TUESDAY POTPOURRI: “ALL THE UGLY & WONDERFUL THINGS”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Books & a Beat.

Today’s book is a new download from a new-to-me author:  All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, by Bryn Greenwood.

 

 

 

Intro:  (Amy – March 1975)

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.  It seemed to me that could happen to anybody.  Maybe on the way to the hospital, your parents’ respectable, middle class car broke down.  That was not what happened to Wavy.  She was born in the backseat of a stranger’s car, because Uncle Liam and Aunt Val were homeless, driving through Texas when their old beat-up van broke down.  Nine months pregnant, Aunt Val hitchhiked to the next town for help.  If you ever consider playing Good Samaritan to a pregnant woman, think about cleaning that up.

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Teaser:  Going to the front window, Miss Humphries looked out.  Across the street, the two stood next to a motorcycle, the girl smiling as she buckled on her helmet.  After she climbed on the cycle, the man ducked his head and then, then he kissed her.  (p. 154).

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Synopsis:  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 star gazing 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.

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What do you think?  Do you want to keep reading?  Have you read it?

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