All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

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Then she discovered the curtains in the guest bedroom, which were what Wavy took to unraveling when she stopped doing it to her clothes. Now, I’m aware of the controversial relationship in the book and I don’t think the book at all is trying to romanticize pedophilia. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. it's not perfect - wavy's character is a little unrealistic/inconsistent in her awareness and behavior and the last 1/4 didn't have the same emotional depth or richness as the beginning, so it read a little thin and rushed, but it's a badass powerhouse of a book and i am not here to bitch about the trifling.

In some ways, it reminded me a little bit of Nine Minutes in that I felt like Morgan Freeman was reading it to me. I am glad I read another one of the author’s books before reading this one because I’m not sure if I would push myself to read another one if I read this one first. the writing is good, the characters are well formed but this story just doesn't work for me and no amount of good writing or well formed characters will encourage me to read any further.

In fact, it does the opposite by presenting statements like the above over and over lest the reader forget that this love story is taboo. I'm pretty open-minded, but even I had a hard time with the relationship turning physical between Wavy (13-14 years old) and Kellen (25 or so years old).

this is not a story told for shock value although it is occasionally shocking, and it should be noted that the book spans fifteen years, and is not quite as disturbing as we all feared, although it still has its moments of readerly discomfort. The author missed the opportunity to take this book in an entirely different direction in the end, but did not.Putting her hands on her knees to get to Wavy’s height, Sue said, “Wavonna, I’m going to go now and you’re going to stay here with your aunt.