On the worst best day of his life, author Grady Green finds out his latest novel is a New York Times bestseller — just moments before his wife Abby vanishes. A year later, with Abby still missing and unable to write, Grady heads to the Scottish island of Amberly in an attempt to cure his writer’s block. I was immediately pulled in by the voice of Grady and the mystery surrounding Abby’s disappearance but the Isle of Amberly really stole the show. Beautiful but isolated with a bunch of strange residents and even stranger events that keep on happening… Part thriller, part mystery, part horror, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and the final third hits you with twist after twist. Beautiful Ugly is my first Alice Feeney book but it won’t be the last. Oh and no spoilers but the fourteen words thing at the end was a nice, clever touch!

'I hope you die in your sleep'

This is one incredible twisty, dark, domestic psychological thriller that will keep you hooked from the first chapter!

Grady is awaiting a call from his publisher about whether his book is New York Times Best Seller but his wife is running late and he desperately wants her by his side to celebrate the good news. However during their call she comes across someone on the road and stops to help and Grady is frantic when his wife disappears. Not only his wife disappears, his life, money and ability to write disappears and an opportunity to live on an island in a remote cabin to have peace to try and spark his writing career arises and he takes it.
However strange things happen and the island is not all that it seems and he keeps seeing Abby his wife who has been missing for a year. Is it Abby? Is he hallucinating?

Beautiful Ugly unfolds with twists and turns throughout and is told in multiple POVs and past and present timelines. All of which work perfectly to keep the reader hooked and begging to know what is happening and leads you to a plot twist you did not see coming!

Thank you for the ARC and oppourtunity to read this! My first Alice Feeney book and I certainly will be checking out her other books!

A brilliantly messed up story with so many twists and turns in it, you aren't quite sure where it is going to end!!

5 star recommendation.

Beautiful Ugly is an atmospheric, mysterious read set on a remote Scottish island. A writer, Grady, is sent to the island by his agent following the loss of his wife and his writing ability. Completely cut off from everything he is used to and worrying that he is imagining things, he must try to write his next novel, come to terms with the loss of his wife and adjust to life on the island. The story is told from multiple POVs and constantly challenges the reader to question whether they are reliable narrators. I don’t think anyone will guess the twists and turns the propulsive story takes.

Set on the remote and beautiful island of Amberley off the coast of Scotland this is a stunning piece of writing that had me tied up in knots trying to figure out what was coming next. The plot is a complex one and try as I might every time I thought I knew where the story was going I was thwarted again and again and I loved that!
The writing was pure perfection as was the pacing and the reveals and oh boy this was one very twisted story all the way till the last few pages when I was well and truly gobsmacked!
Loved the characters, loved the setting and was completely blown away by the plot this a not to be missed fantastic read that anyone who loves a good story and superbly crafted mystery should read as it won’t fail to impress I’m sure.
Many,many thanks to Alice Feeney and a massive ‘Wow what did I just read!’
My thanks also to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I've read books by the author in the past and heard enough about her through other reviews in recent years that I knew this was going to be a good read.
I was prepared to give this 4 stars for probably 75% of the book - a really good read but not hitting excellent. The last part turned from slow chill into fast paced thrill and pushed it up to 5 stars for me. The twists, to be expected of course, were a little on the farfetched side, however it does mean that the reader is very unlikely to guess them through the book. There was a final little addition that had me flicking back to the start which I loved - a fun touch!
I'd definitely pick up another by Alice Feeney in future for a nice brain exercise and as a palate cleanser book between my current usual fantasies. This would have been my perfect book a few years ago!

This is a strange book - being Scottish, I was looking forward to an atmospheric thriller but the island of Amberley seems more like a cosy English village transposed into a Hebridean island. In my opinion it just doesn’t work. The idea is good but it was obvious to me early on what was happening and I found the whole novel frustrating. Just didn’t do it for me - sorry.

I really enjoyed this book, it had plenty of twists that I didn’t see coming! The main twist, however, seemed to come from nowhere and a little unbelievable.

Such a queen of twisty plots and building mountains of tension, Alice Feeney has smashed it out of the park with this one. I was hooked from the beginning and didn't put it down until the end.

I don't think I've read another book where all the characters have secrets, and their personalities are so complex I hadn't a clue who was speaking truth and who wasn't.

The story was atmospheric. I was easily able to imagine this Scottish island with the writing cabin deep in the woods. It all felt so sinister. It's definitely a perfect book to read as we're heading towards Halloween.

A superb thriller, which will have you second guessing at every corner. Huge thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy.

When your wife suddenly disappears and you can no longer function as a writer.
Sent to a remote Scottish island to try and write again by his agent.
Caught up in the reasons why his wife disappeared has robbed him of sleep and creativity.
Rewriting an undiscovered manuscript and sending it off as his own work, opens more secrets and lies.
Is there any way out?

Wife disappears, husband is broken, gets writer's block, goes to island to get over it - and then all isn't as it seems.

The first part of the thriller works as a thriller should - I turned those pages, ignored the washing machine and was pulled in. Then things start getting a bit fishy, and it wasn't just my neglected washing machine load. The twists and turns are there as expected but once the curtain is pulled away I felt thoroughly cheated. Trying to explain why I felt so conned without spoiling the story is difficult - so suffice to say I felt that one of the major plot devices is pretty basic.

Having let it sit for a few days my annoyance has increased - why on earth would a group of self sufficient men haters insist on getting a male author to the island? There are successful women authors around and they could have all got along nicely. Also what if the baby had been a boy? Anyway I must move onto another boo0k and stop worrying!

I really enjoyed this book by Alice Feeney. I've read a couple of her books before and I'll definitely be reading more from her in the future.

What stands out in this novel is the amazing setting. The eerie, remote island is perfect. It is remote enough that Grady is cut off from the mainland and anything could be happening in the woods surrounding the cabin he is staying in. But the island is small enough that he continually runs into the odd characters of the island. It leaves you continually off balance.

Feeney struck a great balance with the character of Grady. He is a sympathetic character but an unreliable narrator. This balance worked perfectly for me, leaving me continually unsure about him.

The plot was excellent. Prologue aside, the start of the book was a little slow which is why it went down to 4 stars for me. However, I was gripped to the book just to find out what was going on. I read the second half of the book in one sitting because I couldn't wait to find out what would happen.

This book is full of plot twists and I didn't guess any of them. Feeney is definitely the queen of plot twists.

I would highly recommend this book to thriller fans. It is an intriguing and gripping read. This book will be released on 30th January 2025 so make sure you check it out.

Thanks to NetGalley, Alice Feeney, and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

i have gusped many gasps but this gasp was mega

Alice Feeney is honestly the only thriller writer I will automatically read, no matter what, and this book is the perfect example of why. Loved the characters, loved the ending, so good.

When best-selling author, Grady Green's wife disappears in strange circumstances he is thrown into despair and debt. Tormented by grief and unable to write, he moves to an isolated writing retreat on a remote Scottish island, at the suggestion of his agent.

Now, we all know that spending time on an island with no mobile phone signal and no working landlines is bound to be a bad idea, especially as the ferry to the mainland has an erratic timetable, and the woman running the post office probably reads all the mail. Though the few islanders he meets are friendly enough, he suspects there's something odd about them. And when clippings of newspaper articles, written by his missing wife, start appearing in the cabin, he knows they have to have come from one of them.

He sees his wife everywhere but it's never her. Other peculiar occurrences make him doubt his sanity too but Grady is the first to admit to an over-fondness for the whisky. The fact that the previous writer to occupy the cabin killed himself there, doesn't bother him, though, as he doesn't believe in ghosts.

This is a compelling novel and the short chapters lend themselves to the desire to read 'just one more' and 'just one more'. I did develop a disinclination to read it when alone though, as creepy isn't really my preferred style. If it's yours, though, this will do the job wonderfully.

The best, gripping opening chapter I have read all year - and it kept me hooked from there. Fantastic, twisty thriller that kept me turning the pages long after I wanted to go to bed.

I loved this book! It really stood out for me as an original idea in a sea of average thrillers I have been reading. I was really caught up in Island life and wondered what on earth was going on. It was all wrapped up brilliantly and was very dark at times! The conclusion caught me totally off guard!
Really well written, I would definitely recommend this.

Unbelievably clever and ridiculously gripping!

Perfect for those who enjoy:
- Psychological thrillers
- Missing person fiction
- The perfect ending
- Intense twisty books

With thanks to Panmacmillan and Netgalley for an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

As you expect with Alice Feeney, Beautiful Ugly is instantly addictive with twists I didn't see coming. There's always something so immersive about Feeney's writing, I don't know how she does it. I think this is my favourite of her's yet. Best to dive in knowing as little as possible for maximum enjoyment

Rating: 4.5/5

Over the past few years Alice Feeney has become one of my favourite writers. She not only manages produce standalone novels that are markedly different from one another, but she also has an almost magical way of delivering a story that is not always the one I had anticipated reading at the outset. However, that is no bad thing as I always enjoy the voyage of discovery and "Beautiful Ugly" is no exception.

There are some echoes of Stephen King's "The Shining" in the premise, with Grady, an author struggling to rediscover his writing mojo, taking himself off to a remote location in search of solitude and inspiration, but although "Beautiful Ugly" contains a leitmotif of otherworldliness that wouldn't be out of place in a Stephen King book, this is certainly no facsimile.

The remote backdrop of the Scottish island of Amberly is described in a wonderfully evocative fashion that really helps to transport the reader into that setting. The cast of characters is drawn in an equally impressive manner, so that each one steps out from the page. As ever in Alice Feeney's novels, the plot is well-crafted and takes unexpected turns, which will almost certainly blindside most of the audience, but without cheating the reader - the clues are there, they simply need to be picked up on. Another great read from Alice Feeney and I am already looking forward to the next one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

“You can only rearrange the furniture of your life a number of times before things look the same as they did.”

Grady Green gets the best news - his latest book just made the NY Times bestseller list! However, his reverie is cut short when, on the phone to his wife, Abby, she disappears.

A year later Grady is still grief stricken; he’s struggling to sleep, let alone write. His life is falling apart. He’s handed a lifeline when his agent offers the use of a cabin on the beautiful island of Amberley, Scotland.

But once there, Grady gets the impression not everything is as idyllic as it first appeared. That can’t be his wife he keeps catching glimpses of .. can it?

I really enjoyed this one - another I devoured in a single day. I thought the pace was perfect, balancing slow-building tension with bursts of high-stakes revelations. The slow unraveling of Grady’s mental state parallels the escalating suspense, culminating in a shocking, yet satisfying, climax that I did not see coming.

Feeney excels in creating complex, unreliable narrators, and Grady is no exception. His grief over Abby’s disappearance is present on every page. Abby, though physically absent for much of the story, is brought to life through flashbacks that explore the cracks in her seemingly perfect marriage. The inhabitants of Amberly are equally compelling - layered with secrets that enhance the novel’s creeping sense of unease. I got real Wicker Man vibes at times!

I’m again intrigued by Feeney’s use of Americanisms (something I first noticed in Good Bad Girl) - favorite, realize, fall etc.

It’s a dark, twisty, and beautifully written psychological thriller that kept me enthralled until the final pages. Prepare to be captivated - and to question everything you think you know.

A huge thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan for the advance copy. Beautiful Ugly is out January 30th (UK)