Bryn Greenwood – All the Ugly and Wonderful Things- ARC review

Synopsis

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.

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ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Ez egy igazán különleges történet volt. A cím igazán találó, hiszen amellett, hogy feszegette a határokat, megmutatta az élet és a szerelem minden szépségét és csúfságát. Azt hiszem, a fő mondanivaló mégis az volt, hogy néha a legmeglepőbb helyen találjuk meg a legszebb szerelmet. Ami másoknak talán nem tűnik „valóságosnak”, ami mások számára visszataszító és elítélt, az talán valaki számára mégis a legcsodálatosabb és legszebb dolog a világon.

Wawy egy különleges, furcsa, megtört lelkű kislány. Hamar fel kellett nőnie, hiszen szülei börtönt járt drogfüggők, az anyja egy őrült, az apja pedig egy drogdíler. A kislány maradandó sebeket hordoz magában egészen kicsi korától kezdve, ezért is nem engedi, hogy hozzáérjenek, nem beszél egy szót sem és látszólag soha nem is eszik. Azonban a legfontosabb számára az, hogy a kisöccse gondját viselje, és vigyázzon rá, amíg az őrült házban laknak a puszta közepén, egy farmon. Aztán megérkezik az életébe Keller.

Keller egy huszonéves, nagydarab motoros, aki külsőleg talán ijesztő, de a felszín alatt egy nagyon-nagyon gondoskodó, kedves, figyelmes srác. Wawy csupán 8 éves, amikor összebarátkoznak, és ő az egyetlen, akit az öccsén kívül közel enged magához. Az évek múlásával, mikor a kislány 14 éves lesz, a barátságuk szerelemmé alakul. Azonban egyetlen szempillantás alatt a világuk a feje tetejére áll, és talán soha nem is találják meg újra a lábuk alatt a szilárd talajt.

Ez egy tabu könyv. Egy idősebb férfi és egy fiatal lány története, és bár nem titok, hogy nem ezek a típusú könyvek a kedvenceim, ez mégis nagyon különleges volt, és magával ragadott az első oldalaktól. Talán azért mert Wawy soha nem kislányként gondolkodott, hanem első perctől kezdve volt benne egy olyan bölcsesség és élettapasztalat, ami sok felnőttből is hiányzik. Talán mert Keller őszintén beleszeretett a kislányba, és nem is léptek át minden határt. Talán a könyv különleges felépítése tette, hiszen legalább 15 szemszögből íródott, ami talán más könyveknél zavaró lett volna, de itt egyszerűen különlegessé és tökéletessé tette a történetet.

Ez a könyv leginkább Beth Flynn Nine Minutes című könyvére emlékeztetett. Egyértelműen nem volt annyira durva, de néhol ez a kötet is igazán felkavaró volt, igazi függőséget okozott és nagyon izgalmas és fordulatos is volt. 
Összességében mindenkinek ajánlom, aki szeretné egy kicsit feszegetni a határait. Kiváló debütáló kötet, és tényleg le a kalappal az írónő előtt.

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My Review in English

This was a really unique book. The title is perfect because – besides it pushes some boundaries – it highlights all the ugly and wonderful things about life and love. Still, I think the main massage of this story was that sometimes we find the most beautiful love in the most surprising places. What not seems “real” for someone, what seems repulsive and convicted for the people, still could be the most wonderful and beautiful thing for someone.

Wawy is a strange, broken little girl. She had to grow up fast, because her parents are drug addicts with criminal records. Her mother is obviously mentally ill and her father is a drug dealer. Wawy carries permanent scars in her. She doesn’t allow for anyone to touch her, she doesn’t speak, and it seems that she doesn’t eat anything at all. The most important thing in her life is her little brother, and she is the only one who takes care of him and looks after him, in the crazy house on the fields in the middle of nowhere. And then Keller arrives in her life.

Keller is a twenty-something-year-old, burly biker, who is maybe a little scary on the outside, but under the layers he is a really caring, kind, thoughtful guy. Wawy is only 8 years old, when they become friends, and he is the only one beside her little brother who she lets close to her. As the years pass by, their friendship slowly changes into love. But in the blink of an eye their world is turned upside down, and after this maybe they will never be able to find the solid ground under their feet. 

This is a taboo book. An older guy and a young girl. It’s not a huge secret that this is not my usual genre, but this book was really unique and it captivated me from the very first pages. Maybe I felt this way, because Wawy’s thinking never was like I read a kid’s thoughts, there were some kind of wisdom and life experience inside her from the first moments what sometimes is missing even from many adults. Maybe I felt this way because Keller truly fell in love with her and they didn’t cross all of the boundaries. Maybe because the truly unique build of the book, because there were at least 15 points of views in this book, and maybe this would have been confusing in other books, but here it made this story unique and perfect.

This book reminded me a little of Nine Minutes by Beth Flynn. The story was not as dark but sometimes this book was just as upsetting, and it was addictive and it contained many twists and turns just like that novel. 

I highly recommend this book for everyone who would like to push their boundaries with a taboo book. It was truly an outstanding and unforgettable debut novel. 

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My Favorite Quotes From the Book

“I do love you,” (…) “I love you all the way.”

“I liked learning things. How numbers worked together to explain the stars. How molecules made the world. All the ugly and wonderful things people had done over the past two thousand years.”

“…but the fact is, he loved that girl. He treated her good, took care of her, made sure she went to school. He looked out for her when nobody else did.”

“You can look up keening in the dictionary, but you don’t know what it means until you hear somebody having their heart ripped out.”

“I thought then of Voyager 1 and 2, so far away. They were launched the same year I met Kellen, and now they had reached the end of our solar system. Although their programs were being powered down one by one, they traveled on…that was how I felt, as I walked down the driveway to my car. I was moving forward into space, but I would never come home again.”

“I was selfish to wish for you,”

“No woman had ever looked at me the way she did, or touched me that way. Like she wanted me, like I was worth wanting.”

Would he understand the message? Would he think it was dirty? No. He said, _if you love me as much as I love you, it’s not dirty. I loved him all the way and that meant nothing was dirty.

“I wanted a fairy tale ending for Wavy, because if she could find happiness, there would be hope for me, too.”

4- Cassiopeia… – Stars

This field of wheat in central Kansas is nearly ready for harvest. An unusual misty morning added misty drops to the wheat stalks. Focus is on wheat closest in foreground.

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About the Author

Bryn Greenwood is a fourth-generation91ZkIGGFmNL._UX250_ Kansan and the daughter of a mostly reformed drug dealer. She earned an MA in Creative Writing and continues to work in academia as an administrator. She is the author of the novels ALL THE UGLY AND WONDERFUL THINGS, LAST WILL, and LIE LAY LAIN. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas, and is married to an extensive home remodeling project. You can find links to her blog and more of her stories at www.bryngreenwood.com.

 

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