Beautiful Ugly Review

by Alice Feeney

Rating: 5/5

A gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .

. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible — a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.

Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.

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Oh, my gawd! The twist in this one had me reeling!

The entire time this one gave me vibes of Gone Girl, but I enjoyed this so much more! Gone Girl was one I read, and hated and wished I had DNF’d. 

But this one,  I didn’t want to put down! This had me fully consumed from the very start. The unreliable narrator vibe truly kept me on my toes.

I feel like anytime we have a missing person, there’s always that unease from whichever perspective we’re following. Wondering how truthful anything we’re being told is. I wanted to trust Grady, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my doubts as well.

Plus, the vibes we see on this remote island are creepy AF! Anything Grady engaged with someone, my skin was crawling.

But I truly was not prepared for the twist we received. In fact, I legit had to stop reading and think through EVERYTHING I had just read. I was that shocked. I’m STILL shocked. In fact, this was a book I read for book club, and not everyone truly realized this twist, and when I brought this particular twist up, they were mindblown! This story was incredible and made for a great book club discussion! 

This was my first Feeney book, but I’m now a fan and can’t wait to read more of her books! I highly recommend this if you enjoy thriller mysteries with an unreliable narrator!