the dog” moments by making her marginally less horrible than her mother and sister (for example, she learned the staff’s names). But you can’t buy me off with an occasional bone. I don’t care that you give your staff healthcare, Catherine. You still threw your last undocumented maid out when she got sick, refusing to provide any accommodations and letting her go die in poverty. No good intentions in the world can help you recover from that moment.
So you can have an unlikeable main character, but when the tension is whether someone is trying to do her harm, and the reader is rooting for that harm to be done, then something has gone awry. Usually authors solve the problem of the villainous protagonist by making the bad guy a worse guy than the villainous protagonist or making the villainous protagonist fun or making them do a bad thing for a sympathetic reason. Ripley in the [b:The Talented Mr. Ripley|2247142|The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley, #1)|Patricia Highsmith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1634841836l/2247142._SX50_.jpg|1817520] and Maud in [b:An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good|40104741|An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good|Helene Tursten|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526077553l/40104741._SX50_.jpg|62169561] are not good people in any sense. But they are protagonists who draw you in. Catherine is not intriguing; she is repulsive.
The bright spot in this novel is Huntley’s deft handling of Catherine’s mother’s dementia. You could feel an intelligent woman trying to claw her way through the haze, sometimes caught in the mists unable to find her way through, sometimes slyly using it to her advantage to hide from questions she doesn’t want to answer.
paperbackprodigy's review
4.0
While I thought the twist was revealed a little early (about 80% through the book), I was somewhat surprised, so I'll give it that.
styleandsavings's review
5.0
This book had been on my Want to Read for a few years. At first, I was kind of annoyed by Catherine’s wealth and privilege, but I appreciated her self-awareness and honesty. This story read like a mystery and I kept reading to find out William’s secret, which was a crazy twist!