This is another great book from Alice Feeney, there was a creepiness to this book that we come to expect from Alice's writing. This was no exception.
A writers wife goes missing and he wonders whether he will ever be able to write again, his agent sends him to a remote island to try and encourage him to concentrate on his writing, there are many strange characters on the island and he soon discovers he is unable to leave or contact anyone on the mainland as there is no internet or access to telephones.
A twisty tale - and a great read

Thank you to Alice Feeney, Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

𝑾𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒉𝒖𝒔𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕.
𝑯𝒖𝒔𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐.

Firstly, I was super excited to get my hands on the ARC of Beautiful Ugly and secondly, the cover is really stunning.

I have mixed feelings about this one. Set on a remote island with a ferry visiting once in a while, no internet or phone service, shady community members and seeing visions of your missing wife, I think the premise is great, giving off an eerie vibe but could have been executed in so many different ways.

The build up to the twist was excruciatingly slow and I found the MC Grady's chapters extremely boring and repetitive. The first half was vague and ambiguous which really worked for me at times but sometimes it just got weird and confusing.

Alice Feeney is known as the Queen of twists and though the twist was unexpected, it did not blow me away. This wasn't my favourite Feeney book but Alice Feeney is my guilty pleasure so I am already looking forward to the next book she writes.

Thank you @panmacmillan and @netgalley for the ARC to read and review.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for my digital copy of “Beautiful copy”.

This is my third book by Alice Feeney and I never know how to rate her books. While I enjoyed “Beautiful ugly”, I couldn’t care about the characters at all. I was totally indifferent to them, both Grady and Abby and the island’s residents.

The story starts with Grady, an author, and while’s he’s on the phone with his wife, she suddenly disappears. He finds her phone and and her find, but Abby is gone. A year later, he still deals with his wife’s disappearance and he wants to find out what happened to her. Also, he had to write a new book and soon. And so, he moves to a secluded island for some peace and quiet.

While it started interesting, “Beautiful ugly” turned into a slices of life book. Nothing interesting happens for 60% of the book, but the descriptions of Amberley Island are everywhere, for full pages. The trees, the sky, the sea. Too many details for a thriller book.

There were some interesting twists in the book, ones I couldn’t expect and I liked it. There’s a part where I actually got scared, but I wanted more.
The characters didn’t help, Grady gets annoyed easily and is jealous. He has no idea how to talk to people, which is a very strange thing for me to imagine. And I didn’t like the life decisions Abby took. I’m very annoyed with the misunderstanding trope in thrillers. They clearly weren’t made for each other and the things they hidden were unforgivable.
Also, the baby plot was strange and unnecessary. It’s ok if you don’t want a kid.

I don’t know how I feel about the end. While the author wanted to make the book about feminism, it felt forced and unrealistic. You’re not a feminist if you’re killing men.

All in all, the book is not bad. I think I just had big expectations for it and it wasn’t what I wanted. For a mystery book, it’s not mysterious for more than a half.
You should give it a chance though, especially if you’re not a thriller reader and you don’t know where to start.

Beautiful Ugly 🏝️

Alice Feeney is yet to write a book I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed. There is something about her writing that sucks me in and keeps me engaged the whole time and Beautiful Ugly is no different. Beautiful Ugly follows Grady who is struggling to adjust to life after his wife went missing and continuing to write his novels. He goes to the Isle of Amberly, a small island to write and finds some interesting things happening. Alice created an atmosphere that is curiously strange, the island gave me the heebie jeebies. The twists, Alice left some breadcrumbs for us to pick up and I was able to guess a few small things but the big twist I did not see! I find Alice’s thrillers always stay with me and I know this one will, it raises some intriguing topics that leave you thinking about the morals, views and actions of characters in the book. There’s also a moment of pure genius that I am thrilled I picked up on! If you enjoy Feeney’s work and just an excellent thriller, pick this one up when it releases in January 😍

Nobody creates a creepy, spine-chilling, and ominous setting like Alice Feeney does and "Beautiful Ugly" certainly didn't disappoint. One of the hallmarks of a great thriller (at least for me) is how many sittings it took me to read it, and I'm happy to say I binge-read this in one setting. The mystery kept me engaged from beginning to end and although the twist wasn't my favourite, I still had a great time immersing myself in this book.

OMG, what did I just read? This is a totally addictive, original, mind-blowing story that I was convinced couldn’t possibly reach any real conclusion without some clumsy literary ploy or positively awkward plot twist. Beautiful Ugly, however, is superbly plotted, insidiously creepy and completely brilliant! I’m a long-standing Alice Feeney fan, and I think this is her best ever. Highly recommended if you enjoy psychological thrillers that are peopled with unique characters, explore interesting themes and mess with your head.

Alllllll the freaking stars!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Feeney at her finest. Magnetic, suspenseful, atmospheric, jaw dropping… exactly the kind of thriller we’ve come to know and love from this brilliant author! 🤩

“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘜𝘨𝘭𝘺, 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘜𝘨𝘭𝘺, 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘜𝘨𝘭𝘺. 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩.”

A missing wife, a tortured couple, relationship drama, and a lonely writer banished to a mysterious Scottish island ☁️☁️☁️ with no internet or phone service and atmosphere that is off the charts!

“𝘞𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵.
𝘏𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰.”

Strap in for a darkly twisty thriller with an unreliable MMC, red herrings galore and an examination of the fine line between isolation and loneliness. And the eerie island setting is just chefs kiss perfection! 😙🤌🏽

“𝘈 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.”

“𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘱, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧.”

Alice Feeney has created a riveting, witty, terrifying and immaculately written masterpiece, I simply couldn’t put it down! 😍 You have got to pick it up!

Thank you Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for this Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review. 🙏🏽

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life. He calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news but then he hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a 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 & desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, & 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.

This book was definitely one I was looking forward to most in 2025, having loved lots of titles from this author in the past. Her unique writing style always has the ability to create a powerful story, taking you in directions that you never expected. Safe to say this is definitely the case in this latest title!

This creepy, sinister, story unravels on a mysterious island, the description of which is so vivid that I felt I was there with every branch snap in the woods, the feeling of the chill in the air when the mist descends, and the unnerving realisation of not being alone.

I was kept guessing at every stage of this captivating thriller, Feeney enticing you further into the strange island of Amberley with every chapter. I can honestly say I couldn’t have predicted the direction this book headed in, the pace in the last quarter speeding up rapidly to a conclusion that will literally take your breath away. Also watch out for a very special message the author has hidden within the first 14 chapters, an outstandingly clever element added in when everything comes together.

Needless to say, I loved everything about this book and would recommend to anyone looking for a dramatic, atmospheric, chilling thriller - you won’t be disappointed!

“The world always looks more beautiful at night, when the darkness hides everything that it ugly”

“We’re all just too busy looking down to remember to look up”

📚RELEASED 30 JANUARY📚

3 stars!! <3

Always always start by thanking netgalley for the ARC of this book.

I want to preface this by saying Alice Feeney is my only autobuy thriller author. I'm very picky about thrillers but something about Alice Feeney books always do it for me. I've read 4 of her books now so let me just say getting the ARC of this was a pinch me moment.

This book follows an author, Grady Green, who's currently navigating life after the disappearance of his wife. I thought the overall premise of this book was quite intriguing, I mean I read only the first line of the synopsis and requested the ARC immediately. The writing was alright, funny at times and kept me flipping the page.

However, I think this is the lowest I've ever rated an Alice Feeney book. This book just didn't have the usual kick her books always have, I actually checked the front page more than once because I was convinced I accidentally started reading a book by another author. It felt like forever before anything worth being excited about actually happened, I felt like it just kept on dragging on and I guessed almost the entire plot twist which I think the book heavily relied on.

I will still be reading her books though because 1.) Her writing is actually quite beautiful and 2.) one miss doesn't define how good an author is

xx

Beautiful Ugly is the stunning new book by Alice Feeney and starts with author, Grady Green's wife disappearing. A year on and he still has no idea what happened to her and he just can't get back into writing, so his agent suggests he go to the Isle of Amberley to stay in a disused writer's cabin. Grady agrees and the peace and quiet of the island and the modern, well-equipped cabin are just what he needed - Grady starts writing again. Before long Grady is convinced he sees his wife on the island before she disappears into the mist; Grady can no longer tell what is real and what is his imagination.

I could not read this book quick enough, I just loved everything about it. It had me totally gripped from the first chapter and I found myself desperate to find out what had happened to Grady's missing wife and to discover the secrets of the island.

Alice Feeney's writing is beautiful and I felt as though I was on the Isle of Amberley with Grady, exploring it with him. The remote and rugged island was a wonderful setting for this kind of story and I loved meeting the inhabitants and finding out their stories too.

Overall, Beautiful Ugly is up there with one of the best books I've read this year and I can't wait to see what Alice Feeney writes next.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

2.5*, didn’t feel I could round it to 3.
Some aspects of the book were very clever; the main twist was well disguised, for example. The writing style was easy to read, and AF did a good job of building the tension in places. Loved the dog. And it kept me guessing. But that wasn’t enough to redeem the overall story for me.
Author’s wife goes missing in mysterious circumstances. A bit of a Gone Girl vibe, I think. A year later he is sent by his editor to a remote island to try and get over the writing block which has not surprisingly set in. From the second he sets foot on the ferry, I knew it was going to be a ‘locked room’ mystery. Weird things start happening almost as soon as he arrives, and suddenly I’m thinking ‘Wicker Man’; in fact for the rest of the book I see Edward Woodward as ‘Grady’. And whilst Grady picks up on the ‘weird’, there are no alarm bells going off in his head.( Seriously, what kind of thriller writer is he?)
The story has two POVs, one Grady’s and one Abby’s, and jumps about in time a bit.
The pace is initially slow, and suspenseful, though I was starting to get seriously irritated with Grady, and also there was the nagging worry that the dog would die (à la Fatal Attraction). Mini spoiler - he doesn’t.
The pace suddenly picks up, at about 60-70%, and from then goes at breakneck speed with more twists and turns than an Alpine road.
Then comes the denouement, the long and detailed explanation of who, what, where why and how, and this is where I almost literally ‘lost the plot’. It was very convoluted and whilst I admired the level of misdirection it was just too far-fetched for me.
It felt a bit rushed, and overly wordy ( there were a lot of things to explain).
The final chapter was telegraphed very early on in the book, and was a bit gothic.
If you don’t mind highly unlikely plots ( I do tend to over-analyse), the creepy suspense is enjoyable, and the gradual peeling away of the layers of misdirection worked well.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Alice Feeney has done it again! I read the book, then immediately felt that I needed to read it again! I don’t know how she manages to make everything that you’ve read completely different from what she’s written, it’s brilliant.
Set on an island off the coast of Scotland, not everything is as it seems when a broken author arrives to stay and tries to kickstart his career. He keeps seeing his wife in various places, but she died a year ago, so is he going insane through lack of sleep?

A dark twisted psychological thriller with an end that I didn’t see coming. The setting was perfect for the story and there was plenty of tension throughout. A great concept and the author pulled it off brilliantly.

3.5☆

This was my first Alice Feeney book and the first half had me hooked. I loved the small town setting with all the creepy vibes. The whole atmosphere was suspenseful and so captivating. Definitely a page turner! Sometimes I truly had no idea where this was going, and I liked the unpredictability of the plot.

But as the story progressed, it became more and more weird. I flew through this book, but I kinda struggled with the ending. It just felt a bit rushed and very unrealistic.

Overall the story felt like it was lacking something but I still had a fun time with it.

Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

Alice Feeney is usually a go to author for me, but this one didn’t hit the mark. The writing was good enough to keep reading but the plot was, in my opinion, a little boring.

Beautiful, Ugly Alice Feeney

5 stars

This is the second book that I have read by this author and I absolutely loved it. Ms Feeney's books are different from any other author that I have read combining amazing insights into relationships interwoven with incredible atmospheric and descriptive prose.

Grady Green is an author who has just learnt that he has finally cracked the bestsellers list in New York. He immediately phones his wife to tell her the news but whilst he is on the phone he hears the brakes being slammed on. He rushes to the scene only to find an empty car, his wife's red coat on the road and no sign of Abby.

A year later, Grady is haunted by his wife's disappearance, they had what seemed like a perfect marriage and he cannot believe that she would ever have left him. He has not been able to write since the disappearance and his publisher, Kitty, decides to send him to the remote Scottish island of Amberley inhabited by only 25 people. He will live in a cottage previously owned by another writer, now dead, and hopefully the quiet and peaceful atmosphere will re-kindle his writing.

As soon as he arrives, Grady is drawn to the beauty and solitude of the island but is still plagued by the loss of his wife, so much so that he starts to imagine that he is seeing her everywhere. He is still struggling to write so when he finds a manuscript of the previous authors final unpublished book under the floorboards he decides to submit this to his publisher as his own work in the hope that it will relaunch his career.

This is a broad outline of the book but it is so much more. We hear from both Grady and his wife about their marriage and how differently they both viewed it. Their relationship is so complicated when viewed by the two different participants. The inhabitants of Amberley start to come to life and we learn about how the island came to be and the terrible tragedy of the children who had drowned many years before. Slowly the author draws all the threads of the story together and I was completely enthralled not only by the ending which was totally unexpected but by the way the atmosphere of Amberley is described so vividly.

It took me two days to complete this book and I thought it was brilliant. I urge anyone who enjoys a really thought provoking book to read this.



Karen Deborah
Reviewer Netgalley

I thoroughly enjoyed this dark thriller and found the plot and characters interesting; I was intrigued from the outset as to where the story was taking the reader and by the end was staying up later to get to the finish.

The book focuses mainly on the two principal characters, Grady and Abby, who are husband and wife. Grady is a writer and Abby an investigate journalist. When Abby disappears midway through a call one night near a cliff top, Grady is devastated, his writing dries up and his career is in jeopardy. When Abby’s godmother suggests he stay on a remote Scottish island to focus the book events begin to get seriously weird, with the island becoming more dark and Grady imagining he sees Abby wherever he goes.

As characters I didn’t warm to Grady or Abby but enjoyed their POV and the way the story was told. The gradual unwinding of what lead up to the events that night on the cliff and how these became the background story of Abby and Grady was quite dark and makes the reader understand how Abby in particular behaves. I would definitely recommend this to those who enjoy a dark thriller and have been fans of this author’s previous novels. Good plot, unusual storyline and the writing certainly kept my interest.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful Ugly
Alice Feeney

The Queen of Twists Alice Feeney is back with a new addictive thriller about marriage and the aftermath of a terrible event.

“Constantly living inside an imaginary world must make it difficult to tell truth and fiction apart sometimes.”

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life and calls his wife Abby to share the news as she’s driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing… his wife has disappeared.

‘Grief is a patient thief and steals far more than people who have never known it realize.’

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby.
He can’t sleep, he can’t write, but he needs to, “The only way out is to write” after all. So he moves to a tiny isolated Scottish island and sees the impossible - a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

‘Constantly lying to yourself requires a special variety of stamina.’

We have a wonderful conundrum here; unreliable narrator or is everyone gaslighting here? Very compelling reading.

‘There’s no need to be afraid of the dead, it’s the living you have to watch out for.’

All the red herrings and misdirection were at play. It created a beautiful and unsettling atmosphere where you were just waiting for the other foot to drop. Who to trust? And the ominous warnings, compel you forward.

‘There might not be any crime on this island but someone is up to no good.’

This was perfectly executed and the pacing was wonderful.

‘I am my own worst enemy but I am also my own best friend.’

Beautiful Ugly is released 14th January 2025 in Australia.

‘Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t. Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.’

Thank you so much @macmillanaus and @alicewriterland .

‘Marriage is made of a million beautiful and ugly moments stitched together into a shared tapestry of memories, all of which are viewed and remembered slightly differently, like two people staring at the same painting from opposite ends of the room.’

What’s your favourite Feeney novel?

(Posted review on 30th December 2024).

Grady’s wife disappears on the same day that he finally becomes a bestseller list author.
A year later, unable to write, his publisher sends him to a remote island off the coast of the Scotland and here he starts to see his missing wife everywhere.
Oh my days this book had me gripped from the very beginning. I could not put it down. It was eerie, gripping and so suspenseful with the most amazingly dark twist I could never have seen coming! Ten out of ten I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good suspenseful thriller

I’m a huge Feeney fan and her novels keep getting better and better. I adored this, so fast paced I read it in a matter of days desperate to find answers. Full of jaw dropping moments - this is a must read.