Note - this book is not for everyone so please familiarize yourself with the description in detail before deciding to read it.
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is a highly unusual book with an unconventional storyline that i was surprised to find that I liked (and didn’t like). This book made me feel a lot and those feelings were highly varied, running the entire gamut — anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. Note that this list corresponds to the six basic emotions identified by Paul Ekman, a psychologist who pioneered the study of emotions.
The writing and character development is outstanding. If a book is supposed to make us feel, then this has it in spades. I was immediately drawn in by the first sentence:
My mother always started the story by saying, “Well, she was born in the backseat of a stranger’s car,” as though that explained why Wavy wasn’t normal.
This is a story of two very flawed human beings, both of who feel unwanted and worthless, who find what they need in each other.
The protagonist of the story is Wavy who we watch grow up. Her childhood home life was unstable at best. Her father was rarely present because he was busy making illegal drugs. Her mother was unreliable and lacked the ability to nurture and love. Wavy never knew which mother she would encounter at any one time because her mother was a drug addict.
Then one day she woke up Scary Mama instead of Good Mama, and I knew things weren’t going to be different. I never knew which Mama she would be when she woke up.
Wavy’s mother traumatized and emotionally abused her with the result that she never ate in front of anyone and barely spoke. The responsibility for raising her younger brother Donal became Wavy’s because if she didn’t look after him, then no one would.
If anybody wanted to know why that kid [Wavy] never talked, I could’ve told them. That’s what happens when your mom grabs you by the hair, clamps her hand over your mouth, and gives you a good shake while screaming in your face, “Don’t you ever talk to people! You don’t talk to anyone!” That’s what Val did to Wavy when she was about three years old.
Sad Mama didn’t care when Donal cried, and he cried a lot. “I’m so alone,” she said. Donal and I didn’t count.
Reading about how Wavy is being raised is heartbreaking. But her world suddenly changes when Kelllen enters her life. The chapters alternate with different POVs which I found greatly enhanced the telling of this story.
I absolutely loved the writing — here are a few of my favorites:
Right then, I realized I’d been going about things the wrong way. You make people interested in you by keeping secrets, not by passing them out like candy at Halloween.
The quizzes helped Renee empty her heart, and she filled it so quickly with the wrong things, it was no wonder she needed to empty it.
Renee ate in darting little bites and without chewing enough. The same way she filled her heart. Too quickly, and with too much talking and not enough feeling
Wavy made the face that meant, “Do you know what it’s like being me?” I honestly didn’t want to know, because she was pretty fucked up. I liked to play at tragedy, but she drank it out of her baby bottle.
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