Book Review: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

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ALL THE UGLY AND WONDERFUL THINGS
Author:Bryn Greenwood
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Coming of Age | Dark
Released: August 9, 2016
Review Source: Thomas Dunne Books

As the daughter of a meth dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. Struggling to raise her little brother, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible "adult" around. She finds peace in the starry Midwestern night sky above the fields behind her house. One night everything changes when she witnesses one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold, wreck his motorcycle. What follows is a powerful and shocking love story between two unlikely people that asks tough questions, reminding us of all the ugly and wonderful things that life has to offer.

Where do I even start with this one!?  I absolutely loved this book.  This book has a whole lot of ugly as the title suggests but there is beauty in overcoming the horrible things life sometimes throws at you.

The mother in me truly struggled to read certain parts of this book. Hearing the realness of what kids go through in a drug influenced atmosphere was so incredibly heartbreaking. I wanted to put myself in this insane world and hug Wavy and Donal and take them away from the horrible lives they had to endure for so long.

The story begins in the spring of '75 in a small town in the Midwest.  It's written in multiple point of views, which I normal freakin HATE but it works in this book.  Wavy, a six year old little girl, and her brother Donal, a baby, are dealt an extremely shitty hand. They live with a certifiably crazy, drug addicted mother, Val and occasionally Liam, their meth making/dealing father would come around.  Val's neglect forces Wavy to look after herself and her baby brother.  Two years later, after being moved around from different family member's homes, Wavy is back with her mother.  Standing in a field, she notices a man she had never seen before, on a motorcycle, coming down the road. He notices her too, causing him to crash his bike.  Both of their lives changed that day.  The book covers more than a decade of the lives and experiences of the characters.

I don't want to say anything more about the story line because I feel it would give the story away.  I had such mixed emotions reading this book. I think the writing was so raw and brilliant. It was unlike anything I have ever read before.  I had a love/hate relationship with Wavy's aunt, Brenda. The mother in me sides with every choice she makes, the 14 year old girl in me feels so sorry for Wavy.  While I felt closure at the end, I was left with a lot of questions.  I hope the author writes another book on Donal's life so I can see more from his point of view.

This book won't be for everyone so I have to put that out there. There are some topics some may struggle to read because at times it was hard for me but it was such an ugly, wonderful book. The title could not be more accurate.  I recommend everyone at least give this amazing story a chance. It's a life changing book that I'll never forget.

Book Review: Marrow by Tarryn Fisher + Giveaway

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Marrow
Author: Tarryn Fisher
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Dark | Romance | Thriller
Released: April 18th 2015
Review Source: Self-Published

In the Bone there is a house.

In the house there is a girl.

In the girl there is a darkness.

Margo is not like other girls. She lives in a derelict neighborhood called the Bone, in a cursed house, with her cursed mother, who hasn’t spoken to her in over two years. She lives her days feeling invisible. It’s not until she develops a friendship with her wheelchair-bound neighbor, Judah Grant, that things begin to change. When a neighborhood girl, seven-year-old Neveah Anthony, goes missing, Judah sets out to help Margo uncover what happened to her.

What Margo finds changes her, and with a new perspective on life, she’s determined to find evil and punish it–targeting rapists and child molesters, one by one.

But hunting evil is dangerous, and Margo risks losing everything, including her own soul.

Alright, here’s the deal people… I’ve now read two of Tarryn Fisher’s books this past month (not including Never Never), and I am hands down at her mercy. I’m to the point now where I’d read anything by her, give me her damn grocery list and I would be entranced. Not only are her stories captivating, raw, and blunt, but she writes with such elegance even the awful stuff sounds lyrical. As I’m reading Marrow, I’m just tagging pages after pages, quotes after quotes, of things that I know I need to remember, I’ll need to go back and read again, and things that are so ugly but so true.

“There is a house in the Bone, with a broken window. A sheet of newspaper covers the hole, secured around the edges with thick pieces of duct tape. The siding on the house sags like old flesh, holding up a roof that looks as if it’s bearing the world’s burdens.”

Margo lives in this run down house, the house she’s named the eating house, “Because, if you let it, this house will devour you, like it did my mother. Like it tries to devour me.”  Margo hasn’t had the greatest life, definitely doesn’t have the greatest mother, and lives in a pretty shitty town, where awful things happen, and people just get away with it. Well Margo is done with horrible people getting away with doing such heinous things to innocent people, so she takes matters in her own hands. Is something evil if it’s justified?

"Sadness is an emotion you can trust. It is stronger than all of the other emotions. It makes happiness look fickle and untrustworthy. It pervades, lasts longer, and replaces the good feelings with such an eloquent ease you don't even feel the shift until you are suddenly wrapped in its chains."

In reality, I think when someone pisses Tarryn off, or she sees something awful on the news and she literally won’t be able to do something about it, she writes a book and gets her own vengeance.  She may not be able to take matters in her own hands, but she’s able to use her hands to help get her frustrations out, to get a sort of revenge, and it becomes something beautiful, even if it’s about something evil.

Marrow is a book that will stay with you after that last page has been turned, the cover has been closed and it’s placed back on your shelf. Fisher’s books have had me sit and ponder, and question, and wish I could take certain matters in my own hands. Mud Vein was dark, gritty, and mysterious; Marrow was just the same (and they link together). Trust me when I say you’ll want to get a hold of these books now, and not be late to the game, you’ll only regret it. But remember, it’s not for the faint of heart, it’s dark, it hurts, but there’s truth to it, and even the ugly side of things need their story to be told and you wouldn’t want anyone but Tarryn Fisher to tell it.

P.S. Can we talk about her cover design people?! Man are they genius or what? That cover is GOLD. I want it as artwork hanging in my house.

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