This was spooky and fantastic! Author Grady Green is at rock bottom after the traumatic disappearance of this wife. When his publisher suggests he utilize a cabin on a remote Scottish island that was the location of a popular author writing a bunch of bestsellers, he decides to give it a try. But of course, nothing is as it seems.
Alice Feeney is the queen of 'wtf is going on'. I said 'wait, what???' no less than 5 times and had to listen to some of the last chapters a few times to wrap my head around everything. This was a slower paced mystery, but I felt that added to the scary and tense atmosphere. It definitely didn't make me want to go to any remote islands anytime soon.
The narration is excellent and I highly recommend enjoying Beautiful Ugly that way. Richard Armitage is soo good!
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the copy through NetGalley!

Thank you Macmillan Audio, Alice Feeney, and NetGalley for the audio copy of Beautiful Ugly.

I didn’t know what to think when I started this one but I was hooked from the start. I thought I had an idea where it was going and then those twists made my jaw hit the floor. Great book!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing an audio ARC for review.

I don’t know how to feel about this one. The plot requires a huge suspension of disbelief from the reader. Almost none of the characters, other than Columbo, are likeable. As the relationship between Abby and Grady is revealed, it becomes less and less clear what these two enjoyed about each other. They seem incapable of communication. The chapters from Abby’s perspective destabilize Grady as a reliable historian, but also, I dislike Abby’s character and motivations. Getting mad at your husband for being consistent and clear about not wanting children and then weaponizing his trauma when you don’t get your way is an ugly and cruel thing to do. There’s a lot about Grady that I don’t agree with either, but the ending of the book feels insane. I think the author was hoping to create a plot similar to Midsommar, but by focusing on Grady as the primary protagonist, he was inadvertently more sympathetic than Abby. To be clear, they are both selfish people with a penchant for abject cruelty, but the ending still did not feel justified. I found myself very confused by the ending as well. It was startling, but once the shock wore off, I don’t understand the logistics of why the ending played out this way; it directly contradicts earlier plot points.

Admittedly, I also don’t understand Alice Feeney’s motivations behind this plot either. I understand that the island is meant to be a utopia for the women on it, and the island is a close-knit community of battered women that support each other. However, the emotions around pushing out men entirely from the community came across as deeply unhinged. The book started to make social commentary, but I don’t think this was handled well. Instead of saying anything new or pushing any boundaries, this utopia came across as a cult. I found myself wondering if she was trying to make a feminist message and did it badly, or if she was creating a strawman community of misandrists as a critique against the feminist movement. I still don’t know what exactly the author was trying to accomplish, and I don’t think the lack of clarity in the writing is on purpose.

What I did enjoy was the horror and mystery elements. There are points where Grady is questioning his sanity as life on the island descends into chaos, and these moments are genuinely eerie. The sound design in the audiobook is also immaculate and contributes to the scariness of the story tremendously. I also feel the narrators were excellent.

I did enjoy listening to this book, and I think that is largely due to the skill of the narration and audio editing teams. If you are looking for a book that holds up beyond surface-level scrutiny, I would not recommend this.

I am so torn about this book. It did a bunch of things that seemed so make me roll my eyes at the improbability of it all and the writing of those improbable situations was a little too superficial for me. With all the love in my heart, it read very BookTok. But the storyline was something I had not ever read. So brava for original content, meh for delivery. A three star or four star? A clicked both a million times. 3.5 stars

I would like to very formally thank Ms. Alice Feeney for giving me my first read of 2025 and my first FIVE STAR rating! You mark my words, this will be one of my top reads of the year... and I finished it on January 7th.

If you are an audiobook person, or have maybe wanted to dabble in audiobooks, but don’t know where to start... THIS IS THE ONE.

Just a few of the things I absolutely LOVED about Beautiful Ugly:
• Dual POV with sound effects to let you know when the timeline/narrator is changing
• Fully immersive sound, when the MCs hear church bells, you hear church bells
• Impeccably voiced by actual film and TV actors, Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton
• Extremely atmospheric, mostly set on a tiny Scottish isle
• Locked room vibes without an actual locked room
• Absolutely WILD plot twists, my jaw was on the floor; I even had to take notes so I can remember all of the unhinged things I want to say at book club next week (my favorite note, in all caps, italic, and red font: “WAIT WHAT???”)

This is a book I wish I could forget complete so I could listen to it again. If this is on your TBR, bump it up to the top... and if it’s not, add it now! This was a highly anticipated release for me and it FULLY exceeded my expectations.

A huge thank you to Macmillan Audio + NetGalley for gifting me this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Dear Beautiful Ugly,
For my last finished book of the year, you were a really good thriller! You had my jaw dropping more than once while I was listening to you! I wasn't sure what I could believe, what was hallucinations and what was real. You kept me thinking and I have already suggested you to at least two people. Part locked room mystery and part missing person mystery, I kept thinking about you even when I wasn't listening to you.

I absolutely devoured this book. I was taken with the mystery. I was shocked at the twist and yet it all made perfect sense..

I highly recommend this novel. I think it may well be Alice Feeney's best book yet. I'm a fan.

I cant wait for what comes next.

“Beautiful Ugly” surprised me a couple of times with unexpected twists! The plot was somewhat far fetched - I can’t imagine agreeing to go to a remote island with no access to phones or internet as an author. The characters were kind of fun and I’m digging the idea of a “no men allowed” community. 😂 I’d call this a 3.5 star book, but Goodreads won’t let me do 1/2s. As an audiobook, this was an quick, good listen. I always like dual narrators and both narrators had lovely voices to listen to.

***I received this audiobook through NetGalley for an honest review.

(Rounded up from 2.5)

Popcorn read, but not in the dynamic quality "popcorn" of Demi Moore's recent Golden Globe speech. While any book by Alice Feeney isn't going to be rated lowest of the low, this one is my least favorite I've read of hers--some others have required suspended disbelief but were still an enjoyable ride. This one was less a ride and more of a trudge for me. There are multiple narrators for the audiobook and more production involved than "standard" books. I appreciated the production (sea sounds, walkie-talkie cracklings) as they added some eeriness to the storyline, but the narrators were not top-notch, IMO, and dragged down the already bogged storyline for me. Honestly, this book felt less Feeney-quality and more TikTok Booktok fare. I'll still look forward to more Rock, Paper, Scissors and Daisy Darker level Feeney books in the future, but sadly this plot(hole) title just wasn't it for me*. I do appreciate the reach-out to give the audiobook a try as I did have this one on my TBR upon its publication!

My thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to preview this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

*I see that I'm not in the majority on this opinion, and I'm okay with that. :)

Alice, girl, you crazy!!! This book is not quite as ridiculous as Daisy Darker, but it's still asking the reader to suspend a ton of disbelief. I found the writing less cringe than Good Bad Girl and His & Hers, although I think some credit for this goes to the audiobook narrators (and it was NOT necessary for Alice to actually incorporate her chapter titles into the dialogue of each chapter). Unfortunately I've gotten familiar enough with Alice's tricky ways that I guessed the primary twist almost immediately, though as with all her books there are plenty of extra twists to go around. Overall very atomospheric and suspenseful and I thought the pacing was solid. 2.5 rounded up because I really couldn't put this down.

Wow wow wow. This book!! Twisty, red herrings, unreliable narrator, good ending. Perfect thriller! Loved it! I listened on audio and loved the narrator as well. So good!

Grady Green, an author, anxiously awaits news about the sales of his latest book. He had hoped his wife, Abby, would be with him when the call came, but she was still on her way home. During a phone call with her, he hears the screech of brakes as Abby exclaims that there’s a woman in the road. Despite his desperate pleas for her to stay in the car, Abby gets out to check on the woman. Suddenly, the call cuts off.

When Grady drives to her location, he finds Abby’s car perched dangerously close to the edge of a cliff. The driver’s door is open—but Abby is gone.

A year later, Abby is still missing, and Grady is consumed by grief and insomnia. Struggling to move forward, his editor, Kitty, offers him a lifeline: a chance to escape to a remote Scottish island to work on his next book. Grady needs the money and the change of scenery to start rebuilding his life.

The island, isolated and sparsely populated, has strict rules—no visitors during the off-season and no cars for non-residents. It seems like the perfect place to write. But when Grady sees a woman who looks exactly like Abby, he begins to question his sanity. Is it a cruel trick of the mind, or something much more mysterious?

Alice Feeney never fails to write a fantastic thriller and this book was no exception. It is fast-paced, smart, and unexpected. Grady is an alcoholic which makes him an unreliable narrator; however, his character is more than just an alcoholic. I often dislike unreliable narrators but I loved this book.

Overall, Beautiful Ugly was a fun and gripping thriller. I do agree with other reviews I've seen, that this wasn't my favorite of Alice Feeney's many novels. There are quite a few twists and turns in this book, but the most compelling ones were easy to guess, and the most shocking were completely unearned. There were a lot of plot holes here that made this book feel more like a TikTok popcorn thriller than a well-p[otted novel.

The message of the book is so real - who needs men?

The audiobook experience for this book is so well done - the sounds of the sea, the static crackle of the walkie-talkies and even better … the narrators.

This made for an amazing listening experience.

Beautiful Ugly: Wow! This was a fantastic listen on audiobook. I was able to listen to the ARC thanks to Netgalley and I really enjoyed it. One of my favorite parts were the Antonyms throughout the plot. I thought I had everything figured out, but it ended completely different than I expected. Very good!

Wow, this book was incredible twisty I was on the edge of my seat the whole time trying to figure out what was going on! The book felt like a great mixture of The Wicker Man and Secret Window.

I found the set up of the book to be very interesting and lent itself to a great thriller. Most of the book is from Grady's point of view as he struggles with the disappearance of his wife and trying to write another successful book. There was also sprinkles of Abby's point of view leading up to her disappearance. This style of book had me wondering what exactly was going on until the final reveal!

I listened to the audiobook and did enjoy that there were two narrators one for Grady and one for Abby.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, but Daisy Darker will forever by my favorite of hers. I really enjoyed the dual character and dual timeline POV, and thought it tied the book together really well. This was definitely one of those books that will constantly have you thinking, and in a way messes with your head just like the main character’s. It was another great novel written by this author and I can’t wait for everyone else to be able to read it! I ended up giving it 4.5 stars!

The story’s twist and turns kept me turning the pages at mega speed, making it hard to put down. True to Feeney’s style, the narrative is dark, complex, and emotionally gripping. However, unlike some previous books, the ending didn’t pack the shocking punch I have come to expect. That said, this book still offered a very satisfying resolution that fit the tone of the story leaving me with a sense of closure I appreciated. I would absolutely recommend Beautiful Ugly to fans of suspenseful, dark novels who appreciate layered and intense narrative. Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

Alice Feeney knocked it out of the park again! I enjoyed every word of this dark, gripping thriller. I was honestly a nervous wreck through a lot of it, in the best possible way!

Wow! This book was super spooky. I listened to the audio while reading along and the sound effects had me jumping. I predicted some things but didn’t see the twist. I was riding on 5 stars until the last 15% and I just didn’t vibe with some of the plot/twists but overall a great book and I would recommend. Thank you NetGalley for the audio arc in exchange for my honest review.