BRYN GREENWOOD is a fourth-generation Kansan, and the daughter of a mostly reformed drug dealer. She earned an MA from Kansas State University and continues to work in academia as an administrator. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in The New York Times, Chiron Review, Kansas Quarterly, Karamu, and The Battered Suitcase. Bryn is the author of Last Will and The Battered Suitcase. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas.
"If you're looking for a dangerous, shocking, and unexpectedly
touching story, this is it...This is a book that will shake you to
the core." --Bustle "31 Books Bringing the Heat this Summer"
"Captivating and smartly written from the first page, Greenwood's
work is instantly absorbing. Pithy characters saunter, charge or
stumble into each scene via raw, gripping narrative. . . .
[Greenwood] tells her story as if lifting a cloth thread by thread,
revealing heartbreaking landscapes and riveting dialogue in perfect
timing. This book won't pull at heartstrings but instead yank out
the entire organ and shake it about before lodging it back in an
unfamiliar position." --Christina Ledbetter, The Associated Press
"This book destroyed me. I have never read anything like it. I came
to the end of the novel with my mind-reeling, my emotions
scattered, and completely unsure exactly what I did feel about
it...but one thing is certain: I felt. Oh hell, I felt. I don't
think I'll ever get these characters off my mind." --Emily May, #1
Worldwide most popular reviewer, Goodreads "The title says it all.
You will hold your little heart in your hands and keep blowing on
it to make sure it's alive." --The Top Ten Hottest Reads of 2016,
New York Daily News
"This is one of those books whose story, if you heard about it on
the news or glimpsed some sensationalist headline, would be
horrifying, but in THIS book, with THESE characters, where you are
privy to interior monologues and backstories and a hundred examples
of what defines them as people, it makes sense. It's two damaged
people finding something in the other that answers a need, and it's
unexpectedly touching. It's so, so impressive. Vibrant.
Heartbreaking. Sympathetic. Her writing is astonishing." --Karen,
#1 US most popular reviewer, Goodreads "Bryn Greenwood's All the
Ugly and Wonderful Things [is] so freakishly good and dangerous
that it should come with a warning label... The writing is direct
and muscular, a snake with all the slithery danger of a coiled
rattler on a hot rock. VERDICT: Greenwood (from Kansas, daughter of
a "mostly reformed drug dealer") astounds in creating a world where
assorted murderers, felons, and thieves are sympathetic." --Library
Journal "Bryn Greenwood has handed readers a strange - but
strangely grabbing - tale." --Harry Levins, St. Louis Post
Dispatch, Best of 2016 "Greenwood's haunting novel...is a story
that will stay with readers long after the book is finished."
--Lisa McLendon, The Wichita Eagle "[A] powerful, provocative
debut...intelligent, honest, and unsentimental." --Kirkus Reviews
(STARRED) "An emotionally resonant novel with an unlikely cast of
characters you won't soon forget. Bryn Greenwood's unique voice and
her understanding of human nature offer an amazing tale of family,
loss, and love that's as unpredictable and inspiring as love
itself." --Brunonia Barry, New York Times bestselling author of The
Lace Reader "Written in lyrical and searingly honest prose, Bryn
Greenwood tells a powerful story of love and resilience against the
bleakest of backdrops. Like the best fiction, this is a novel that
means to disturb and challenge as it forces us to look with
compassion on every last one of its flawed, memorable characters. I
was captivated from the first page to the last." --Patry Francis,
three time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and author of The Orphans
of Race Point
"Gritty and dark and tough and uncomfortable, but it's brilliantly
constructed...Greenwood develops an incredible and resilient
character in Wavy. It's an outstanding debut novel and I am itching
for Greenwood's next book." --Kelly Jensen, Book Riot "Greenwood is
a gifted writer, and Wavy's story will stick to your bones long
after you put this book down. These characters will fast become
friends, and you will find yourself reluctant to leave their ugly
and wonderful little world." --Madeline Lemieux, Creative Loafing
Charlotte "Incredible book alert...Another true page turner as
Greenwood takes her reader on an emotional bungee jump that
requires you to decide for yourself what you can and can not accept
given the grimmest of circumstances." (5 out of 5 stars) --Erin
Woodward, The Girly Book Club "All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is
just that: ugly and wonderful all at the same time. An epic love
story...This book will be the birth of a vibrant debate about the
law and societal norms as your book club members will truly be
divided by the actions of our male lead. I'd love to be a fly on
the wall for this one!" --InStyle UK "Achingly raw and beautifully
written, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is both a hypnotic
coming-of-age story and a heartbreaking tragedy. Greenwood's
emotional prose and her well-drawn characters immediately drew me
in and kept me captivated. I'm still thinking about Wavy, and her
ugly and wonderful world, long after I've turned the last page."
--Jillian Cantor, author of Margot and The Hours Count "Bryn
Greenwood is so good it hurts. Her writing is lean, precise,
elegant and dripping with the telling detail-the understated bit of
dialogue that reveals everything." --Robert Ferrigno, New York
Times bestselling author of Monkey Boyz, Horse Latitudes, the
Prayer for the Assassin trilogy and other novels "The author
skillfully creates widely varied and original voices... a memorable
coming-of-age tale about loyalty, defiance, and the power of love
under the most improbable circumstances." --Publishers Weekly
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