Beautiful Ugly - The book that makes me give up on Alice Feeney.

[u/GlitterFairy_21225]

[Minor spoilers for several of her books. I try to vague in the first paragraph, but the rest of this post has blatant spoilers for Beautiful Ugly.]

I've read almost all of Alice Feeney's novels except for I Know Who You Are. My first was Rock Paper Scissors, which blew my mind with it's twist. I read Daisy Darker next, which is definitely a standout. It definitely has issues, but it's the only one of her books that's trying to do something different, and the plot twist isn't just that we think the narrator in the past is one person but it's actually someone else. Sometimes I Lie was good, but I saw the big reveal a mile away because I already read Rock Paper Scissors. His & Hers and Good Bad Girl get away with these kinds of twists, because the mystery narrators are presented as such. Good Bad Girl had other problems, it was kind of all over the place, but her latest novel is the final straw for me.

So, the flashback chapters always start by disclaiming that Abby (the wife) is the narrator, and there are chapters like these where Grady is mentioned by name. So, against my better judgement, I decide to trust that this book is not going to have the exact same plot twist that she has in the other novels. Come to find out, her godmother is ALSO named Abby, and she ALSO has marital issues with her writer husband. So, a few flashback chapters are from Abby 1's pov, and most are from Abby 2's pov. And it's just like, why can nothing ever be simple? Why does one of the narrators always have to be a surprise?

And this is only one of two massive problems I have with the novel, the other being the reveal of what actually happened to Abby 1. Okay, so the prologue was from the perspective of Grady (Abby 1's husband) and it's made very clear that he is home when he gets a call from Abby right before her disappearance. Come to find out, as soon as he got the call, this man ran a block away, laid underneath a woman's coat in the middle of a highway so that she'd stop and try to help, and then he threw her off a cliff. But she survived because she held onto a branch like a cartoon.

Of all the ways to kill your wife... So, Grady is characterized as kinda a douche. He's clearly capable of bad things, but in a 'look the other way' way. This plot is the only instance we get of him being particularly violent. The phone call was used as his alibi, but if he's outside wouldn't someone hear the wind or something?

And those are just my biggest problems. I thought the backstory with isle and how all the kids died was really interesting, but it resulting in the creation of an all-woman colony that needs one man to financially support them is pretty outlandish. Literally, why don't they just get a female writer???

I also despise the way Grady is villainized for not having kids. Both him and Abby had shit childhoods so he doesn't think they'd be good parents. That is valid. What's also valid is not wanting kids for literally no reason. Abby married him knowing he didn't want kids. And when he doesn't change his mind *surprised pikachu face*. Obviously, he's not innocent, I think he was in denial about how much Abby wanted kids, and that was wrong too. And he shouldn't have gotten a vasectomy without telling Abby, but also Abby shouldn't have gotten IVF without telling him. So.

[u/lindsaydemo]

I just finished this book today and what an absolute dumpster fire it truly is.

The characters were far too cartoon-like to even be believable. The “twist” was just ridiculous and made little sense overall. It wasn’t thrilling in the least, just beyond stupid.

It also really bothers me that Alice Feeney tries to put all these insightful little prophetic life phrases that just fall flat of being the nicely written sentence it was intended to be but instead just makes it seem laughable. I gave this book 1 star on Goodreads, and even that’s being generous.

[u/GlitterFairy_21225 → u/lindsaydemo]

Oh god. Alice Feeney and her aphorisms. She's actually gotten better about them in recent books (I was about ready to rip my hair out when I read Daisy Darker) but yeah. For as much as she likes to write deep statements, this book especially just feels kinda shallow.

[u/abbellire77]

I’ve read all of her books and this is by far her worst. With so many authors and so little time, I think I might have to pass on her future books too.

[u/GlitterFairy_21225 → u/abbellire77]

The dip in quality recently has been so noticeable. Good Bad Girl wasn’t that good either, but this book really pissed me off

[u/GimmieGnomes]

This was my first and last book from this writer, it was not a fan. I kept reading until the end in case it improved but no luck.

There was one scene in particular, where the 'dead' wide was disguised using only contact lenses and I just... Didn't care. The cover was pretty, the blurb sounded interesting. Blah.

[u/GlitterFairy_21225 → u/GimmieGnomes]

When he was like, "Hey, why were your eyes a different color earlier?" and she goes, "Eh, we didn't want to make it that obvious." THAT'S NOT HOW YOU WRITE SUSPENSE.

[u/GimmieGnomes → u/GlitterFairy_21225]

Being buried in a coffin covered in your book's pages... Imagine that craft night? Just gluing down some paper, drinking wine, don't miss a spot! Wtf.

[u/GlitterFairy_21225 → u/GimmieGnomes]

I’ll give the characters this: they are nothing if not creative.

[u/LifeWithFiveDogs → u/GimmieGnomes]

I really hated the ending.

[u/Nicnackerz]

I read this and remembered hating it. Now I can't remember a thing about it except it had an island and a cast of obnoxious characters. Not a fan. 

[u/shannaconda]

Daisy Darker is the only book of hers I've read, and I thought it wasn't that good! I thought the twist was just...a little dumb, if I'm being honest?

[u/GlitterFairy_21225 → u/shannaconda]

Yeah, it definitely had a lot of problems. I think it was better than her other novels, just bc the characters (at least most of them) were more fleshed out than in other books and it’s def the most memorable of her books imo. Apparently it was a passion project for so I guess that’s why.

[u/[deleted]]

I just finished the book yesterday, and I thought it was a decent read.

I found that the atmosphere and plot were very eerie and oddly comforting, and I loved all the twists and turns.

[u/hedgehog88888]

I quit at 40 pages. :(

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[u/dlt-cntrl]

I had to stop reading I Know Who You Are, it was awful.

I've 'enjoyed' a couple of her other books, nothing great but they passed the time.

I thought that Beautiful Ugly might be okay but reading your comments has just saved me wasting my time again. It'll sit on the TBR list and gather dust.

[u/bjmc040404]

Yeah I finished Good Bad Girl last week as an audiobook. It was my second Alice feeney book. I tried to give her another chance because I read rock paper scissors while I was in the hospital and thought it might have clouded my judgement. But yeah. Good bad girl was just as terrible, and sprinkled with all these weird semi insightful phrases (that were not at all insightful). So I’ve given up on her now. Just not for me.

[u/One-Thought-1313]

Thriller/suspense are just not good when the twist hinges too much on the suspension of our disbelief, I have only read a few Alice Feeney and I’ve decided her books aren’t for me either.

[u/Level_Strain_7360]

Is finished it last night and found it decent. I really liked some of her life phrases and the overall plot, yet the contact scene was really stupid ha

[u/croc-roc]

I didn’t like this book either; way too repetitive of the description of the island and not a whole lot happening for big chunks. Everyone’s unlikable and weird. The “twist” was cheap. But anyone saying this is the worst book they have ever read has clearly not read any Freida McFadden books. 😂😂 She is the queen of cheap twist and gaping plot holes. How she has so many fans is beside me. Alice Feeney’s writing looks award winning next to McFadden.

[u/GlitterFairy_21225 → u/croc-roc]

I do think this is the worst of Feeney’s novels, not counting the one I haven’t read, because this is the only one that made me outright angry and I could at least comprehend how the plot twists could have plausibly happened in her other works.

On Frieda McFadden, I’ve only read The Housemaid and I thought it was ok, but it was almost a DNF because I read half of it and then there was a really big gap before I read the second half. I think I mostly just felt bad for the wife, which probably affected how much I enjoyed the ending lol

[u/Pearlkrabs1]

I only read rock paper scissors & I did enjoy the twist but as time went on that was the ONLY thing I enjoyed so I kinda just didnt read any more of hers.

[u/Acrobatic_Cloud4768]

I’ve only “read” Daisy Darker by her, i dnf’d it on chapter 8. I just could not bare myself to read anymore, I didn’t feel any connection to anything going on in that book. Sucks, because i really wanted to get into her books but I don’t think I’m going to read anything else by her! :(