So I just finished Jamie McGuire’s novel, Beautiful Disaster and since there seems to be a lot of energy behind everyone talking about it, I thought I’d take my full review off of Goodreads and onto here. ** Consider this your spoiler alert if you don’t want to know what happens. ** I should also note that I listened to the audiobook and Emma Galvin in the bomb when it comes to audiobooks so she plays in to the level of enjoyment I had going through this novel.
Let’s dig in, shall we? A girl with a secret runs away from her past with her best friend to a college far far away to start over (until you find out WHAT the secret is about half way through, you’re left with vague references between Abby and America about Abby’s secret past). It’s cliche and slightly obnoxious and distracts from the story developing because you keep wondering WHAT could have possibly happened to her… did she kill someone? Was she raped? Nope. The secret is a decent one, but not good enough for how long it took to be revealed.
Immediately America meets a boy, who happens to be involved in the underground Fight Club ring at school and she drags Abby to a fight with her because they made a rule, they will never go to a party without each other. The winner of the fight is gorgeous and is the poster child of bad boys – he’s cocky, he’s got muscles, he’s covered in tattoos, he smokes, he likes to fight, and is the biggest womanizer on campus. Thus starts the “will they, or won’t they” dance. There are some great moments between the two characters, and don’t get me wrong, I fell in love with Travis Maddox along with Abby.
But just went I was thinking all the negative talk about this book was false… the mutual co-dependency of Abby and Travis kicked in to high gear and Travis’ possessiveness comes out shining like a f*cking rainbow.
Lets list the ways, shall we?
*Travis essentially tries to kill any and every guy that does show interest in Abby when she refuses to date him
*Travis refuses to let Abby leave the apartment because she’s dressed “too sexy” and forces her to change
*Travis insists that Abby go to his fights because if she’s NOT WITHIN EYE SIGHT HE CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT WONDERING WHERE SHE IS AND WHAT SHE’S DOING
*Parker (another suitor) buys her a tennis bracelet for her birthday (after like ONE date), fine, Travis buys her a PUPPY – for a freshman college student
*The amount of fights Travis gets in outside of Fight Club are ridiculous – dude has serious anger issues
*To prove his love, Travis gets Abby’s nickname tattooed onto his wrist
*Abby gives Travis her virginity (which isn’t really a bother to me, when I finally had sex for the first time in my early 20’s it wasn’t with a guy I was in love with, and he wasn’t my boyfriend, whatever) BECAUSE SHE’S ABOUT TO LEAVE HIM AND SHE WANTED TO GIVE HIM THAT
*Abby leaves in the middle of the night while Travis is sleeping and he goes ballistic when he finds out she’s gone
*Passive aggressive moves are made by both parties
*Guess WHAT they reunite and realize that they BELONG to each other
*At the end of the book they run off to Vegas to get married. She’s 19. She decides to get a tattoo post-wedding. What does she get? “Mrs. Maddox” on her stomach. REALLY?! This hurts my soul.
I really enjoyed a lot of parts of this novel, I did. And there are aspects to the characters that I liked. And the “good” parts to Travis’ personality totally have me hooked, but overall this novel is a walking billboard to young women about how it’s ok to be in an oppressive, co-dependent relationship… as long as he’s hot. And this is so not ok. Not ok at all.
There were parts of this novel that were really, really hard for me to get through. They triggered A LOT of memories and emotions about my last relationship…. with an abusive alcoholic. There were a few fights that Travis and Abby had that could have easily been us. The walking train wreck couple who practically are killing each other while in a relationship, but who cannot walk away from each other either and you know it’s only a matter of time before it destroys both of them.
McGuire could have taken the basic storyline in so many different ways that would have made for a great novel, instead she romanticizes abusive, controlling behavior and this makes me sad.
Girls believe me, it’s NOT romantic, and it won’t make your relationship stronger to be with someone who treats you like this. Broken doesn’t equal sexy. People have issues and bad pasts, that’s fine, but someone who forces you do change your clothes/who man handles you (outside of the fun bedroom way), who dictates your life, who cannot be away from you (who WATCH YOU SLEEP ALL THE TIME), this is NOT a good person, or someone you should be with.
Please, please, please know you deserve to be treated better. Demand a partner who treats you with respect, who cares for you, ok?
thecupcakeorgasm 