All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is just that: ugly and wonderful all at the same time. An epic love story...This book will be the birth of a vibrant debate about the law and societal norms as your book club members will truly be divided by the actions of our male lead. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for this one!" — InStyle UK There were so many POV’s that shaped this story. We don’t just get Wavy and Kellen, we get many side characters. Normally, I don’t love that in a story but it really worked for the way this was told. it's official - coolest author-present ever!! thank you for this, and for writing this book, o bryn greenwood!! Bryn Greenwood: I worked for many years at a domestic violence shelter, so I’ve met and talked with many victims of DV, both adults and children. It’s a situation that so often appears in fiction and film for sensationalist purposes, so it was very important for me to try to show what abusive relationships look like when they’re not dramatized. In fact, it was only after I’d worked at the shelter for some time that I realized one of my previous relationships was verbally and emotionally abusive. Abuse that doesn’t include physical violence can be so invisible in our society.

Mom returned with a towel, which she tried to put over Wavy’s dripping hair. Before Mom could touch her, Wavy snatched the towel away and dried her own hair. Bryn Greenwood is a master storyteller. Her words put you right in the story with the characters. Her descriptions and characters are raw and almost too real. She was good at making me question my moral boundaries.

She nodded against my arm and after that, we were quiet. We didn’t need to talk. We just laid there watching falling stars go streaking white through all that darkness. While Greenwood is trying to push boundaries and make people take another look at consent and age, it’s still disturbing. I kept thinking there was something wrong in Wavy and Kellan’s heads.

The police came to make a report, to get a picture, to put out a bulletin. The neighbors turned out to look for Wavy, but at dawn she returned on her own.The story was told in multiple points of view. That gave more than one opinion and insight into what was going on. In some ways, that eased some of the sting I might have felt otherwise. It made me empathize and sympathize with the characters. This book destroyed me. I have never read anything like it. If you know the basic premise - that this is a so-called "love story" between an adult man and a female child - you might be thinking Lolita! But nah, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is a completely different beast. That’s it,” Sue said. “She came to us wearing a man’s undershirt. Those are the clothes the foster family got together for her.” If we could give this more than five stars we most definitely would. But, since we can't this gets another five ***** sparkly stars from me! My sister, Brenda and I decided to do another sister read and this time around we chose ALL THE UGLY AND WONDERFUL THINGS by BRYN GREENWOOD. What an extremely good choice we made in reading this one together. This is by far the best book we have read in quite some time and we have read some pretty good books lately.

At lunch, Wavy sat at the table, but didn’t eat anything. Same thing at dinner and breakfast the next morning.

Beyond the Book

Bryn Greenwood: Obviously, my agent and my editor at St. Martin’s Press were my strongest supporters for this book. My agent loved the story enough that she took it to auction. My editor loved it enough that she bought and published it. Neither of them ever suggested to me that I should change it. As for me, the riskier something is the more likely I am to try it. I wrote the book with my whole heart and it never occurred to me to be afraid to send it out into the world. I would rather write books that are problematic but passionate than something I feel lukewarm about.