Welcome.
An positive open space for book lovers to find reading guidance, reviews, blogs, and connect with other alike.
Bryn Greenwood
Title
This item is connected to a text field in your Content Manager. Click on the widget and go to Manage Media to add your own content. There, you can update your media, edit the title and description, and add more items.
Title
Title
"All the Ugly and Wonderful Things"
Whoa, This Got Weird: The Age Gap IS QUESTIONABLE🤯
Okay, so I finally read "All the Ugly and Wonderful Things" by Bryn Greenwood, and I'm still trying to process how I feel about it. 😲 This book has so many great reviews and high stars (remember my thoughts about that? See this post here). But I'm really trying to understand how it can have so many close to 5-star reviews with this odd age gap. And don't get me wrong, I love a good age gap, when it's legal and we're not talking about children.
It's about a girl named Wavy who has a seriously rough childhood, and Kellen, who becomes her protector. Sounds kinda sweet, right? Except, here's the kicker: she's eight when they meet, and he's twenty-two. 🤯 Yeah, I know, right?
Things get complicated fast. Wavy's life is a total dumpster fire, and she latches onto Kellen like he's the only life raft in sight. He's the only decent person in her world. But even though he seems like an okay guy, the whole thing just feels off. I mean, she's a kid, and he's a grown man. There's no way that power dynamic isn't totally skewed. 🤨
And then, as Wavy gets older, things get even more WTF. 🥴 They start a romantic relationship. The book tries to tell you that it's all Wavy's choice, but come on. She's still so young, and he's been this authority figure in her life for years. In my opinion, it totally screams grooming, no matter how you slice it, which is so hard because I loved the characters so much! Maybe if they were like 16 or 17 and 21? But 8?? I just can't.
I get that the author was probably going for a complex love story, something that makes you question your own ideas about relationships. But honestly, the age gap just made the whole thing super icky to read. It's hard to get behind these characters when you know their relationship is built on such shaky ground.
I'm not saying everyone will feel this way, and of course this is all just my opinion. I think this could have been close to 5 star and one of my favorite books sans age difference. Maybe some people can look past tthat and see a beautiful love story. But for me, it just felt wrong. It's a book that makes you think, but not always in a good way. 🤔
What were your opinions on this book? Leave your comments below!