Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Alice Feeney's most recent novel, Beautiful Ugly, is the first of her books that I've read. It is her seventh novel and she has an eighth coming out in January of 2026. Several of her books are currently being adapted for the screen. His & Hers comes out on Netflix in early January, starring Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal, and Sometimes I Lie is being developed as a television series as well. Beautiful Ugly was recently acquired by Hidden Pictures to potentially be made into a feature film. It deals with bullying, references of child death, alcoholism, death, pedophilia and sexual assault, toxic relationships, grief, gaslighting, and references to domestic abuse, suicide, violence, and abandonment.

Grady Green was at the pinnacle of his career when the worst thing happened to him, derailing his life and his career. His most recent book was just placed on the New York Times Bestseller list and he calls his wife to give her the good news. While on the phone, he hears her get out of the car to help a woman lying in the street but she never comes back to the phone. A year later, his wife still hasn't been found and Grady is unable to do anything. He can't sleep and he certainly can't write. Trying to put himself back together, he travels to a remote Scottish island to use an even more remote cabin to finally focus on writing a new book - with zero distractions. But once Grady is on the island he begins to wonder, is he the problem or are the people on the island acting very strangely?

I enjoyed this book. This is probably the thriller that I've enjoyed the most recently. Grady is not the most likeable character but you do hope that he starts to get his life back together and the island seems like a great option (the only option) he has to do that. As the book progresses, you start to wonder if Grady is a particularly unreliable narrator, if he is in fact starting to lose his faculties, or if the islanders are really acting suspicious. My opinion was constantly changing on which it was or if it was option D. all of the above. There was a bit of a twist at the end, but I would say it was done well. The author did not stake the entire book on the twist while neglecting the rest of the plot, it just made things a little more clear. I was not fully sold on the way the book wrapped up, but I still enjoyed it for the most part and will probably read another Alice Feeney book to see how much I like it. Maybe I'll give His & Hers a try before watching the television series.

I'm giving Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney 4 stars out of 5. It kept me guessing and I enjoyed the majority of the book, though I wasn't a huge fan of the way it ended.

For more from the author, check out her website at https://www.alicefeeney.com/

Pairs well with a bacon sandwich and investing in quality walkie-talkies.

My favorite quotes from the book:

"They spend their lives searching for a better one, wanting more, needing more, blind to the fact that they already had it all."

"Life is beautiful and life is ugly and we have to learn to live with both sides of that same coin and see the light in the darkness."

"Maybe everyone reaches an age when they can't help thinking that they should have done more, lived more, been more than who they are. I'm not who I wanted to be."