A review by jeslis
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

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

2.0

Notes:
- Went into this knowing I probably wasn't going to like it tbh—and I was RIGHT.
- I feel like these themes could've been so interesting to explore if the execution was better:
Miles and Rachel being step-siblings, the lingering impacts of losing a child, etc

- Really didn't like the writing: used too much telling, very repetitive and the centre-aligned poetry-esque chapters made me want to laugh instead of being sad and it just took me out of the story.
- Some attempt at writing techniques were present (eg. revisiting previous imagery of the sunrise in the plane) and, again, the ideas were interesting in a way.
- Character development and story went nowhere tbh.
Tate was still thinking about how she was trying to have a casual fling with Miles and dreading the "oh-so-inevitable end" even after she had revelations about herself—it kept the story incredibly stagnant. It even took her like 70% of the book to reach more complexity in terms of reflection (eg. realising Miles is a toxic partner and emotionally distant).

- I can't really tell if the relationships depicted were a genuine attempt at "edgy romance" that was meant to be like... sexy, or if it was trying to be an exploration of characters lit-fic style. For either option the execution wasn't great. Choosing your genre and your target audience and sticking to it is the fundamentals of a good novel!
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