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  • All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

  • A Novel
  • Written by: Bryn Greenwood
  • Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
  • Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,068 ratings)

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All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Written by: Bryn Greenwood
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
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Publisher's Summary

A beautiful and provocative love story between two unlikely people and the hard-won relationship that elevates them above the Midwestern meth lab backdrop of their lives.

As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It's safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight.

Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house until one night her stargazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold.

By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. When tragedy rips Wavy's family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world.

A powerful novel you won't soon forget, Bryn Greenwood's All the Ugly and Wonderful Things challenges all we know and believe about love.

©2016 Bryn Greenwood (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

What the critics say

"Jorjeana Marie was meant to narrate this gripping story, which takes place in meth country in the Midwest. Neglected, abused 8-year-old Wavy Quinn is stargazing when she unintentionally causes Jesse Joe Kellen, an ex-con employee of her drug-dealing dad, to crash his motorcycle. Marie grippingly portrays this troubled pair who befriend each other after Wavy saves his life. Things come to a head when their relationship is misunderstood. In addition to deftly presenting the lead characters, Marie perfectly renders Wavy's adorable little brother and beloved grandmother. Some chapters are written from other characters' viewpoints over a period of 15 years, and Marie presents those flawlessly as well. Listeners will be eager to hear what happens next, always rooting for Wavy and Kellen." ( AudioFile Magazine)

What listeners say about All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Average Customer Ratings
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Awful

We started listening to this book on a road trip and were intrigued by the characters at first. However, the story of a very young child falling in love with a caring but none the less nondescript character, was implausible to us both. And then we both became very uncomfortable with the story as we could only describe it as child pornography. Stopped reading it altogether.

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

This needs a lot more work to justify this kind of story

As soon as you discover this is about a 13 year old and mid 20s guy having a romance, you ought to be reading this critically. And it’s my view that doesn’t do near enough work to earn the ending or to not be purely a romanticization of problematic issues without nuance, proper characterization, and believability.

For one, the characters characterization is built up prior to their relationship changing from a caregiver family friend to a sexualized one. As soon as it begins the story becomes plot driven, though still somewhat believable in terms of character driven plot.

However, as soon as that happens, every POV up until the aunt discovering their relationship completely romantizes every interaction they have. Even other people, usually girls, characterize Wavy as powerful, sexy, and beyond her years. And everyone else just sort of succumbs to her newly found mystique. As though she is wise beyond her years and somehow has agency.

Here’s the thing: the author frames the story so this isn’t objective. We are out into the headspace of purely the people who do not object to this, with the very small occasion of an adult being idk man, but does seem like they care about each other from what I can see.

There is no detail or scene given as much time as the sex and romantic aspects of their relationship. And every other perspective of people who aren’t Wavy’s cousins or friends are framed as antagonistic without us granted the same headspace as those people who approve of their being together. Even the apparent consent of the parents to the couple is glossed over to feed a plot point, rather than give nuance to the actual relationship.

Afterward the sexualization of Wavy, at 13, the agent of sexual awakening, apparently, and for the later entire half of the entire novel, there’s little to no characterization whatsoever. They no longer feel like they’re going to be fleshed out as actual people as their headspace is dominated by their thoughts of one another and there is no description, action, or any work at all to demonstrate that they’re lived in. And it also skates over things that would have had to have happened in this case.

Yeah, they’re broken people but even people who do not emotionally develop because of trauma are still situated in time and place and move through the world. Why did Wavy get no counselling? I’m not sure she could have actually refused a medical examination, or did she never go to the doctor ever in her life? Which would have negated a anticlimactic reveal.

They do not feel like real people, just vehicles for a question the author wants explored: Is there a situation in which this kind of relationship would be okay? The answer being, in a long enough time line and environmental factors adding two broken people, it’s the only way they can be okay, possibly.

Yet, the decision is made already by virtue of whose voices are given screen time, how those voices are slanted, and what information we are restricted from having. In a broken sort of way, a broken relationship can still be beautiful and true, right?

Except we don’t even get a full picture of the ways in which those traumas actually affect them at the time, nor the full effect. The only external factors are the system that rejects their relationship and their internalized beliefs about their relationship. Both serve no nuance. I don’t even buy the judge granting the other based on what Wavy said. Especially without a psych evaluation.

The head hopping wants to give the illusion that this is objective but reality is the farthest from intruding. The only thing the story succeeds at is romanticizing a very problematic relationship, in which no consent is possible - and the fact that the system does not support people with trauma.

Though, what the contours of their trauma actually is, who possibly knows.

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12 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Too many red flags for me

This book started out interesting, but got more and more uncomfortable as I went along. As a father of 4 daughters this book made me get more stressed as I went along. Couldn't finish it and wish I hadn't started.

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9 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

On the fence

This was a tricky one. Overall the writing was exceptional and Greenwood’s skill to keep the storyline moving forward is a true talent. With that being said, regardless of the emotional connection between Wavy and Kellen, I found the content extremely disturbing and had to stop listening … sometimes for a few days. We're talking about a little girl and a much older man and I had difficulty moving past that. I skipped several chapters and went right to the last four chapters to find out what happened. And I'm glad I did.
The narration was outstanding! Jorjeana Marie gave each character a unique personality, and there was never any confusion as to who was speaking.
I don’t know if I would recommend this book, but if I did, I would warn the reader that it might be difficult to get through at times.

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6 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not sure what I want to say

The narrator/s were pitch perfect. The book was well written,with good character development...particularly it’s main character.
However I needed to remind myself throughout the novel that she was a child who, because of her circumstance, was ripe for latching on to the first person who treated her with love and respect. In this case it is a fully grown man who often struggles (and loses) his desire to change the relationship from friend to lover. This started when she was 8 and was manifested by 13. While love was the only emotion each felt for the other...it sends a troubling message. This book is not for everyone. I’m still grappling with balancing the fiction of this book with a dangerous message.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

tough story to finish

this was a powerful novel however the graphical details at times were very difficulty digest.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A beautiful love story!

I'm a sucker for a good love story. Highly unusual, and no doubt controversial, this is one of the best love stories I've encountered!. Many ups and downs that kept me completely absorbed in the story. At times it was difficult to hear what was happening but the overriding tone helped me to understand what was happening and why; even though I don't agree with some of it.
The characters were very real in my mind. I thought the narration was outstanding! This is one of the few stories I will probably listen to again.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful twisted story

Kept me inthralled in thier lives. A+. The different perspectives in each chapter keep me feeling for almost everyone.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow

I can’t deny that this booked shocked me, it filled me with so many conflicting feelings and down right grossed me out at some parts. But the story itself is beautiful and the end really got me. It’s taboo and wrong but even so I couldn’t help falling in love with Wavy and Kellen and hoping they would have a happy ending. I do highly recommend this book, it can be hard at times but even so all I feel is contentment at the end.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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great book

an amazing performance coupled with a touching, complicated and heartbreaking story loved it so much

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3 people found this helpful