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A review by celia_thebookishhufflepuff
Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward
2.0
This was the kind of book so bad you just can't look away.
[b:Beautiful Bad|39873226|Beautiful Bad|Annie Ward|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532556337l/39873226._SY75_.jpg|61678543] starts off pretty boring, and from the beginning, I got the sense that I wasn't going to care about the characters. They weren't unlikable, just very vanilla. Still, I kept reading because of the timeline jumps.
The story takes place in Macedonia and other Eastern Europe and Middle Eastern countries in the early 2000s, in the days leading up to the killing, and on the Day of the Killing. The way this jumped around was the only reason I stayed. It was interesting to see what in the past led to what in the present when we clearly didn't have all the pieces, and to guess who was the unreliable narrator and how and why. But there wasn't a lot of substance to it. It was mostly relationship drama, and it was really dry. I suppose there were hints, but not good ones.
Once we got to the meat of the killing, it didn't get better. The aftermath was pretty awful to read, and the characters were very unlikable at the end. A lot of it didn't make sense, and I feel like there are still a lot of pieces missing. It wasn't unsatisfying in the way many thrillers are meant to leave you with questions, but they're still well-written books. Instead, it was just unsatisfying and leaves the reader hating everyone involved. There's a point where it could have ended and been the former, but it just kept going and became the latter.
What I will say is that I enjoyed the way the audio did the back and forth. I liked the voices and the way things were done, and I don't think I would have finished this if I weren't reading it mostly as audio (thank you, Spotify). I enjoyed the accent for Ian especially.
Yes, [b:Beautiful Bad|39873226|Beautiful Bad|Annie Ward|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532556337l/39873226._SY75_.jpg|61678543] did take me two weeks to read. I kept going in and out of it and not getting into it. I reread a few favorite books in between, and found it nowhere near as thrilling, despite those other books not being "thrillers" per se.
I will be happy to add this one to the donation pile.
[b:Beautiful Bad|39873226|Beautiful Bad|Annie Ward|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532556337l/39873226._SY75_.jpg|61678543] starts off pretty boring, and from the beginning, I got the sense that I wasn't going to care about the characters. They weren't unlikable, just very vanilla. Still, I kept reading because of the timeline jumps.
The story takes place in Macedonia and other Eastern Europe and Middle Eastern countries in the early 2000s, in the days leading up to the killing, and on the Day of the Killing. The way this jumped around was the only reason I stayed. It was interesting to see what in the past led to what in the present when we clearly didn't have all the pieces, and to guess who was the unreliable narrator and how and why. But there wasn't a lot of substance to it. It was mostly relationship drama, and it was really dry. I suppose there were hints, but not good ones.
Once we got to the meat of the killing, it didn't get better. The aftermath was pretty awful to read, and the characters were very unlikable at the end. A lot of it didn't make sense, and I feel like there are still a lot of pieces missing. It wasn't unsatisfying in the way many thrillers are meant to leave you with questions, but they're still well-written books. Instead, it was just unsatisfying and leaves the reader hating everyone involved. There's a point where it could have ended and been the former, but it just kept going and became the latter.
What I will say is that I enjoyed the way the audio did the back and forth. I liked the voices and the way things were done, and I don't think I would have finished this if I weren't reading it mostly as audio (thank you, Spotify). I enjoyed the accent for Ian especially.
Yes, [b:Beautiful Bad|39873226|Beautiful Bad|Annie Ward|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532556337l/39873226._SY75_.jpg|61678543] did take me two weeks to read. I kept going in and out of it and not getting into it. I reread a few favorite books in between, and found it nowhere near as thrilling, despite those other books not being "thrillers" per se.
I will be happy to add this one to the donation pile.