I like books that are really dark, and gritty, and, often, controversial.

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things may take the cake for checking all the boxes…plus some.

“I liked to play at tragedy, but she drank it out of her baby bottle.”

Since Wavy was born in the backseat of a stranger’s car, she’s been a part of a very unfortunate story. A meth-dealing father. A mother who is sometimes good but often scary. Teachers and family members and neighbors and family friends who do not understand her and do not know how to help her, if they even understand that she needs help at all.

That is, until Kellen, a friend and ‘coworker’ of her father, comes crashing into her life on his motorcycle.

Trigger warning for basically everything, so proceed into this book with caution (details below). But if you like reading rough stuff, hard-hitters, and topics people often cringe away from, you should definitely pick up All the Ugly and Wonderful Things.

Greenwood mixes a beautiful but simplistic style into multiple perspectives to create a full picture of such an ugly and wonderful life. It would be easy, with everything that happens in this book, for certain events to come off as overly dramatic, but instead, they are believable and realistic, without it seeming like events are thrown in merely for shock value.

The real achievement of this book is the way it makes you see the devil’s advocate side of a lot of subjects. The story of Wavy shows how a person in the worst situations must face bad decisions and worse ones, and how small moments of happiness and relief can be found in unconventional and taboo ways.

“When I reached her, she was a star, pulling me into her orbit.”

Most of the negative things I’ve seen written about this book are because of its subject matter. It’s a book that is difficult to read and could seem to excuse illegal and harmful behavior. But with any book of this nature, the argument is that the things which happened to Wavy happen to people in real life. Just because a story is sometimes disturbing to those of us who have not gone through such a situation, does not mean that it does not deserve to be told, heard, and discussed for the people whose reality it is and for those it might become. To say books that explore taboo subjects should not exist or should be ignored or changed, to me, is also a statement to all those who have lived such lives that their stories are too disturbing to be put into mainstream media or discussed or acknowledged.

Personally (and I truly mean personally, as I’m sure everyone would struggle with different issues in this book depending on their own experiences), what I struggled with the most about Wavy’s story was the representation of a dangerous and harmful character being so largely because of her mental illness. Many of the terrible things she did or the ways in which she acted were clearly implied to be tied to her illness and, furthermore, because she not only did not take her medication but substituted it with meth and other drugs. But, as much as I want to see more positive portrayals of mental illness, I think that people like this character do and did exist, especially in the 70s, during which this book is set. Even though I didn’t exactly like reading about this character, I came to acknowledge her role in the story and what she added to the overall plot and message of the book.

I ended up giving this book 5 out of 5 stars after much consideration. I believe it achieves its intended message and is beautifully written. Greenwood accomplishes to create a real sense of voice and character, with an emphasis on morally grey situations, decisions, and people. The story is addicting in its distressing nature but also hard to continue reading. I would recommend it to anyone who can handle so many hard topics, but especially fans of End of Alice by A.M. Homes, The Kiss: A Memoir by Kathryn Harrison, and Call Me Tuesday by Leigh Byrne.