I’m mad at myself for waiting so long to read All the Ugly and Wonderful Things. The title is fitting... many parts of this book are ugly but it was overall wonderful to me.

This book follows Wavy’s tumultuous life starting from when she’s about 5 years old. Raised by a mom who is mostly nonfunctional with mental health issues and drug problems, and a dad who is a meth cook, her life is very unstable. When she’s still a kid, she witnesses an older dude (not like super old... but she was a kid), Kellen, crash his motorcycle near their rural house. So begins their long and complicated relationship.

Kellen quickly becomes concerned about Wavy’s living situation and starts to watch out for her from there. Things eventually... develop. Things get messy and complicated. It feels weird to like this book and root for Kellen and Wavy. It feels wrong a lot of the time.

Parts of this book had me feeling squeamsish, saying nononono, and feeling like a creep. But ultimately, I’m in it for the feels. And this book delivers. I was a huge fan of the writing too. The flow felt natural, and though the story was told from multiple perspectives of people who knew Wavy (including both Kellen and Wavy), it didn’t feel jumpy. It really worked.

If you want feels, this book has them. It’s dark but beautifully written. Highly recommend if you think you can stomach an uncomfortable relationship.