A review by fischers_reads
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

slow-paced

Entirely too long. For a majority of this book I kept saying “what in the world is this book?? What is happening?? I thought this was a romance.” Then when I realized what was happening I got a bit grossed out but I couldn’t stop reading. First off there are a ton of POVs. Everyone had a POV. I’m shocked their big toe’s didn’t have their own chapter. Not just that but some are told in first person and some are told in 3rd person. There is a timeline and it starts in the past and you work your way to the present. When I tell you this book had my mind going the entire time AND the chapters were so long, I felt like I made little progress. With ALL that being said I couldn’t give up on this book. I was committed to finishing it whether I liked it or not. It starts in 1975 and everyone seemed to be written as their age but when you get to Kellen he sounded like an old man. Then once his age was revealed it didn’t necessarily make it all that better but I guess I understood Wavy’s pull towards him a little bit more. I’m a huge taboo reader. I love the forbidden-ness of it all. This though… this felt so wrong. I just couldn’t get past it. Maybe because I have girls and one is 14. I had the ick the whole entire time and I really never rooted for their relationship  This is a hard one for me to rate because on one hand I did want to finish it and never once thought to DNF. On the other hand I wasn’t necessarily enjoying myself and was grossed out the whole time. I just… I don’t know. I’m confused.

Kellen meets Wavy when he’s 18 and she is 8. You read that right 8!!!!!! Later in the book he said he loved her the moment he saw her. ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!! This book is entirely too fucking long and EVERYONE has their own POV. It starts out with Wavy at the age of 6 not having the best childhood. Then she bounces around in different houses. At 8 a man on a motorcycle passes her and he was too busy looking at this “angel” that he crashed his bike. Wavy helped him. Come to find out he worked for I believe it was her step dad so he was always around. Kellen (the man from the bike) does everything for Wavy. Takes her to school and buys her shoes. Wavy also has a little brother and he’s there for him as well. If you saw their relationship you might think “awww father and daughter that’s so sweet” but no. He isn’t her father. He’s too young to be her father but too old to be with her being that she is a literal CHILD!!!! They don’t do anything but kiss until she is almost 14 but still that is disgusting! Her mom and step dad end up murdered and Wavy’s aunt realized the relationship they have and gets him in trouble for rape. Kellen serves 8 years and got out. During the time he was in prison Wavy was living with this awful aunt and then went off to college. Kellen had left everything to Wavy but since she was a minor her aunt had a say  Wavy ends up finding out Kellen is out and finds him but they aren’t suppose to have contact. They end up fucking for the first time and she’s now 21. What I hate is when Kellen got out he met a woman by the name of Beth and moved in with her and had a relationship with her. If Wavy was his everything and the only one who has his heart how are you with Beth? Ugh. Anyways, Wavy ends up doing all this legal research and gets the no contact lifted. They end up back together and are able to track down her little brother. He’s been to juvie and hasn’t had the best life either. They take him in and are a family again. That was sweet until I remember all the other shit and it just grosses me out again. SHE WAS 8 WHEN THEY MET! Oh and if you asked Wavy who he was back then she would say her boyfriend.

So yeah, that sums up this long book.