BOOK REVIEW: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Beautiful Disaster

Author: Jamie McGuire
Series: Beautiful, #1
Published: 27 November 2012 by Atria Books
(first published 2011)
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Format: Hardback, Signed Edition
Source: Birthday Gift
Links: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand. 

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Rating:

My Review:

This book was a disaster. There was nothing beautiful about it.

Here are a few of the key themes that run through this book:

• Sexism. Sexism everywhere. Man big and strong. Woman weak and subservient. Man incapable of cooking food for himself, must guilt-trip a woman to do the job for him.

• Misogyny. From characters of both genders. Goes hand-in-hand with the sexism, really.

• Abusive relationships. You cannot deny the fact that all of the relationships in this book are abusive. Travis is abusive towards Abby. America is abusive towards Abby. Travis's father and brothers are abusive of Abby. Abby is abusive of Parker. America and Abby are abusive towards Kara. There is no love in this book, only abuse thrown back and forth, normalised to the point of acceptance.

• Co-dependency. Travis Maddox, the campus hottie, is a dick towards any and every woman he comes across, until sweet little Marie Sue comes along and captivates him to the point where he can't even breathe unless she's in his line of vision. So that he can control her every move, of course.

• Slut shaming. Right from the beginning, we see endless pages of slut shaming. Pages of dialogue, pages of Abby's petty internal monologue. There was an intolerable amount of stereotyping going on in this book, and I struggle to understand how so many readers can accept this as part of any book. It serves no purpose other than to extend discrimination in the real world.

• Normalisation of drug use, alcoholic self-medication, physical violence and gambling. I cannot stand any of this in real life, and it's even more disgusting when characters' lives depend on these things for their survival, or for their appeal to readers. I don't know what's sadder.

I honestly went into this book with high expectations. I had heard only positive reviews, and I received a beautiful edition as a birthday gift from my best friend. So of course, I wanted to enjoy it, and that's why I read it so soon after receiving it, because I was overly confident that it would be amazing and addicting and just everything I love about contemporary romance novels. But as I read the book, it kept getting worse and worse with each chapter. Really, the stars just deduct themselves.

I would recommend you read literally any other book. Don't waste your time or money on this pile of shit.