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2025 Reading Challenge

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Bryn Greenwood has read 28 of 40 books.

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Bryn Greenwood

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bryngreenwood

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Literature & Fiction, Suspense

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February 2008

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BRYN GREENWOOD is the NYT bestselling author of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, The Reckless Oath We Made, Lie Lay Lain, and Last Will. Her fifth novel NOBODY KNOWS YOU'RE HERE is coming in September 2025. She lives in northeast Kansas.

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Where did you get the inspiration for All the Ugly and Wonderful things? I think you did an amazing job at changing the male-adult-female-child kind of relationship into something not completely despicable and horrifying, how did you manage it!?

Bryn Greenwood Thanks for the question, Zuky! I get inspiration from all kinds of things, but this book literally started with me seeing a guy riding a motorcycle on…moreThanks for the question, Zuky! I get inspiration from all kinds of things, but this book literally started with me seeing a guy riding a motorcycle on a dirt road through a hay field at sunset. I wanted to know who he was and where he was going. My daydreaming about that scene turned into Wavy and Kellen's story. As for how I managed to make their relationship something more than a tragic headline? The short answer is that I lived it. The book isn't autobiographical, but at the age of 13, I did date and fall in love with a much older man. I wasn't normal. He wasn't normal. But we understood each other. We had a loving, consensual romance that nurtured me more than a lot of my adult relationships have. (less)

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Hi Bryn! I’ve seen a lot of comparisons on here to books like Lolita, Tampa by Alissa Nutting, Glass Castles by Jeanette Walls. How do you feel about these comparisons? Were you reading anything in particular to inspire you as you wrote?

Bryn Greenwood If people were comparing my prose to Nabokov's, I'd be incredibly flattered, but I think any comparison of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things to Lolita…moreIf people were comparing my prose to Nabokov's, I'd be incredibly flattered, but I think any comparison of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things to Lolita or Tampa is based on a very passing acquaintance with the stories. Lolita and Tampa are both constructed as a first-person account of a narcissistic pedophile/ephebophile. Humbert and Celeste are predators and their stories are meant to shock, titillate, and disturb, even as they draw the reader in.

As for my book, I firmly maintain that Kellen is not a pedophile (nor an ephebophile), but he has the misfortune of falling for the right girl at the wrong time. From Wavy's perspective, he falls for her at the perfect time: when she desperately needs him. Life's funny that way. My intention in writing the book was not to titillate, but to tell a story about love and perseverance that reflects parts of American life that don't often get seen beyond headlines. As for The Glass Castle, it's actually a memoir, whereas All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is purely fiction. A lot more people would have to pass away before I publish a memoir.

In terms of inspiration, I tend to read very erratically, so that I almost never end up reading something that relates to or is remotely similar to what I'm writing. In fact, when I wrote All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, I wasn't even reading. I was in the middle of a complete home remodeling project. I was spending nine hours at my day job, four hours gutting and reassembling my house, then another four to six hours every night writing in a friend's spare bedroom. I sacrificed both sleep and reading for the house and the book. (less)

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Bryn Greenwood’s books

Average rating: 3.98 · 218,432 ratings · 28,034 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	All the Ugly and Wonderful Things 3.98 avg rating — 201,125 ratings — published 2016 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Reckless Oath We Made 3.99 avg rating — 14,310 ratings — published 2019 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Last Will 3.80 avg rating — 1,125 ratings — published 2012 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nobody Knows You're Here 4.27 avg rating — 913 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lie Lay Lain 3.68 avg rating — 946 ratings — published 2014 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Battered Suitcase January 2009 by Bryn Greenwood (Goodreads Author), Helen R. Peterson, Cory Mesler 3.46 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2009	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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A novel-writing human fights fascism

My fifth novel, Nobody Knows You’re Here, is out today, available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. I wrote the first scenes for it without knowing that it would turn out to be a suspense/thriller novel. It’s my first attempt at the genre, and I spent a lot of time asking myself if it was in fact suspenseful or thrilling. I also spent an enormous amount of time reading all the materials I could

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Bryn is Currently Reading

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In Memoriam

by Alice Winn

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Oct 01, 2025 01:23PM

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The Unexpected Diva

by Tiffany L. Warren (Goodreads Author)

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The Fallen Fruit

by Shawntelle Madison (Goodreads Author)

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Bryn Greenwood is currently reading In Memoriam by Alice Winn	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 01, 2025 01:23PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of In Memoriam by Alice Winn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — In Memoriam by Alice Winn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Bryn Greenwood is currently reading The Unexpected Diva by Tiffany L. Warren (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Bryn Greenwood is currently reading The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 01, 2025 01:12PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Bryn Greenwood added a status update: Now that release week stuff has quieted down and I sent the next book off to my agent, I'm trying to catch up on recording the random assortment of books I've read before I donate them. I am still committed to reducing my book hoard. Anybody else?
Sep 24, 2025 11:38AM · 20 likes · like · see status
Bryn Greenwood has read I Choose to Live by Sabine Dardenne	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 24, 2025 11:37AM · 1 like · like
Bryn Greenwood has read The Butterfly Garden (The Collector, #1) by Dot Hutchison	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Bryn Greenwood (?)

“I liked learning things. How numbers worked together to explain the stars. How molecules made the world. All the ugly and wonderful things people had done in the last two thousand years.”
― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

tags: learning, love, numbers, stars, ugly, wonderful

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“Most days I was impossible. Like a unicorn.”
― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

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“When I reached her, she was a star, pulling me into her orbit”
― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

tags: love, real-love

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Polls

Which of these books would you prefer to read as the January book club selection?

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

6 votes, 42.9%

Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Six of Crows

5 votes, 35.7%

The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave, #1) by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

3 votes, 21.4%

14 total votes

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Stress Free Readi...: #24: Kris Mongo's Passport	60	31	Aug 31, 2016 09:00AM

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Bryn’s Quotes

“If you’re purely after facts, please buy yourself the phone directory of Manhattan. It has four million times correct facts. But it doesn’t illuminate.”
― Werner Herzog

tags: facts, illuminate, interview, manhattan, npr, phone-directory

44 likes

“The Heart wants what it wants - or else it does not care”
― Emily Dickinson

tags: love

618 likes

“when it’s only you and your sister, you can do any embarrassing thing you want.”
― Carol Rifka Brunt, Tell The Wolves I'm Home

6 likes

“Mr. Arsenikos said if you knew the constellations you would never get lost. You could always find your way home.”
― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

tags: constellations, home, lost

10 likes

Bryn’s Year In Books

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2025 Reading Challenge

Bryn Greenwood

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124 posts
Bryn Greenwood's Blog

A novel-writing human fights fascism

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