Alice Feeney is an author I stumbled upon a few years ago ago, now I have to read everything she writes. Beautiful ugly is by far the best twisty thriller that she has written! Loved it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of the best, most thrilling books I have read in years. I picked it up and couldn't stop reading until 3 am. I read it in less than 48 days despite being super busy. Loved it!
A few notes: I will say that you can tell it was written by an American. As a Brit myself there were things that bothered me, such as "band-aid" (rather than "plaster"), "See you at THE London Book Fair" (we say "See you at London Book Fair") and the American spelling, of course. There were quite a few American expressions that should have been fixed by a Brit / Londoner.
The epilogue was quite gruesome. I needed to read something light-hearted before I could sleep. Not sure if I liked the not-happy ending... 😬
But all in all, brilliant book, great concept, wonderfully quirky characters and names. Great!

I can't get over how good this book was!
I absolutely LOVE Alice Feeney’s books When I saw she has a new book out next year I just knew I had to read it ! I think this is my favourite that I have read so far ! It's definitely is a must read in my opinion

Alice Feeney’s *Beautifully Ugly* is a captivating psychological thriller that masterfully blends suspense and emotion. Feeney’s signature style of dark twists and complex characters shines throughout the novel. The story unfolds with multiple layers of intrigue, keeping readers guessing until the very end.

The characters are compelling, if not always likable, and the narrative explores the murky territory between beauty and ugliness in both appearance and human nature. The pacing is brisk, with each chapter leaving you wanting more. While some plot points can feel slightly predictable for seasoned thriller fans, the strength of Feeney’s prose and the depth of the character development make up for any minor shortcomings.

Overall, it’s a gripping read that beautifully balances tension and emotion, leaving a lasting impression. If you’re a fan of thrillers with a touch of psychological complexity,

I love a good twisty tale but oh so often these days they don't live up to the promise, offering predictable outcomes and oft dull characters.

Not so with Alice Feeney and Beautiful Ugly (a great title that suits the story perfectly) because it is clever, descriptive and highly unpredictable even though you think you've worked it out several times.

The island setting is both beautiful and claustrophobic with a genuine sense of menace circling the well drawn characters. In a way it is a locked room mystery on acid.

I loved it, because the writing was terrific the plotting was intelligent and character wasn't sacrificed for the cheap shock. It was a Beautiful Ugly read.

Recommended.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read one of my most anticipated 2025 releases as an arc
Alice feeney has never missed the mark for me, and this one didn't disappoint either I love all the twists that always get me rethinking everything I've read before
Can't wait to see this hit the shelves next year and for everyone to pick it up!

I enjoyed this revenge thriller, though it did take me a while to get into the story. The twist wasn’t totally unexpected, but there was a second twist which was more so!

Yet another fantastic book by Feeney!

It was a bit slow going at the start whilst the scene was set but once it got going, it really got interesting. I felt so stupid when the 'plot twists' happened because the hints had been dropped and I didn't pick up on them 🤦🏼‍♀️ I honestly did not see the big twist coming at the end and I loved it!

Highly recommend!

Great thriller. Read in two sittings this was a real page turner. The story begins with us meeting Grady who is a writer married to Abby. He is on the phone to her one evening when she is coming home and she disappears. She leaves behind her car, bag and phone. Next we fast forward to a year later and Grady is travelling to stay on a remote Scottish island, The Isle of Amberly. Set up for him by his publisher to help him write his next novel after he finds it hard to write after his wife's disappearance. The island only has 25 inhabitants. The writing is very atmospheric and creepy which I loved, Great plot line and interesting characters. I will be recommending and cant wait to read more from Alice Feeney

My thanks to Pan MacMillan and NetGalley for a copy of “ Beautiful Ugly” for an honest review.

I’ve always enjoyed reading Alice Feeney’s books, they are well written and full of twists.
I was completely captivated and intrigued by the majority of the book , but I’ve had to drop one star from my review as the ending left me a little dissatisfied.
Well worth a read but not my favourite by this author

Beautiful ugly by Alice Feeney

What should have been one of the most exciting days of his life quickly turns into disaster when Grady Green's wife goes missing. A year later a struggling Grady travels to a Scottish isle in hopes to be inspired to write a new book. The island is however not the fresh start he wanted, when Grady starts seeing his missing wife everywhere he begins to question everything

Beautiful Ugly grabbed my attention from the first page and held it until the last. The way Alice feeny describes the island not only painted the picture but also helped set the atmosphere. Every chapter of this book left me wanting more, I was constantly trying to figure things out. Alice Feeney once again proved she was the queen of plot twists because by the end of this book I was lifting my jaw off the floor. However the one thing I didn’t like about this book was at times it felt a bit repetitive. Overall I rated this book 4.5 ⭐️. If you are looking for a creepy, suspenseful thriller that is full of twists then I highly recommend you check out this book.

Beautiful Ugly will be released in January 2025. Thank you Alice Feeney, the publishers and netgalley for my review copy

“Beautiful Ugly” is an atmospheric novel by author Alice Feeney that gripped me early on and held me to the very end. This is an excellent read full of suspense, emotion and obsession all set against the mysterious location of a remote Scottish island.

Grady Green is an author whose world is rocked following the disappearance of his wife, Abby. On the day Abby disappeared Grady was on top of the world due to the news that his latest novel was a success. He was eagerly waiting for his wife to get home to share his news when he receives a phone call off her. His mood rapidly changes when during the phone call Abby disappears and her car is found abandoned by the edge of a cliff, the driver’s door left open, and her phone still in the seat.

A year later, Grady is still suffering the loss of his wife and feels unable to write or sleep. In desperation he takes up the offer of his agent to flee to a desolate island to try to get back to writing. Grady not only misses Abby but is tormented by the mysteries surrounding her disappearance. While he is travelling to the island he catches sight of a woman who looks exactly like Abby and he starts to wonder what is real.

Grady is an excellent character, suffering deeply from his wife’s disappearance, feeling guilt, grief and obsession almost all the time. The island is very different, very atmospheric, mysterious and plenty of unusual characters. The island appeared to be a perfect solution to Grady’s torment but there is definitely something not right on the Scottish island. The isolation adds to the atmospheric tension and suspense.

Grady is not only forced to confront the mystery of his wife’s disappearance, but also the darker aspects of his own soul. His obsession with uncovering the truth leads him down a path of self-reflection where he grapples with guilt, unresolved trauma, and the haunting fear of abandonment. The deeper he delves into the secrets of his marriage the more he is confronted with the reality of his own imperfections, the “ugly”.

A thought provoking novel combining a psychological depth with suspense. Highly recommended.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Many other reviews summarise the concept well. Therefore, I would like focus on who this book is for.
1. If you are an avid Alice Feeney fan, this is a perfect book. She never disappoints.
2. If you like unreliable narrators and twists, this is for you.
In my personal reading experience, I have had several questions as to why the characters would do this or that, which affected my read.
In other words, I did not buy everything, unfortunately.
Yet, this is certainly a high quality read. I enjoyed disliking the characters (they are flawed and often unlikeable, and sometimes do not make sense; which is part of their personalities)
3.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan McMillan for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Grady is a successful author happily married to Abby. But on the night that he becomes an NYT bestselling author, Abby is on her way home from work, intending to celebrate with Grady, and talking to him on the phone, when she sees a woman lying in the street and stops to help. The phone goes dead and Abby is never seen again. Buried in grief, Grady is due to provide his next novel, but can't seem to write anything, so his agent, and Abby's godmother, Kitty, suggests that he go to a remote island off the coast of Scotland where another famous author once lived in order to restart the creative juices. Once he gets to the island, he feels like he sees Abby everywhere. Is she really there or is he losing his mind?

I have really enjoyed most of Alice Feeney's novels and this was no exception. All of her novels have a major twist at some point and of course I was trying to figure out what that would be and of course I didn't figure it out. This was a quick read and I tore through it in one day. I just couldn't figure out where it was going so it held my interest throughout. I look forward to her next one.

I had to sit with this one for a bit, I couldn't post a review straight away as I needed some time to truly organise an opinion. But, I've ended up giving it three stars. The first.. 80% of the book I loved. It was atmospheric, it was claustrophobic and it was down right creepy. It really made me feel uncomfortable. Some parts were a little slow and repetitive, but it worked for me. There were a lot of questions that you had to sit with and so many potential answers that it really made my mind work trying to come up with theories.

However, the ending, the twist, I found disappointing. For one it was just too much in a matter of pages. It was hard to try and keep up with all the intricacies of the twist because everything comes at once and dare I say it felt like it was trying too hard, it became very heavy handed. It wasn't... predictable, necessarily.. but I guess the best word I can use is generic? I expected/wanted it to be more interesting and there were so many questionable plot points it was frustrating.

Overall, I know people are going to love this book, and even with my negative points I did enjoy it!

A huge thank you to Pan Macmillan, Alice and NetGalley for my arc of Beautiful Ugly.

Not quite sure how to review this book. In many ways it was a great book and I looked forward to reading more each day, but the story and ending felt a bit odd. It was certainly creepy.
Grady is on call to his wife when she spots someone on the road, gets out of her car then disappears. Wracked with grief, author Grady is struggling to write until his editor suggests a writing cabin on a remote Scottish island.
Here, he starts to feel himself losing his mind, thinking he sees his wife, Abby, and feeling watched.
A creepy story, worth a read.

This book was not for me. I found the pace lacking, the characters were uninteresting and unlikeable, and I didn't understand their motivations at all. The ending and "twist" all felt incredibly rushed after trudging through the same scene for 80% of the book.

‘Beautiful Ugly’ by Alice Feeney is a slowly simmering, atmospheric thriller set primarily on the remote Scottish island of Amberley. The lead character, author Grady Green, is mourning his wife who disappeared a year prior on a stormy evening as she was heading home to celebrate one of his novels finally reaching the NYT Bestsellers list.

As Grady gets to know the residents of the island, things start to seem a little strange, and the sense of unease grows as myths, legends and tragic secrets reach the surface… It’s hard to say much more without spoilers, but just remember that Alice Feeney is the absolute queen of mind-blowing twists and turns, so nothing will be quite as you expected.

I really liked the immersive and claustrophobic island descriptions, the newspaper clippings and the final Easter egg like treat for the reader. However, I found Grady hard to relate to and wasn’t quite as gripped as I have been by some of the author’s other works.

Overall, it was a four star read for me, and I’d recommend it to fans of unpredictable psychological thrillers.

I received an advance Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher Pan MacMillan via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

First things first - Feeney has retained her crown of "Queen of Twists" with this one!

🔪 Coming to the plot - Grady Green's wife Abby, disappears on the day his book becomes a bestseller. With that he loses all he ever had his fame, his money, the talent to write & even his home - because he never got closure, she just disappeared & he doesn't know whether she's still alive.

🔪As luck has it, his agent gives him a chance for revival asking him to start writing again & to help him do that she sends him to the Scottish Island of Amberly.

🔪But once he's on the island creepy things begin to happen, including him hallucinating his wife.

🔪The story is told in 2 timelines before Abby's disappearance & after & two POVs - Grady & Abby.

🔪 Feeney's writing is exquisite & it's difficult not to highlight paras & paras.

🔪I wanted to get to know Abby more & that kept bothering me as the frequency of her POV was quite less. Her POV also bothered me with what she told about her husband.

🔪I am all in for details including how the MC makes their tea/coffee. But here, I felt the details of the Scottish Island of Amberly was a bit overdone. I first fell in love with it, but later it felt like I wanted more of the characters not the island.

🔪The twist definitely did turnout to be the saviour. The reason & backstory not much - communication committed suicide.

🔪I'm a big Feeney fan & have read all her books but this didn't top that list for me.

🔪You will love this book if you are new to this genre or if the psychological thriller genre appeals to you or if you are a Feeney fan.

I absolutely LOVE Alice Feeney’s books and have read every single one of them since she first published Sometimes I Lie in March 2017. Each and every one of her books including Rock Paper Scissors, I Know Who You Are, His and Hers, Good Bad Girl and my favourite Daisy Darker has left me reeling, confused, gob-smacked and thoroughly entertained. When I saw she has a new book out next year I was absolutely THRILLED and delighted to get an advanced copy to read and when the wonderful LISA JEWELL gave it her royal seal of approval I knew I had to put it to the top of my reading pile immediately.

If you have read any of Alice’s previous books then you know that you are in for a wild ride and that NOTHING is ever as it seems and NO-ONE is ever who they claim to be and Beautiful Ugly is no exception.

Grady Green is our main character. He’s a famous, best-selling author and devoted husband to Abby. Whilst waiting to hear if his latest book is a New York bestseller he is on the phone to Abby who is driving home to celebrate when she stops the car suddenly and then disappears.

Twelve months later Grady is still grieving the loss of his true love. He’s lost his home, is financially ruined and unable to write the book his publishers have been waiting for. When his agent offers him a life-line to spend a few months on a tiny Scottish island to try to write a book and get his life back on track he has no alternative but to take it.

However when he gets to this remote little island, his world is rocked when he thinks he sees Abby. Is he losing his mind? Are the residents of this small community strange? Is something weird going on? What secrets are they hiding and why?

This book is chilling, atmospheric, spooky, weird, messed up, clever, gripping, sinister, full of twists and kept me guessing throughout.

Cleverly plotted Beautiful Ugly tells the two sides of the story from both Grady and Abby and as we know from Alice’s previous books, there is always her side, his side and then the truth. Don’t believe what you read, question everything you think you know and enjoy this book which will completely mess with your head.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐