All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

As the daughter of a meth dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. Struggling to raise her little brother, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible 'adult' around. She finds peace in the starry Midwestern night sky above the fields behind her house. One night everything changes when she witnesses one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold, wreck his motorcycle.

What follows is a powerful and shocking love story between two unlikely people that asks tough questions, reminding us of all the ugly and wonderful things that life has to offer.
Review:
Oh my gosh, where to start? Told from alternate points of view from different characters throughout the book, it just grabs you from the very first sentence and just never lets go. While reading it I felt so many emotions, extreme pity and sadness for Wavy (the main character of this story) and her so tragic and extremely upsetting life, to feelings of guilt that I wanted this child to have the love she wanted.

This story is about so many things which isn't covered in the synopsis, but ultimately it's about love. Definitely not the kind of love that we're used to reading and seeing on TV and at the movies but that's the brilliance of this book. It makes you question yourself throughout the whole book, feeling morally outraged at every turn of the page but then in the back of your mind you're secretly rooting for things to work out and for Wavy to have a happy ending.

I definitely didn't think I was going to enjoy this book and when I read the synopsis I was thinking that's something that I really don't want to read about, but I'm so glad I did. The way it was written handled the subject matter very well and it was the no holds barred, unapologetic approach to the story that worked for me. Well worth a read and should be in your must read list.