Beautiful Ugly: A Novel

Alice Feeney

Jan 2025 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton

4.5

8 reviews

Audiobook

9 hr 23 min

Unabridged

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About this audiobook

This program is read by actor Richard Armitage, best known for his role in The Hobbit film trilogy, and actress Tuppence Middleton, best known for her role in Downton Abbey.

Beautiful Ugly features sound design and special effects to enhance your listening enjoyment. Listen out for the sounds of the ocean surrounding the island and the tick tock of the metronome!

"...Armitage...shine[s] with impeccable pacing, building tension that adds to the suspense" —AudioFile on His & Hers

“Her best book yet.” —Harlan Coben

The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .

. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the 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 and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and 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.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.

Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.

“Magnetic and jaw-dropping.” —Mary Kubica, bestselling author

"Unforgettable." —Chris Whitaker, bestselling author

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

Ratings and reviews

4.5

8 reviews

Sherry Rehbock

December 6, 2024

This definitely needs to be on your 2025 tbr. I’m always such a fan of listening to an #AliceFeeney book. I still remember being floored by that Rock Paper Scissors twist. This isn’t a pulse pounding thriller but a very suspenseful character driven novel. This was my walking book this week and the eerie feeling surrounding me as I listened was off the charts. I couldn’t decide if this was a little supernatural or who in the book was reliable, but I was thinking it through from the start. Most of the story is narrated by Grady. An author who is mourning the disappearance of his wife while trying to write his next best seller. He ends up in a cabin on a remote island. There is all kinds of weird there. The atmosphere is eerie and intense. Odd islanders. Check. No way out. Check. Mysterious history of the island. Check. I was gripped from the start and while I did guess a few of the twists, there were still a few surprises and I loved the journey. I’ll admit that I am slightly more intuitive with twists when listening and my percentage of guessing correctly increases with an audiobook. Both Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton do a great job narrating the book, but Richard Armitage really hit it out of the park making Grady such an interesting character. He took what Feeney wrote and made it larger than life. I’m not normally a fan of sounds in an audiobook, but the placement of the crashing waves and metronome between chapters really worked for me. I couldn’t wait to finish one and second guessed only listening while walking. I was that engaged.

Amie Sweeney

January 29, 2025

Rating: 3.5 stars, rounding up. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an advance audio copy of Beautiful Ugly. I am an absolute sucker for a Scottish setting, it’s almost always an automatic yes for me when I see that is part of a book. And Alice really did sweep me away to the isles with her atmospheric writing. If you’re someone who is a locked room fan, but get tired of the sort of same old recipe then I suggest giving this one a go - he is locked on the island, so it’s not quite as suffocating but gives the same vibes and intensity (and a sense of ‘am I going mad?’). Ultimately, though, what started as such a strong book just ended up falling a bit flat for me. Which is crazy, because I’ve never met an Alice Feeney book that I didn’t absolutely love. Part of me wants to blame the narration - I wasn’t crazy about it. Part of me wants to blame myself - was I distracted because I didn’t love the narration? When I look at my friends reviews and see people I’m normally very in line with giving this one five stars, I should strongly consider a re-read and giving it another go.

Darcia Helle

November 20, 2024

Alice Feeney is sneaky. And BEAUTIFUL UGLY is a wild read! Take an isolated setting with a small-town vibe and lots of atmosphere, then spin yourself around until you're disoriented, add in lots of questionable activity, and you have my experience with this book. While highly entertaining, I also really appreciated that the story provided some thought-provoking content. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Tuppence Middleton and Richard Armitage. This is my favorite format for this type of story. The narrators both did a fantastic job of embracing the characters’ personalities and the mood of the story. *Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the free audiobook download.*

About the author

Alice Feeney is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ugly, Good Bad Girl, Daisy Darker, Rock Paper Scissors, His & Hers, I Know Who You Are, and Sometimes I Lie. Her novels have been translated into over thirty languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in the Devon countryside with her family.

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