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Bryn Greenwood

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BRYN GREENWOOD is a fourth-generation Kansan and the daughter of a mostly reformed drug dealer. She is the NYT bestselling author of The Reckless Oath We Made, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, Lie Lay Lain, and Last Will. She lives in Lawrence, 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: 4.01 · 158,617 ratings · 21,083 reviews · 5 distinct works • Similar authors

	All the Ugly and Wonderful Things 4.02 avg rating — 145,307 ratings — published 2016 — 28 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 really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 11,682 ratings — published 2019 — 16 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 3.83 avg rating — 925 ratings — published 2012 — 5 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 3.72 avg rating — 692 ratings — published 2014 — 5 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 3.55 avg rating — 11 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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The Thunderbirds of Stull

Golden eagle trying to expel pelletPhotograph by Wendy Miller,Perris, CAUsed under Creative Commons license. Unedited from original. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wemesq/40247517233/in/photolist-24jx3EV-PgnoRa-29k9fKV-HqYxHc-o8nPAk-2kNRbR2-SgENE5-NZEPtJ-2na6NGM-5bbkNv-VxV2r1-ef9fNv-2m2EW1n-TAuN4C-WWYSbX-RTAc1r-2dtk6EQ-WG9EUM-2kBHxFP-2kLYUFw-2jXhENU-4GjegP-f2A1dz-2atFdYm-8J4SYL-79zcUe-9re3xy-6RZPER-2n1RXhW-Yng6LW-9oYkoP-2epxcMv-Bp1p2z-YijpZk-2mUZt9x-h6kv8t-2kQMegb-7SmKPa-Fe4ssR-2hrus2Z-7GLghe-2kvqzAx-QfhnfY-26HRpLj-2mtnftf-GW89t-2kAp6UN-bSybmk-v8ZQVo-bDDwUW/

When I was in college, there was a series of urban myths built around the town of Stull, Kansas. The story usually involved a friend of a friend who had come to grief in Stull. A disappearance, a murder, a Satanic ritual in the Stull Cemetery, or sometimes just a deeply unnerving feeling experienced while changing your tire by the side of a lonely, rural highway. Sometimes we traded them like

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Caul Baby

by Morgan Jerkins (Goodreads Author)

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The Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil: literally translated, with notes

by Virgil

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Bryn Greenwood wants to read We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian	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 entered a giveaway Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild (Goodreads Author) 50 copies available, ends on April 04, 2023 Enter to win »
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Bryn Greenwood liked Maureen's review of Three Drops of Blood: "This was such a fun read! Rear Window vibes meets the actresses of Pretty Little Liars in the mysterious dungeon of Ty and Ro’s father’s law firm. When their friend Kate, an out of work actress, finds herself needing to make money to pay rent to her " Read more of this review »
Mar 21, 2023 05:47PM · see review
Bryn Greenwood liked aj's review of Three Drops of Blood: "The setup for the actual conflict of the story was great, and as a young adult reader (aged 16), I really enjoyed it. The plot was incredibly creative, with multiple conflicts throughout that kept the reader hooked. The story was so enticing that I f" Read more of this review »
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Bryn Greenwood liked Stephanie Ward's review of Three Drops of Blood: "I've read several of the author's other books and really liked them, so I jumped at the chance to read and review her newest young adult thriller. I will admit that I had some high expectations and hopes before I started reading, but the author deliv" Read more of this review »
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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

December Side Read Nominations ~ 2nd Poll

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

by Bryn Greenwood

21 votes, 34.4%

And the Mountains Echoed

by Khaled Hosseini

14 votes, 23.0%

Bull Mountain

by Brian Panowich

10 votes, 16.4%

Circling the Sun

by Paula McLain

10 votes, 16.4%

The Memory of Running

by Ron McLarty

6 votes, 9.8%

61 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Aussie Readers: Identify in July - Reduce that TBR!	406	188	Aug 07, 2016 08:20PM
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

41 likes

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

tags: love

564 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

9 likes

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