Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Started: 2.4.26

DNF: 2.4.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Oldest book on my list

I got to page 104 but I wasn't enjoying it. A story about an author whose wife disappears without a trace, I found the MMC to be quite whiny and helpless. I get that he was grieving, but after the story jumped to a year later, it felt like every other sentence mentioned how much he loved his wife and couldn't write or do anything, really, without her. It was very repetitive. So I'm afraid I read some spoilers, then skipped to the end and read the last couple of chapters. There was definitely a big twist or two, but I'm not sorry that I DNF'd this. I do like books that are set in Scotland, so I presume this is why I had this book on my TBR, but even the Scottish island location wasn't enough to save it. I used to read a lot of thrillers but I definitely think my tastes are changing and these kinds of stories don't appeal to me as much as they once did.

Rainforest by Michelle Paver

Started: 31.3.26

Finished: 1.4.26

Hardcover

TBR Prompt: Animal on the cover

This book is the story of an entomologist called Simon who is travelling to the rainforest, ostensibly to study mantids. Told from his POV, it's safe to say that he's an 'unreliable narrator'. We learn that he's grieving for someone called Penelope, with whom he believed he was in love, however as he divulges more into his journal, it becomes apparent that his feelings weren't reciprocated, and also that this trip may not have been entirely his choice. Once in the jungle, amongst the natives and their spiritual beliefs, Simon finds that the line between the living and the dead is a tenuous one.

Set in the 1970s, with some 1970s attitudes towards women and indigenous people, I never warmed to the character of Simon, or any of his colleagues really, though I don't think we were meant to. To me, he seemed spoiled and petulant; there were suggestions of a difficult childhood but these were never really explored in any great depth. He just seems to have grown into an angry, self-obsessed man with poor social skills. By the end of his jungle ordeal he has perhaps had something of an awakening, but I didn't feel that he'd fully redeemed himself in any way.

I enjoyed this book but it doesn't come close to my favourite, Dark Matter, by the same author.