Genre: Book
Grade: A-
Notable People: Bryn Greenwood
Title: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Review: this was a difficult book, both to read and to review. I’ll start off by saying it’s extremely well written and engaging. The characters are well developed and its sense of place is vivid. After that, it gets murky; this is a story that some would see as a touching and unlikely love story and some would see as a heinous portrayal of sexual abuse -and even incest. I wanted to put this book down many times, but stuck with it and its complexity drew me in and resulted in my telling other people to check it out, whose careers, like mine, have dealt with these kinds of taboos. It will challenge you and your opinions, values and sensibilities. In its essence, it is the story of a traumatized little girl, very emotionally limited and with a series of compulsive kinds of issues, who is trying to survive from a drug dealing and violent, neglectful family- and who finds what many would see as inappropriate love and nurturance. It’s often hard to tell who the good guys and the bad guys are in this book. Certainly not for everyone, but if you want challenge, give it a try.