Beautiful Ugly

Summary & Review 

Beautiful Ugly follows Grady Green, a once-successful author whose life is shattered when his wife, Abby, vanishes on the night his latest book hits the New York Times bestseller list. A year later, still blocked and haunted, Grady retreats to a secluded cabin on Scotland’s Isle of Amberly in search of solace and inspiration. Instead, he encounters eerie local rules, spectral sightings of a woman in red, and disturbing discoveries beneath the cabin floor—events that push him toward insomnia and unraveling sanity.

Alice Feeney expertly layers the narrative with alternating timelines: present-day isolation, flashbacks to Abby’s disappearance, and chapters from Abby’s perspective before she vanished. This structure, coupled with unreliable narration, creates a suffocating sense of unease. The remote island setting—with its bizarre customs and natural emptiness—acts almost as a character itself, amplifying the tension. As secrets surface and reality blurs with deception, the story builds into a chilling, atmospheric unraveling where no one—and nothing—is as it first appears.

Critical Analysis

Feeney excels at crafting an immersive psychological thriller rooted in atmospheric dread. The sense of place—the wind-swept island, the unnerving silence of no birds, the forbidding local rules—is vivid and haunting. Grady is a compellingly flawed narrator, driven by grief, guilt, and desperation, making his deteriorating mental state feel both believable and alarming. The dual timelines and Abby’s own voice heighten the mystery, keeping readers off-balance and deeply engaged.

Though the pacing occasionally lags in the middle, this slowdown allows for richer character exploration and mood setting. The twists, while numerous and often surprising, threaten at times to stretch plausibility, but Feeney roots them in emotional truth, which preserves their impact. Ultimately, the unresolved ambiguities at the end leave a lingering tension, though a few readers might wish for more clarity. Despite these criticisms, the novel’s psychological resonance, richly layered plotting, and gothic atmosphere make for a very satisfying experience.

Recommendation

Beautiful Ugly is recommended for readers who love moody, twist-laden psychological thrillers with a strong sense of place. If you appreciated Feeney’s earlier works or are a fan of atmospheric domestic noir—particularly those featuring unreliable narrators and morally complex relationships—this book is a must-read. Its emotional depth and unsettling atmosphere also make it a great match for fans of Gillian Flynn or Paula Hawkins. This isn’t a light beach read, but it’s a haunting one you won’t easily shake off.

sources 

kirkus.com                                                                                                                  meium.com