Book review: Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney is the first book I’ve read by the popular British novelist for some time and I’m a bit torn about it. It’s full of turmoil with a sinister undertone so for much of it there’s a sense of suspense (and impending doom) which I loved, but as it nears its end there are some twists… and the premise becomes – perhaps – a little too far-fetched to be completely satisfying (taking this back from a 4 star to 3.5 star read for me).

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.

Grady is in a bad mood when this book opens and comes off as a bit of a self-absorbed twat, but we learn it’s because he’s waiting to hear of the fate of his latest book. He’d expected his wife (Abby, a journalist) to be there when he got the call but she’s running late and still enroute home. He also explains the pivotal role she plays in his life – the woman who made him believe in love and the woman who helped get him an agent and turn his world around… in some ways, crediting her with his success – or at least believing there’s some correlation.

So her disappearance hits him badly. Fast forward a year and Grady is broke and unable to write. His agent (Abby’s godmother) throws him a lifeline offering him an isolated cabin on an island – once the writing haven of another author who’s since passed. It’s a tad obvious what will happen when we learn the deceased author had been working on his ‘best book ever’ when he died, though it was never seen again.

Although this centres around Grady, his ability to ‘write’ and how that shapes his identity, Feeney manages to make this as much about the island and its inhabitants, imbuing in this a sinister undertone. Indeed Grady’s spidey senses tingle from the moment he sets sail for the island but he’s also beguiled by its beauty.

It’s enroute to the island Grady first thinks he catches a glimpse of Abby, though slowly pushes those thoughts aside, realising he’s sleep deprived and fanciful. Someone toys with him however, leaving him old newspaper articles by Abby, the subject of some potentially being residents he’s met on the island. Which is where the creepiness factor steps up a gear.

How could so many residents on the small island (coincidentally) be subjects of Abby’s work as an investigative journalist?

Adding tension are interwoven chapters narrated by Abby during a visit to a therapist a week before her disappearance. And it’s in those chapters we learn more about her side of the marriage. This seemed straight forward but I later got confused because the story of how they met their husband, is exactly the same intro-story (#cutemeet) that another character shares, so I wondered if that WAS Abby?!  Potentially I am alone in that confusion but it threw me a little and I found the direction this takes to be a little outrageous before being again confused by the timing and pacing of the final chapter. Having said that I know others are LOVING this book, so it could be a ‘me’ thing.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney will be published by Pan Macmillan in January 2025.

I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.