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Precious Ugly
Clementine is a girl in trouble. She’s homeless, living in a conversion van at a campground tucked into a little stretch of riverfront on the Potomac. She’s hungry, craving Pop-Tarts while forced to eat fried snake for supper. And she’s pregnant. Daddy says he’ll fix it. But unlike Mama and the folks who believe he can walk on water, Clem knows better than to trust Daddy.
In Precious Ugly, Rae Cline draws us into the story of a thirteen-year-old girl seeking to escape her abusive, alcoholic, charismatic father and desperate to protect her mother. Set in 1985 in Harpers Ferry and Jolo, West Virginia, it’s a story anchored in the promise of Reagan, the fear of AIDS, the songs of Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper, and Tina Turner heard through a Walkman, and other signs of its time and place. It’s also a universal and ongoing story about poverty, addiction, religious charlatans, sexual predators, and how children are made to suffer for the sins of their parents. As told through the eyes of its remarkable young heroine, Precious Ugly is ultimately a story about the everyday marvels of tenacity and resourcefulness, the kindness of strangers, and the possibility of breaking the cycle of domestic violence and generational trauma.
In Precious Ugly, Rae Cline draws us into the story of a thirteen-year-old girl seeking to escape her abusive, alcoholic, charismatic father and desperate to protect her mother. Set in 1985 in Harpers Ferry and Jolo, West Virginia, it’s a story anchored in the promise of Reagan, the fear of AIDS, the songs of Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper, and Tina Turner heard through a Walkman, and other signs of its time and place. It’s also a universal and ongoing story about poverty, addiction, religious charlatans, sexual predators, and how children are made to suffer for the sins of their parents. As told through the eyes of its remarkable young heroine, Precious Ugly is ultimately a story about the everyday marvels of tenacity and resourcefulness, the kindness of strangers, and the possibility of breaking the cycle of domestic violence and generational trauma.
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
224 pages, Paperback
Published August 18, 2026
About the author
Rae Cline
11 books74 followersRae Cline's debut novel, Precious Ugly, is a work of Appalachian literary fiction. It was a finalist for the Curt Johnson Prose Award and CRAFT's First Chapters Contest. Her story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals, was nominated for the PEN/Hemingway Award and Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction received honors from the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and won second place in the Bartleby Snopes Short Story Contest. Her creative nonfiction was a finalist for the Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney's, North American Review, and StoryQuarterly. She is the founding editor of Eckleburg and lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Precious Ugly follows thirteen-year-old Clementine, a pregnant girl living in poverty with her mother and her charismatic, self-proclaimed prophet father. While those around her believe he can solve all their problems, Clementine has long known he can't be trusted.
Desperate to protect herself, she must find a way to break free from the cycle of abuse that has shaped her life.
This was a devastating and deeply emotional read. The story tackles difficult themes including poverty, homelessness, addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence, child abuse, sexual abuse, and religious manipulation. Although it's set in the mid-1980s, many of its themes remain painfully relevant today.
The writing is lyrical, poetic, and beautiful. I was completely pulled into Clementine's world. Her voice felt authentic, vulnerable, and incredibly strong. Watching her navigate circumstances no child should ever have to endure was both heartbreaking and inspiring.
One of the most powerful aspects of this novel is its exploration of how children are often forced to carry the consequences of their parents' choices. As children, we're taught that parents are supposed to protect us and put our needs first, but Precious Ugly shines a light on the harsh reality that this isn't always the case. The damage caused by addiction, neglect, abuse, and selfishness can echo across generations.
What stayed with me most was Clementine's resilience. Even in the darkest moments, her determination to survive and create a different future for herself never disappeared. It's a painful story, but it's also one filled with hope, courage, and the possibility of breaking generational cycles.
Thank you so much Rae Cline, 7.13 Books, & NetGalley for the #gifted earc.
All opinions are my own 🖤
Desperate to protect herself, she must find a way to break free from the cycle of abuse that has shaped her life.
This was a devastating and deeply emotional read. The story tackles difficult themes including poverty, homelessness, addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence, child abuse, sexual abuse, and religious manipulation. Although it's set in the mid-1980s, many of its themes remain painfully relevant today.
The writing is lyrical, poetic, and beautiful. I was completely pulled into Clementine's world. Her voice felt authentic, vulnerable, and incredibly strong. Watching her navigate circumstances no child should ever have to endure was both heartbreaking and inspiring.
One of the most powerful aspects of this novel is its exploration of how children are often forced to carry the consequences of their parents' choices. As children, we're taught that parents are supposed to protect us and put our needs first, but Precious Ugly shines a light on the harsh reality that this isn't always the case. The damage caused by addiction, neglect, abuse, and selfishness can echo across generations.
What stayed with me most was Clementine's resilience. Even in the darkest moments, her determination to survive and create a different future for herself never disappeared. It's a painful story, but it's also one filled with hope, courage, and the possibility of breaking generational cycles.
Thank you so much Rae Cline, 7.13 Books, & NetGalley for the #gifted earc.
All opinions are my own 🖤
September 1, 2026
This is a weird book that I had trouble getting into but eventually really enjoyed. Thirteen-year-old Clementine lives with her parents in the Gipper, a trailer they call home. Weird things happen so be grateful if you have a home and loving people around you!
August 25, 2026
This is, without question, the best book I’ve read this year.
I finished Precious Ugly feeling like I had been completely wrung out by it, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. Rae Cline has written one of those rare novels that is brutal without becoming emotionally manipulative, strange without feeling contrived, darkly funny without ever trivializing its subject matter, and deeply hopeful without offering easy answers. I already know Clementine is going to be one of those characters I remember years from now.
At thirteen, Clementine is living with her parents in a campground along the Potomac after her family loses their home. Her father, Jude, is abusive, volatile, increasingly obsessed with religion, and convinced that a miracle is coming. Then, impossibly, miracles seem to start happening. What follows becomes this incredible mixture of coming-of-age novel, Appalachian Gothic, family tragedy, religious satire, survival story, and examination of faith, poverty, abuse, and the things people convince themselves to endure in the name of love.
And somehow Cline makes all of those elements belong together.
Clementine is extraordinary. She is one of the most fully realized young protagonists I’ve encountered in a long time. She is frightened and traumatized, but she is never written as nothing more than a victim. She is funny, observant, sarcastic, imaginative, angry, incredibly intelligent, occasionally reckless, and constantly trying to understand the adults around her. Her internal logic feels authentically young without ever making her seem simplistic. She understands far more than the adults think she does while simultaneously lacking the experience to understand just how badly the adults in her life are failing her.
That distinction is devastating.
One of the things I loved most about this book is how complicated everyone is. Jude would have been very easy to write as a flat monster. He absolutely is monstrous, and the book never excuses what he does, but Cline also allows us to see the charisma, tenderness, insecurity, desperation, delusion, humor, and genuine affection that coexist with his cruelty. That makes him infinitely more disturbing. Clementine remembers the father who bandaged scraped knees, taught her things, made her laugh, and once made her feel safe. The fact that this person and the person who hurts her are the same man is one of the novel’s most painful truths.
Her mother may be even more complicated. I spent portions of this book wanting to protect her, shake her, scream at her, and grieve for her—sometimes on the same page. She is both victim and enabler, fiercely loving and catastrophically incapable of protecting her daughter. Cline understands something profoundly uncomfortable about abusive families: love does not automatically make people brave, and being harmed does not necessarily stop someone from participating in the harm of someone else.
Then there is Beater, who I absolutely adored. What could have easily become the stock “good man who saves her” character becomes something much more human. He is kind, funny, damaged, flawed, frightened, and trying to survive his own world. His relationship with Clementine contains some of the most tender scenes in the book precisely because he recognizes something so many other adults refuse to: she is a child. She deserves safety without having to earn it.
Nurse Rosemary was another standout for me. One of the novel’s greatest strengths is that the people who offer Clementine genuine care are not magical rescuers. They cannot erase what happened to her. They can feed her, sit beside her, give her music and books, listen, notice, and offer her choices. In a story obsessed with false miracles, some of the most meaningful miracles are incredibly ordinary acts of human care.
The writing itself is stunning. Cline’s prose can be lyrical and beautiful one moment, grotesque the next, and unexpectedly hilarious a paragraph later. The recurring imagery—water, snakes, roses, animals, wounds, hunger, fireflies, bodies, resurrection, things being buried and things refusing to stay buried—gradually accumulates until practically every image seems to carry another meaning underneath it.
Even the title becomes richer as the novel progresses. Precious Ugly is such a perfect phrase for this story because the book is constantly asking us to look directly at things that are damaged, frightening, imperfect, or unwanted and question what makes something worthy of care. It becomes less a contradiction than an entire philosophy.
I was also fascinated by the way the novel handles religion. It would have been very easy for this to become a straightforward condemnation of faith, but it is much more interesting than that. Cline keeps destabilizing the boundary between fraud, coincidence, genuine belief, psychological need, and the possibility of something inexplicable. Jude may be a con man, but his followers’ suffering is real. Their hope is real. Their need to believe someone can heal them is real. And every time the novel appears ready to tell us exactly what a “miracle” is, it complicates the answer again.
The Reagan-era setting is equally effective. Economic desperation, homelessness, televangelism, the AIDS crisis, homophobia, patriarchal ideas about marriage and womanhood, and the mythology of American self-reliance are not simply historical decoration. They form the ecosystem these characters are trying to survive. There is also an almost surreal strain of Americana running through the entire novel—from conversion vans and McDonald’s to Johnny Cash, zombie movies, Kmart, televangelists, horse racing, snake handlers, and drive-thru salvation—and Cline somehow turns all of it into one coherent world.
And for as dark as this book becomes, it is frequently very funny. I laughed far more than I expected to. The humor never undermines Clementine’s trauma; if anything, it makes her feel more alive. Her wit becomes part of the way she survives. That tonal balance is incredibly difficult, and Cline handles it beautifully.
Most importantly, Precious Ugly never reduces Clementine to what has been done to her. The entire novel is ultimately about agency: who owns her body, who gets to define what happened to her, whose version of the truth matters, and whether loving someone requires sacrificing yourself to them. Watching Clementine gradually recognize that survival means more than simply continuing to breathe is what elevates this from a very good book into an extraordinary one.
This is absolutely not an easy read. It deals directly with incest and sexual abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, pregnancy, addiction, homophobia and the AIDS crisis, suicidal thoughts, animal death, and religious exploitation. There are scenes that are genuinely horrifying. I would strongly recommend checking content warnings if any of those subjects are difficult for you.
But I never felt that the suffering existed merely to shock me. There is purpose behind it. There is anger behind it. There is enormous compassion behind it.
By the end, I didn’t want a neat resolution. A neat resolution would have betrayed the novel. I wanted Clementine to understand that whatever happened next belonged to her. And that is exactly why the ending affected me as much as it did.
I read a lot, and I don’t give this kind of praise lightly: this is the best book I have read this year. It is beautifully written, deeply unsettling, unexpectedly funny, fiercely compassionate, and completely unforgettable.
Rae Cline has created something genuinely special here.
Five stars, easily. I would give it more if I could.
I finished Precious Ugly feeling like I had been completely wrung out by it, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. Rae Cline has written one of those rare novels that is brutal without becoming emotionally manipulative, strange without feeling contrived, darkly funny without ever trivializing its subject matter, and deeply hopeful without offering easy answers. I already know Clementine is going to be one of those characters I remember years from now.
At thirteen, Clementine is living with her parents in a campground along the Potomac after her family loses their home. Her father, Jude, is abusive, volatile, increasingly obsessed with religion, and convinced that a miracle is coming. Then, impossibly, miracles seem to start happening. What follows becomes this incredible mixture of coming-of-age novel, Appalachian Gothic, family tragedy, religious satire, survival story, and examination of faith, poverty, abuse, and the things people convince themselves to endure in the name of love.
And somehow Cline makes all of those elements belong together.
Clementine is extraordinary. She is one of the most fully realized young protagonists I’ve encountered in a long time. She is frightened and traumatized, but she is never written as nothing more than a victim. She is funny, observant, sarcastic, imaginative, angry, incredibly intelligent, occasionally reckless, and constantly trying to understand the adults around her. Her internal logic feels authentically young without ever making her seem simplistic. She understands far more than the adults think she does while simultaneously lacking the experience to understand just how badly the adults in her life are failing her.
That distinction is devastating.
One of the things I loved most about this book is how complicated everyone is. Jude would have been very easy to write as a flat monster. He absolutely is monstrous, and the book never excuses what he does, but Cline also allows us to see the charisma, tenderness, insecurity, desperation, delusion, humor, and genuine affection that coexist with his cruelty. That makes him infinitely more disturbing. Clementine remembers the father who bandaged scraped knees, taught her things, made her laugh, and once made her feel safe. The fact that this person and the person who hurts her are the same man is one of the novel’s most painful truths.
Her mother may be even more complicated. I spent portions of this book wanting to protect her, shake her, scream at her, and grieve for her—sometimes on the same page. She is both victim and enabler, fiercely loving and catastrophically incapable of protecting her daughter. Cline understands something profoundly uncomfortable about abusive families: love does not automatically make people brave, and being harmed does not necessarily stop someone from participating in the harm of someone else.
Then there is Beater, who I absolutely adored. What could have easily become the stock “good man who saves her” character becomes something much more human. He is kind, funny, damaged, flawed, frightened, and trying to survive his own world. His relationship with Clementine contains some of the most tender scenes in the book precisely because he recognizes something so many other adults refuse to: she is a child. She deserves safety without having to earn it.
Nurse Rosemary was another standout for me. One of the novel’s greatest strengths is that the people who offer Clementine genuine care are not magical rescuers. They cannot erase what happened to her. They can feed her, sit beside her, give her music and books, listen, notice, and offer her choices. In a story obsessed with false miracles, some of the most meaningful miracles are incredibly ordinary acts of human care.
The writing itself is stunning. Cline’s prose can be lyrical and beautiful one moment, grotesque the next, and unexpectedly hilarious a paragraph later. The recurring imagery—water, snakes, roses, animals, wounds, hunger, fireflies, bodies, resurrection, things being buried and things refusing to stay buried—gradually accumulates until practically every image seems to carry another meaning underneath it.
Even the title becomes richer as the novel progresses. Precious Ugly is such a perfect phrase for this story because the book is constantly asking us to look directly at things that are damaged, frightening, imperfect, or unwanted and question what makes something worthy of care. It becomes less a contradiction than an entire philosophy.
I was also fascinated by the way the novel handles religion. It would have been very easy for this to become a straightforward condemnation of faith, but it is much more interesting than that. Cline keeps destabilizing the boundary between fraud, coincidence, genuine belief, psychological need, and the possibility of something inexplicable. Jude may be a con man, but his followers’ suffering is real. Their hope is real. Their need to believe someone can heal them is real. And every time the novel appears ready to tell us exactly what a “miracle” is, it complicates the answer again.
The Reagan-era setting is equally effective. Economic desperation, homelessness, televangelism, the AIDS crisis, homophobia, patriarchal ideas about marriage and womanhood, and the mythology of American self-reliance are not simply historical decoration. They form the ecosystem these characters are trying to survive. There is also an almost surreal strain of Americana running through the entire novel—from conversion vans and McDonald’s to Johnny Cash, zombie movies, Kmart, televangelists, horse racing, snake handlers, and drive-thru salvation—and Cline somehow turns all of it into one coherent world.
And for as dark as this book becomes, it is frequently very funny. I laughed far more than I expected to. The humor never undermines Clementine’s trauma; if anything, it makes her feel more alive. Her wit becomes part of the way she survives. That tonal balance is incredibly difficult, and Cline handles it beautifully.
Most importantly, Precious Ugly never reduces Clementine to what has been done to her. The entire novel is ultimately about agency: who owns her body, who gets to define what happened to her, whose version of the truth matters, and whether loving someone requires sacrificing yourself to them. Watching Clementine gradually recognize that survival means more than simply continuing to breathe is what elevates this from a very good book into an extraordinary one.
This is absolutely not an easy read. It deals directly with incest and sexual abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, pregnancy, addiction, homophobia and the AIDS crisis, suicidal thoughts, animal death, and religious exploitation. There are scenes that are genuinely horrifying. I would strongly recommend checking content warnings if any of those subjects are difficult for you.
But I never felt that the suffering existed merely to shock me. There is purpose behind it. There is anger behind it. There is enormous compassion behind it.
By the end, I didn’t want a neat resolution. A neat resolution would have betrayed the novel. I wanted Clementine to understand that whatever happened next belonged to her. And that is exactly why the ending affected me as much as it did.
I read a lot, and I don’t give this kind of praise lightly: this is the best book I have read this year. It is beautifully written, deeply unsettling, unexpectedly funny, fiercely compassionate, and completely unforgettable.
Rae Cline has created something genuinely special here.
Five stars, easily. I would give it more if I could.
September 19, 2026
Oof. I should know better than to read books with child protagonists dreaming of and preparing to escape their abusive, alcoholic, fake religious, nasty, pedophile fathers. I had assumed 13-year-old pregnant Clementine would escape within the first quarter of the book and that we'd follow her on her journey toward safety and healing. But, nah. (Grateful the book is short.)
The book is beautifully written weird, intense, and disturbing. But I'll probably never read another Rae Cline book because I'm not strong enough. I don't do well with books involving cruelty/brutality toward children.
I gave the book four stars because even though I hated it and now need a palate cleanser of some kind (maybe I'll reread Jane Austen's Persuasion for the umpteenth time), it is a good—no, not just good, excellent—book, and other readers who aren't wimps like I am might appreciate it more.
The book is beautifully written weird, intense, and disturbing. But I'll probably never read another Rae Cline book because I'm not strong enough. I don't do well with books involving cruelty/brutality toward children.
I gave the book four stars because even though I hated it and now need a palate cleanser of some kind (maybe I'll reread Jane Austen's Persuasion for the umpteenth time), it is a good—no, not just good, excellent—book, and other readers who aren't wimps like I am might appreciate it more.
August 31, 2026
Rae Cline’s Precious Ugly is Appalachian literary fiction wrapped around an incredibly tense survival story, taking us to 1985 West Virginia and into the life of thirteen-year-old Clementine, a pregnant girl living in a conversion van with parents who should be her safe place but are anything but. Her father is an alcoholic, abusive, self-proclaimed prophet who has convinced people he can perform miracles, while her mother remains trapped in a cycle that leaves Clementine unprotected. Poverty, homelessness, addiction, domestic violence, sexual abuse, religious manipulation, and generational trauma are woven through Clementine’s story.
This book hit home for me, and honestly, it was hard to read. I railed at the parents. I railed at the system. I have absolutely no respect for Clementine’s father, and Clementine’s mother frustrated me to no end, even while I found myself wondering how much of what she became was shaped by the way she was raised. My heart broke for Beater and for the way the world treated people during the AIDS crisis, when fear, ignorance, and division could make an already devastating situation even crueler. What broke me most was knowing that Clementine had to grow up under these circumstances at all.
The heartbreaking truth is that this happened, it is happening, and it will happen again. So how do we make it stop? How do we recognize the child who is silently screaming for help when the adults around them refuse to listen? Those questions followed me through this book. I loved that Clementine kept survival and hope somewhere inside herself no matter how unbearable things became, even when death sometimes seemed like the only way to make it stop. Precious Ugly is beautifully broken, painfully raw, and deeply emotional. This is not an easy book, nor should it be. It is a story that needs to be told, but more importantly, it needs to be read, discussed, and allowed to make us uncomfortable enough to ask what we can do differently. I will hold onto this one tightly.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
🖋️ Author: Rae Cline
📖 Title: Precious Ugly
📅 Pub Day: August 18, 2026
💌 Publisher: 7.13 Books
📚 Format: Digital
🏷️ ISBN: 9798994693858
⏱️ Length: 221 pages
📌 Genre(s): Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Coming of Age
⭐ Star Rating: 3
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
I genuinely don't know how to feel about this one. I don't think I enjoyed reading it, but I also can't say it's a bad book. It's bleak and heavy. This is a story of survival told through the eyes of thirteen year old Clementine, pregnant and living in a conversion van with her alcoholic, self proclaimed prophet father and her docile mother.
Clementine is a compelling character and I genuinely wanted things to go right for her. But every adult in this book had me furious, which I suspect is the point. The one exception is Beater, her neighbor, who was about the only adult I had any patience for.
My biggest issue was the formatting. Some pages, while numbered correctly, were out of reading order, which made following the narrative harder than it should have been. The dialogue also has no quotation marks, which is likely a deliberate stylistic choice, but it made it genuinely difficult to track who was speaking at any given moment.
I can see this book being a cathartic and emotional read for the right audience. It just wasn't the right read for me personally.
Please check trigger warnings before going in: alcoholism, domestic violence, child abuse, implied incest (never shown on page), and religious manipulation.
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
If you like:
✔️ bleak coming of age
✔️ character driven literary fiction
✔️ 1980s settings
✔️ dysfunctional families
✔️ difficult, uncomfortable reads
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Thank you to NetGalley, Rae Cline, and 7.13 Books for gifting this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
This review is cross‑posted across multiple platforms.
📖 Title: Precious Ugly
📅 Pub Day: August 18, 2026
💌 Publisher: 7.13 Books
📚 Format: Digital
🏷️ ISBN: 9798994693858
⏱️ Length: 221 pages
📌 Genre(s): Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Coming of Age
⭐ Star Rating: 3
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
I genuinely don't know how to feel about this one. I don't think I enjoyed reading it, but I also can't say it's a bad book. It's bleak and heavy. This is a story of survival told through the eyes of thirteen year old Clementine, pregnant and living in a conversion van with her alcoholic, self proclaimed prophet father and her docile mother.
Clementine is a compelling character and I genuinely wanted things to go right for her. But every adult in this book had me furious, which I suspect is the point. The one exception is Beater, her neighbor, who was about the only adult I had any patience for.
My biggest issue was the formatting. Some pages, while numbered correctly, were out of reading order, which made following the narrative harder than it should have been. The dialogue also has no quotation marks, which is likely a deliberate stylistic choice, but it made it genuinely difficult to track who was speaking at any given moment.
I can see this book being a cathartic and emotional read for the right audience. It just wasn't the right read for me personally.
Please check trigger warnings before going in: alcoholism, domestic violence, child abuse, implied incest (never shown on page), and religious manipulation.
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
If you like:
✔️ bleak coming of age
✔️ character driven literary fiction
✔️ 1980s settings
✔️ dysfunctional families
✔️ difficult, uncomfortable reads
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Thank you to NetGalley, Rae Cline, and 7.13 Books for gifting this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
This review is cross‑posted across multiple platforms.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you NetGalley, and 7.13 Books for the Advanced Reader’s Copy of Precious Ugly by Rae Cline. This will be published on August 18, 2026. This is Rae Cline’s first novel.
The protagonist is a thirteen-year-old girl named Clementine who’s pregnant. Her false prophet of a father will fix all their problems but she learns at a young age that he can’t be trusted.
This was an unsettling read. It felt personal. The themes include poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse, child abuse not limited to pedophilia or incest, and religious corruption. For a book set in the mid-eighties, it speaks volumes for what is happening today.
The writing was poetic and unlike most of the books I typically read. It was a heart wrenching story and hits hard emotionally. It’s the type of book that will stick with you long after you read it especially if you grew up in an environment like Clementine.
As children, we grow up thinking we can trust and confide in our parents. They have our best interests in mind. Right? Unfortunately, that’s not always true and that’s the social commentary with this book. Some of us grow up with that poverty, the addiction and alcoholism, and the pedophiles.
It amazes me how unapologetically oblivious parents can be for their children in this environment not knowing the impact and effect it will have for their lifetime. And those parents will still make the wrong choice. It’s not what’s best for the child, but rather, what’s best for them.
At 49, it still impacts me today.
The protagonist is a thirteen-year-old girl named Clementine who’s pregnant. Her false prophet of a father will fix all their problems but she learns at a young age that he can’t be trusted.
This was an unsettling read. It felt personal. The themes include poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse, child abuse not limited to pedophilia or incest, and religious corruption. For a book set in the mid-eighties, it speaks volumes for what is happening today.
The writing was poetic and unlike most of the books I typically read. It was a heart wrenching story and hits hard emotionally. It’s the type of book that will stick with you long after you read it especially if you grew up in an environment like Clementine.
As children, we grow up thinking we can trust and confide in our parents. They have our best interests in mind. Right? Unfortunately, that’s not always true and that’s the social commentary with this book. Some of us grow up with that poverty, the addiction and alcoholism, and the pedophiles.
It amazes me how unapologetically oblivious parents can be for their children in this environment not knowing the impact and effect it will have for their lifetime. And those parents will still make the wrong choice. It’s not what’s best for the child, but rather, what’s best for them.
At 49, it still impacts me today.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Set against the gritty backdrop of 1985 West Virginia, Precious Ugly follows thirteen-year-old Clementine, a fiercely observant girl living in a conversion van by the Potomac riverfront. Her father is a charismatic, abusive preacher who uses religious manipulation to control his family and his blind followers, while her mother is trapped in his destructive cycle. Clementine is pregnant and acutely aware of the danger surrounding her. Armed with a Walkman blasting the defiant anthems of Patti Smith and Tina Turner, she uses her sharp wit and the unexpected kindness of outsiders to engineer a desperate escape, striving to protect her mother and break the chains of generational trauma.Rae Cline’s debut is a masterclass in voice and atmosphere. Clementine is an unforgettable protagonist whose sharp, poetic, and entirely unsentimental perspective carries the reader through some incredibly dark thematic territory. Much like Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, this novel captures the heartbeat of Appalachia with fierce authenticity, refusing to shy away from the harsh realities of poverty, addiction, and religious exploitation. Cline expertly balances the grim nature of Clementine’s circumstances with a vivid 1980s soundtrack that serves as both a shield and a lifeline for the young girl.The prose is lyrical yet punchy, treating its vulnerable characters with immense dignity rather than pity. I found the story of Clemtime to be deeply moving and she is a character I will remember for a long time.. Fans of gritty, character-driven literary fiction will find themselves completely captivated.
June 22, 2026
4+ stars-“Don’t matter what you’re made of, he said. Metal, rock, flesh. Something’s gonna wear you down eventually. But if you quiet yourself, really quiet yourself, you might find the crevices where you can let it fall between you and over you. You’ll still be there. A little cracked. A little faded. But you’ll stand.”
This book will sit with me for a long time…there were so many hard to read parts and tough realties that I am sure so many face. I am going to continue my thoughts down below, but know that it might spoil a tiny bit of the ending….
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!!!!
How the hell can a man even consider their own daughter in a sexual way?! And for the mother to turn a blind eye and defend the piece of shit that does…there is never an excuse for the mother to pick him over her own daughter, NEVER! I really don’t care if you don’t know any better or think you can’t survive without it, but really, how can you survive with him?! It is your job as a parent to protect your children from the evil in your own home! NO MATTER WHAT!
This book will sit with me for a long time…there were so many hard to read parts and tough realties that I am sure so many face. I am going to continue my thoughts down below, but know that it might spoil a tiny bit of the ending….
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!!!!
How the hell can a man even consider their own daughter in a sexual way?! And for the mother to turn a blind eye and defend the piece of shit that does…there is never an excuse for the mother to pick him over her own daughter, NEVER! I really don’t care if you don’t know any better or think you can’t survive without it, but really, how can you survive with him?! It is your job as a parent to protect your children from the evil in your own home! NO MATTER WHAT!
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
Clementine is a homeless and pregnant 13 year old that had to deal with her alcoholic and abusive father that is also a religious zealot and a mother that would sacrifice Clem for her own gain, no matter what her father did no matter how bad it was she would never leave him. As Clem fought her way through a world that seemed to want her to fail with little to keep her from falling apart. Never knowing who to trust or why someone was trying to involve themselves left her on edge.
Does she reach for an escape or have nowhere else to go we have no idea when your parent place you in the middle of a snake pit you would feel betrayed too. Escaping was her only hope or maybe she was hoping for more after her mother's betrayal. At least in the hospital she was with Nurse Rosemary and Beater visits often.
She finally found her courage to stand up for herself and set herself free from an impossible situation.
Does she reach for an escape or have nowhere else to go we have no idea when your parent place you in the middle of a snake pit you would feel betrayed too. Escaping was her only hope or maybe she was hoping for more after her mother's betrayal. At least in the hospital she was with Nurse Rosemary and Beater visits often.
She finally found her courage to stand up for herself and set herself free from an impossible situation.
October 27, 2026
Clementine is in trouble. And there’s nobody she can turn to. Just thirteen years old and pregnant by her father, living in a rundown camper with barely enough to eat, getting by on what they can scrounge from the woods around them…she doesn’t know quite what to do. So she keeps on surviving while at the same time planning for her escape. And then her father suddenly gets “the gift”, the ability to work miracles. And now people come from all around to receive some of his magic. All while he’s slipping deeper and deeper into his delusions as her mom just tries to stay on his good side. When a hurricane hits and takes away everything they have, things change in the worst possible way. Will Clementine be able to save herself? This was a really good story, one that I couldn’t put down. Parts of it are hard to read but Clementine is such a compelling character. Five stars!
September 12, 2026
Thank you to Net Galley and 7.13 Books for an eARC of this novel.
Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me and I really don't think I'd recommend it to anyone. While Cline clearly aspired for this novel to be profound and poignant, I found that the writing and the story itself fell extremely flat- plot advanced out of nowhere either off the page or within the span of a single paragraph after being stagnant for entire chapters, characters made irrational, unpredictable, and unbecoming decisions throughout, and overall it just felt like too much was trying to be accomplished to be wrapped up in such a short novel. I would love to check out Cline's poetry and short stories but will never plan to pick up another one of her novels after making it through this one.
Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me and I really don't think I'd recommend it to anyone. While Cline clearly aspired for this novel to be profound and poignant, I found that the writing and the story itself fell extremely flat- plot advanced out of nowhere either off the page or within the span of a single paragraph after being stagnant for entire chapters, characters made irrational, unpredictable, and unbecoming decisions throughout, and overall it just felt like too much was trying to be accomplished to be wrapped up in such a short novel. I would love to check out Cline's poetry and short stories but will never plan to pick up another one of her novels after making it through this one.
August 27, 2026
This book is like a punch straight to the gut. I felt so bad for Clementine for 99% of this book and was so appalled at how her parents acted and treated her. Her mother was an enabler and her father is a monster. I truly hope Clementine lives her best life and never speaks to either one of these assholes again. Honestly, I could do with a second book to see how Clementine's future pans out.
Despite the heavy subject matter, this book was a quick and very engaging read and I could not put it down. 4.25 stars.
Thank you NetGalley and 7.13 Books for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Despite the heavy subject matter, this book was a quick and very engaging read and I could not put it down. 4.25 stars.
Thank you NetGalley and 7.13 Books for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 5, 2026
I won this on a Goodreads giveaway. I appreciated the author including a personalized note and some extras! It's a powerful story about a girl being sexually abused by her father and her mothers refusal to leave him even when he physically abuses her also. Heartbreaking but you are cheering her on in the end. The ONLY negative I would say is when people were talking in the book there were no quotation marks. It took me awhile to get used to it. Maybe it was because it was a first edition or not finished copy?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Clementine is a teenaged homeless girl living with her parents. Her dad is a religious zealot who is obsessed with having people follow him. Clementine is pregnant & their homeless van is flooded while living in West Virginia. This was a tough book for me as it dealt with incest & religious craziness. I was so scared for Clementine, as her mom was mesmerized by her husband, turning a blind eye to Clementine’s life. Very powerful!
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
✨ARC Review✨
An emotionally challenging story, dealing with troubles such as homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, mental and physical abuse, sexual abuse and more.
The story of a pregnant thirteen year old who is living with her prophet father and mother in a trailer park.
Follow Clementine as she fights to free herself from the challenges and heartbreak this life is causing her.
An emotionally challenging story, dealing with troubles such as homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, mental and physical abuse, sexual abuse and more.
The story of a pregnant thirteen year old who is living with her prophet father and mother in a trailer park.
Follow Clementine as she fights to free herself from the challenges and heartbreak this life is causing her.
June 10, 2026
It was a hard book to read. Some of the subject matter was difficult but I’m sure it happens. I think that the author did a good job addressing some of it and also giving hope and putting people in the story as support.
September 2, 2026
Hi all, This is my book :). Goodreads made me create a second account when my name changed from Rae Bryant to Rae Cline. This is the only way I could let you all know that my debut novel released August 18, 2026 from 7.13 Books and is now available.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
A dramatic and heartbreaking story that follows a girl whose extraordinary strength and resilience shine through even the darkest moments.
October 5, 2026
I found this story to be both painful and beautiful. A debut you will think about long after the last page. 4.5 staes
October 17, 2026
Really Powerful story! I couldn't put this book down. It was truly Precious and Ugly at the same time! Well done!!!
November 5, 2026
A heart-gripping tale of a young girl and her problematic parents. What it must be like to be homeless and have religion take on a mind of its own. At times almost horrific yet poetic. Touches on rape, AIDS, racial segregation, cults and many other challenges people face every day. Reads like a memoir in a beautiful way.
Thank you to Rae Cline and team for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Thank you to Rae Cline and team for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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