All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

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I met Wavy and Kellen at the same time they met each other: by the side of the road next to a wrecked motorcycle. Even now, there’s a part of me that wants to hang my head in shame because when it really boils down to it, I liked this story. 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. You really have to be able to separate what your real-life reaction would be and fully embrace Wavy and Kellen’s world – in the 80s, living in the sticks in a drug den, surrounded by criminals, drug addicts, rapists, you name it, with no one to trust but each other and a slow roller of a relationship that evolves over time with a leading male who knows his feelings are wrong, but is willing to do anything to make it right . Her mother is a drug addict, her father is violent, and her mother's issues with eating and germs manifest in Wavy's behaviour, which, in turn, earns frustration from her teachers and fellow pupils.

Amy is seven when her five year-old cousin Wavonna Quinn (nicknamed Vonnie then Wavy) first comes to live with them. Wavy is the daughter of a violent man, womanizer and drug dealer, and a drug addicted mother with deep emotional, existential and psychological problems, who transmits to her daughter her fears regarding food and germs. NiBlack, who must have told her how the pie plate went missing: stolen out of her fridge on a hot July night, a trail of small dirty footprints left on the linoleum. Though she spends some time living with her grandmother and later with her aunt (Brenda), Wavy must largely fend for herself while also trying to care for her younger brother, Donal.Because the court bars her from contact, Wavy finds out about Kellen’s release months after it happens. VERDICT Greenwood (from Kansas, daughter of a “mostly reformed drug dealer”) astounds in creating a world where assorted murderers, felons, and thieves are sympathetic. Wavy’s growth may be stunted from years of near starvation at her mother’s hands—a time during which Wavy almost disappears.

She is the NYT bestselling author of The Reckless Oath We Made, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, Lie Lay Lain, and Last Will. He makes sure the groceries get bought, takes her to and from school and gives her a safe place to hang out (the garage he works at) when things suck for her more than usual. 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.

Family, teachers, friends, and strangers regard the relationship with trepidation, but no one intervenes.

People frequently look only at Wavy and Kellen’s relationship, but there are so many other places in the book where the question of Wavy’s ability and right to consent or to refuse consent comes into play. It's the total opposite of cliche, which was a huge relief and topics that are usually considered taboo . I'm sure it will provoke many conflicting reactions, but there remains one overwhelming certainty: it's hard to not react passionately to it. The relationship at the heart of the novel is between Wavy and Kellen, a drug runner for her father who changes her life. Here is a quick description and cover image of book All the Ugly and Wonderful Things written by Bryn Greenwood which was published in 2016-8-9.A lot of controversial topics from drug use, domestic violence, and pedophilia are present in this book. The problem is that one is a child who develops an unhealthy attachment to her caretaker, an adult man. Of course, it would have been more fitting if Wavy had arrived in a black limo or a horse-drawn carriage instead of the social worker’s beige sedan. Wavy is so starved for love and affection that her heart opens to Kellen, and Kellen cannot help but enter into the relationship she offers him.