Beautiful Ugly – Book Review

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.‘

Author Grady Green’s best day turns into a nightmare. When Grady received the call that he is now officially a New York Times bestseller, he was on call with his wife Abby. Abby is an investigative reporter and her work sometimes could make her life dangerous. While on call, Abby slams down her brakes and gets down from the car while Grady asks her not to. And then seemingly, Abby disappeared.

Now a year later Grady is struggling with his wife’s disappearance and he hadn’t written a single word since his wife’s disappearance. His agent, Kitty offers him a getaway–a famous author named Charlie used to own a cabin on a Scottish island called Isle of Waverly. Grady is supposed to overcome the writer’s block as soon as he arrives the cabin. But while on the island, he sees a woman who looks just like his wife Abby. And the people living in the island seemed to be giving Grady some creepy vibes. The fact that the whole island is occupied by only women and no men irked Grady out and Grady wanted to leave the island but not before finding out who this woman is…

The story started out great. I enjoyed the first part of the book. While Grady believed that his marriage to Abby was a happy one, Abby’s POV suggest otherwise. The story also has a horror element in it, thus giving a creepy vibe sensation in the book. The mysterious person who leaves newspaper articles written by Grady’s wife also further makes the story interesting to read. The concept and the realization that only women live on the island made the story far more interesting. I mean whatever happened to the men living on the island? I just like the subtle touch on feminism in this book. I did have high hopes for this book. But the ending, kind of ruined every thing. I didn’t very much enjoy the reading. Although there were twists at the end, I thought that twist kind of brought the whole story down. Thus it lowered my rating from a 4 star read to a 3.5 star read.

If you haven’t read Alice Feeney’s books, I suggest read His and Hers and Rock, Paper and Scissors which are my personal favorite. This latest novel, Beautiful Ugly is OK in my opinion.