Confessions of a Book Addict: Audiobook Review: Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Genre: Adult Fiction/Audio

Pub. Date: January 14, 2025

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Source: Personal Copy

Other Books By Author: Daisy Darker

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible — a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do."

Author Grady Green finally made the New York Times Bestseller list. He calls his wife, Abby, to deliver the good news and he catches her while driving. While en route to her destination, Abby sees a person lying on the side of the road. While talking to Grady, she tells him she will check on this person, much to her husband's dismay. Fast forward and Abby is nowhere to be found. Her car is there with her cell phone, but she is gone. Time passes and Grady can't get over this. His grief is all consuming and he can't even write another novel. His life is slowly deteriorating, so his agent, a family friend, encourages him to go to her cabin on a remote Scottish island and take time to relax and write. While there, strange things start happening though. He thinks he sees his wife - maybe her ghost- and the island is so remote. It's creepy as only a handful of people live there and they seem very secretive. Not to mention you can't easily return to the mainland since the ferry isn't regular. Things get even worse from Grady and even stranger things start to occur in Beautiful Ugly, another suspenseful thriller from Alice Feeney.

Alice Feeney always delivers an unreliable narrator so well in Beautiful Ugly. I didn't know who to believe and it didn't help that Grady was an alcoholic. The events on the island were so creepy, but I couldn't tell if Grady was accurately reporting or maybe was losing it. Slowly readers find out what happened to Abby as Feeney gives us chapters from her point of view, and I have to say I didn't really see the big twist coming. It was done very well! My only complaint was that the events seemed so unbelievable. Usually, I can suspend my disbelief in a Feeney novel, but this time it was a bit too far-fetched for me.

The audiobook of Beautiful Ugly was outstanding. Richard Armitage, best known for his role in The Hobbit, was the narrator along with Tuppence Middleton. I really liked these two narrators as they definitely added to my enjoyment of the story. So if you are looking for a compelling audiobook that will keep you anxiously waiting for some answers, look no further.

Are you a fan of Alice Feeney? Do you plan on reading Beautiful Ugly? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.