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.
I wasn’t totally familiar with Alice Feeney’s work previously, but at the bookstore it seems like she does have quite the selection. Anyway, glad to have picked this up, although ultimately it wasn’t the kind of book for me.
Beautiful Ugly mostly takes place on a tiny (isolated) Scottish island, where our protagonist, Grady, goes to try to finally write a book to get his life back on track. His wife Abby had disappeared over a year ago one night, mysteriously, and Grady had not recovered since. The island seems to be a peaceful idyllic getaway, far from distractions of modern London life. However, Grady, who has slowly been descending into madness, seems to see his missing wife everywhere he goes. And mysterious messages appear, targeted just at him, the lone visitor on the island. Just what happened to his wife that fateful night?
The premise of the book is classic, and honestly good. The island offers an easy closed-room scenario, and I always love a closed-room murder mystery (though this is a thriller). We also get the POV of Abby before the disappearance, which offers nice backstory and more color to the perspective we get from the story. Honestly, neither the husband nor the wife are particularly lovable, and it seems to be a mostly failing marriage that results in whatever catastrophic ending the book seems to have in store.
The suspense was pretty good. I struggle to say that it was “suspense” because the stakes didn’t feel that high, it was more like a constant level of stress and paranoia, as the protagonist became more and more unreliable in his narration. This was well-executed, and it really did feel like Grady was losing his mind, but it didn’t feel like he was really in danger in the book. It just seemed more like someone was trying to get under his nerves. So if you’re looking for that really solid, tangible psychological suspense, I would not say this book gets that. However, holding on that confusing and unreliable narration really helped drive the story along, and I really wanted to know what happened.
Unfortunately, this is where it all fell apart. The twists and turns and reveals were quite good right at the climax. But I seriously felt the denouement and resolution made no sense. I even tried re-reading a couple of the key chapters to piece together how the final reveal would have worked out logistically and practically, and I just don’t see it. I see the others online agree, but even as hard as I tried to find it believable, I really just didn’t. And this isn’t even a case of deus ex machina; I don’t think what was offered in the book was remotely possible, even though it was written as if it was a completely logical surprise reveal. Very disappointing.
Anyway, assuming I’m not the one who’s crazy (ha), I don’t recommend this one just for the logical unbelievability at the end. That said, I did enjoy the writing style, and the suspense was well-woven (albeit could have used better stakes). I am not at all satisfied with this particular book’s ending, but I do think I’d be willing to try one of her other ones and see if I have any better luck.
Down the Rabbit Hole 