Readers need to be off-the-charts clever to figure out who’s going to kill whom in this disturbing first novel by the American writer Annie Ward ... By alternating narrators and tossing a couple of other dangerously spooky characters into the mix, the book keeps its readers eternally off balance, not a pleasant sensation but one that feels oddly just right for this strange novel.
A big, explosive novel, but it’s a heartfelt and highly personal one, too—and perhaps most importantly, it’s a novel with lots of disparate parts that work beautifully together ... certainly full of revelations and surprises, but I wouldn’t personally characterize this thriller as 'twisty' ... Ward is at her best when writing the emotional and psychological baggage that her characters carry with them every day, and this emotional depth more than compensates for any plot twists that you might see coming ... Brimming with emotion and authenticity, Beautiful Bad will equal parts thrill and haunt.
Annie Ward’s debut has all the familiar ingredients of the recent outpouring of psychological thrillers—dynamic but unreliable female narrators, a story that bounces between different characters’ perspectives, and secrets that remain buried throughout years of friendship or marriage—but it’s set apart by its unusual settings ... A twist in the closing pages will catch even the most jaded reader off guard, making Beautiful Bad a good read for fans of Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins and A.J. Finn.
