Beautiful & Terrible Things

How do you decide what books to read? By favorite genre? The elevator pitch? the cover? I chose to read and review Beautiful & Terrible Things because it was outside of my usual choice of historical fiction, and I was ready to be challenged. It is a tale of a circle of friends diverse in their heritage, race, gender, and sexual orientation. Charley is a lonely bookstore worker struggling with depression when she meets Xander and his assortment of friends from high school and college.

The strength of this novel is in the character development. Each character is memorable in their unique personality, individual quirks, clothing choices, and dialogue. The story is populated by six characters in their late twenties who represent the millennial generation’s stereotypes as tech savvy, single, open-minded people with a desire to help the environment, advance in their careers, and who are interested in social justice.

There are two themes that will keep the reader engaged—betrayal and trust. The betrayal unwinds along with unexpected and unintended consequences. The cost of betrayal is a loss of trust and lessons learned by these six friends. Beautiful & Terrible Things has an important underlying theme that serves as a warning of how the depths of depression can take over a life and lead to self-harm—both physical and emotional. Some of these themes were lost by unneeded side-stories of the characters. These back-stories of the already well-defined characters detoured the reader around the plot.

Beautiful & Terrible Things is an important book to read. It will broaden the reader’s understanding of a generation that can teach all of us how to be more compassionate and understanding of our differences. Or perhaps the reader will recognize their own friends.

“Sharing stories is one of the most powerful tools we human beings have for fostering understanding, empathy and cooperation across cultural, political, racial, religious, social and geographical divides.” ~Ann Morgan