All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

I really expected to hate this book. Even tho I had people telling me it was controversial and they still loved it, something about the premise made me uneasy and expect the worst. BUT the opposite happened. I literally could not put this book down the last 2 days. I'm not a fast reader but I read over 150 pages both days because I needed to know what happened to Wavy. I found myself rooting for the convict and hating the righteous aunt by the end of the book. You have to keep an open mind while reading this one, but once you do, true love conquers all. 

Many times reading this book, I questioned if I could stomach what would occur and how it would end. I was so hopeful that this would be a book about found family, a father figure, rather than the relationship that came to pass.
Bryn Greenwood has incredible storytelling skills that brings you into a world that at times felt too real to bear.

Buckle up, this is the most angry I've been about in a long time.

I'd give this book a zero, purely on an ethical standpoint, if I could.

The writing of the book is enthralling and beautiful- I can't deny that. The author is gifted at the changing POV structure, and each character has a distinct voice and viewpoint. The audiobook is incredibly well acted. However, no matter how interesting the prose is, it is mere cover for what this book is ultimately saying: that it is totally okay for a man to be sexual with a child, as long as it's “true” love. Disgusting, dangerous, and horrible.

If you visit the author's goodreads page- there are two huge red flags to me that really show that the author's point is to glorify a sexual relationship between a man and a LITERAL CHILD. I do not care how mature this child is, they are a child. It is NEVER acceptable, and always abuse. First off, the author says they were also in a self-described “loving” relationship as a young teen with a much older man and justifies it but saying it was consenual and that they “understood” each other. Secondly, they say that Kellen is not a pedophile but that he “simply fell for the right girl at the wrong time.” My jaw dropped when I read that. (Disclosure- I did not know what this book was about going into it, and when I started to figure it out while reading, I found myself reading these words on the author's goodreads page.) Guess what? He is. If you are sexually attracted to a child, you are a pedophile. How can anyone look past that? How can anyone be seduced by beautiful writing when the meaning behind the words are acutally so vile and horrific, and the author thinks they are some beautiful niche love story?

Imagine how dangerous this book could be if read by the wrong age at the wrong time. I usually try to be a person who can see the gray areas, but I draw the line at abuse of any type. Unacceptable that this book is so highly praised as a love story.

Truly concerning how many people defend these characters and call it romance. I hope you all seek to be more educated and learn more about consent, power balances, and abuse.

I think a lot of people skip this book once they read what it's about, but I would definitely give it a chance if you're on the fence. I love how realistic the relationships are in this story. You can understand why the characters do the things they do, and the backdrop of their lives is so well written. The ending felt like a bit of a let down, only because it felt like it shouldn't have ended as well as it did. Overall I had a hard time putting this one down, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I would have given this more stars as I truly do think this was wonderfully written. I am just having a hard time getting past the fact that she was 8 when this all started and by 13 they were practically having sex. The ending also bothered me that all was just well and felt so neatly wrapped given the complexity of this entire book/situation. Also the twist at the end — wtf why was that even significant? Was that to help humanize a pedifile? Nobody should feel sorry for someone who grooms little girls no matter how “mature” they seem. GROSS! IDK why someone would be okay with even writing about this.

Uncomfortable read.

Uncomfortable. This book made me uncomfortable. A 13 year age difference isn't a huge deal between consenting adults, but she was 8 when he met her at 21. This book romanticizes pedophilia and sexualizes children and is written in a way to make you sympathetic to the situation. The male character even goes on about how her body is still childlike when she's finally at an adult age. I bought this book because it was very highly rated on goodreads and BOTM, and seriously wtf? Yes, the writing is compelling even if it switched between 1st person and 3rd person arbitrarily, and the romance would have been sweet if he wasn't a raging pedophile and she wasn't a mentally abused child that needed intensive therapy. If you weren't hoping that Butch or Nurse Patty reported it before anything happened between them, then what is wrong with you? This isn't some Renesme bs where the werewolf stays the same age until the girl grows up (which was also gross), this is highly probable friends of the family grooming vulnerable abused children into romantic relationships. This is real and it's not okay. And I don't care that it was the 70's-80's and back in the day this was normalized. You should know better not to publish this crap in 2016. Not okay. And the only character that was trying to point out that this situation was wrong and was actively trying to step in was vilified for it.
And all the people who want to go off about how this book was controversial on purpose, no. You do not write multiple sex scenes involving 13 year olds where you describe their underdeveloped body in detail. No. Arguing that it wasn't pedophilia because it was a one time thing and he was also attracted to adults. You are the problem. Trying to argue semantics when an abused child is being sexualized by a formerly abused adult is pathetic. Nothing about this situation should have been romanticized.

I picked this book for my library book group. I am now kind of dreading the discussion. Many reviewers on the amazon page see the relationship in the book as pedophilia. And yet The Book of the Month readers picked it as The Book of the Year for 2016.

In reading the book, I kept seeing Wavy as a lost abused child. The grownups who were supposed to care for her put her into abusive conditions. Kellen was also a victim of abuse. He is only takes care of her - protects her and gets her to school. Is the relationship “right”? No. Was I totally comfortable reading this book? No. But it all happens in a very broken world. Kellen and Wavy have a loving connection. They see each other as family. Is it an abusive relationship? I didn't think so.

Oh well - if anyone shows up for the discussion, we will have an interesting talk.

This book had me feeling so many things....anger, sadness, hate, love....every emotion you could think of. I was glad that Kellen was there for Wavy when she was younger and didn't have anyone else. But on the other hand, sometimes I felt like their relationship went a bit far when she was a child. Do I like how it ended? I'm still not sure about that....

Not sure what I think about this so I'm going with 3 stars. I didn't find it to be either romantic or distasteful...just mostly sad even with its hopeful ending. I give Greenwood credit for writing a story that had such ambiguous morality. I was sure I would come away with it in indignant anger for glorifying child sexual abuse. But it just wasn't that black and white. I guess I come down more on the side of “Ick” than “Awww,” but considering I worked with child sexual abuse victims for 6 years I'm surprised I can be even that charitable.

I like Greenwood's style of employing multiple narrators so the reader can see diverse views on the same events, and characters such as Amy and Renee really came alive for me. The novel certainly isn't for the faint-hearted, but it definitely displays humanity in all of its “ugly and wonderful” aspects. I won't soon forget it.

Overall a pretty quick slice-of-life read as the writing flowed and had a simple style.

This book covered the expanse of about 15 years, from when Wavy was 8 to 21 years old. The story was the best part of the whole book because it followed all of the characters that interacted with Wavy or Kellen and their perceptions of the characters' unusual budding love story. I usually have to like the characters to some capacity in order to really enjoy a book, and for the most part I did, but I didn't connect to them all that much in this book. A lot of them seemed very two-dimensional and their backgrounds seemed very good-on-paper but not realistic. The writing, as I mentioned, was simple, and while not my favorite, it did allow for a relatively fast read. The story itself kept me interested because it unraveled over a longer time-period than we see in most books and provided a good backdrop to Wavy and Kellen's love story.

This was a very hard read, as I mostly felt uncomfortable reading this love story of a grown man and a very underage girl. But the writing was easy and captivating enough to keep me going until the end. A bit freaked out this won a goodreads award.

This book his heartbreaking, heartwarming, agonizing, beautiful, ugly, weird, disturbing and elegant. I have no idea how I feel about it but know that it was a well worth read that I finished in 2 days.

nem tudom, miért gondolják emberek, hogy csak kényelmes témájú, szájbarágós könyvekre lehet öt csillagot adni.

Drew me in and kept me riveted

Such an amazing story. Well written, so intriguing and it kept me reading well after bed times and even getting up early to read before getting ready for work. So many feelings.

Disturbing, compelling, compulsive, fantastic

WOW, so I don't think I can write a review that would do this book an ounce of justice, but I'll give it my best shot...



Originally I was going to give this one a pass. The ages of the two main characters , and the subject matter just didn't sit right with me as a mother of a 14 and 11 year old. I just didn't think I could go into this with an open mind. That said, I kept seeing all these 4 and 5 star reviews, and I'll admit, my curiosity got the better of me. And man am I glad it did.

This was one of the most heart wrenching, uncomfortable, and amazingly written books I had read in a LONG time. Each and every character was so well written. There are multiple POVs throughout that slowly peel away layer upon layer of this beautiful and often times disturbing story. Wavy broke my heart. The things this poor girl has been through destroyed me. Kellan was her everything. Her port in the storm that was her life and her his.

Look, this is going to be one of those books that you either LOVE or you HATE. I'm not sure there is a lot of middle ground with this one. Yes the subject matter is disturbing. I'm don't think there will be too many people who are NOT disturbed by the friendship (love) between Wavy and Kellan. In the context of this story though, it worked.

Amazing, simply one of the best books I had read so far this year.