making things write
Grady Green is on the verge of a breakthrough. He’s been writing for years, but this latest book may turn out to be the New York Times bestseller he’s always dreamed of. He was at home waiting for the call from his agent, and waiting for his wife to get home. Abby was a journalist and running late, but she had their usual celebration dinner ready for him. On their first date, they’d had fish and chips. When they got engaged, they had fish and chips. And now that Grady’s novel is about to become a bestseller, Abby had bought them fish and chips.
But she never made it home that night.
Grady, on the phone with her, heard it when she stopped. There was someone lying in the road, and Abby was afraid that the woman was hurt. Grady begged her not to get out of the car. She’d been getting threats from someone who was unhappy with her reporting. But Abby couldn’t just leave someone in the middle of the road. Grady insisted she at least carry her phone with her. She does, and goes to check on the person, and then her phone goes dead. Only her car and her red coat were ever found.
A year passes, and there is still no word about Abby. But Grady is not coping well. He can’t write, so he goes through his savings pretty quickly. Without Abby there to help with the mortgage, he loses their house. He tries living in a London apartment for a while, but the rent is not sustainable without an income. So when he’s living in a cheap motel and about to be thrown out of there, his agent steps in.
Kitty was the one who had gotten Grady to the point where he could write his bestseller, and he was Abby’s godmother, so she knew the pain he was in. She offers him the use of a rustic cabin on a remote Scottish island for three months, rent-free, so he can come up with his next novel. He arrives on the island by ferry to find an island with only 25 permanent residents. Everyone knows everyone else, and they all know he’s the writer on the island to work on his book.
Grady worries that he still won’t be able to write. But within a few days, he discovers an unpublished novel from a popular author who had lived in the cabin previously and decides to rewrite that novel and submit it as his own. He spends several weeks with his head down working on making the manuscript his own. But after he gets his draft ready for his agent, he has some time to learn more about the island. And the more he sees, the more unsettled he feels. When he asks about the ferry going back to the mainland, he keeps getting put off. Grady doesn’t know who to trust. He’s haunted by his missing wife, who he keeps seeing everywhere, even thought that’s not possible. He’s drinking too much and sleeping too little. He’s starting to wonder what’s real and what’s not. But the feeling that he could be in danger is getting stronger and stronger, until karma steps in to make things right again.
Beautiful Ugly is a study of the dualities we all live with every day. We are basically good people who make mistakes constantly. We love but are selfish. We want to be successful at work but have fantastic relationships also. We are passive aggressive, perfectly imperfect, and silently screaming for love. And putting two people into a marriage can cause those similar differences to add up even higher.
Fans of Alice Feeney will know her for her deliciously twisty thrillers. She is a masterful writer, and Beautiful Ugly is no exception. She digs deep into the things that bring us together and break us apart, and she does it in a way that makes you miss the obvious clues until she hits you in the head with them. She is absolutely a genius of this genre, and Beautiful Ugly is a breathtaking example of how she is ten steps ahead of us all.
I listened to Beautiful Ugly on audio, narrated by Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton. I thought the narration was lovely. Armitage took on the voice of Grady, emphasizing his insecurities with ease. But I thought Middleton was amazing as the entire cast of women, particularly the women on the island. She was able to produce a strong Scottish accent, giving many of the characters a distinctive voice, but she kept it so that listeners could still understand what these women were saying. Her work added layers of meaning and passion to these women and gave them the strength and intelligence this listener was cheering for. I adored this audio version, and I think it’s richness will stand up to however many times you may want to listen to it.
An early copy of the audio book for Beautiful Ugly was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.
