Pretty from a Distance

by Cat McCarrey

In 1999, Glory Morgan is fast approaching her fortieth birthday. Her boyfriend Vince Cole controls every aspect of her life, but she remains bound to him because of his threats to harm her young niece. As they travel the country year after year in a camper with no water or electricity, her despair continues to grow, as does her alcohol use...until Vince unexpectedly gives her the opportunity to choose their summer destination. Emboldened, she picks a small town in New Mexico, a choice that will change the course of their lives dramatically. Encountering a vibrant community filled with eccentric characters including a Vietnam veteran, a psychic, and a man who had been abducted by UFOs, she finds herself falling in love with the local bartender Doug Baylor. Inspired to assert herself, Glory slowly sees hope and joy return to her life and begins to stand up to Vince. As tensions escalate and Vince finds a lover of his own, a shocking event irrevocably changes their world forever. Exploring the depths of abuse with compassion and honesty, McCarrey's debut novel is an intense, warmhearted, suspenseful story about the redemptive power of love and community. McCarrey deftly exposes the wounds of the past as these experiences play themselves out in our lives in a relentless pattern of symmetry-until one seizes the power to actively change them. Wondrous, evocative, and full of inspiration, Pretty From A Distance is a deeply moving passage into the lives of people caught in an interweaving dance of dependency and control.

Genres: Fiction, Drama, Romance, Family

463 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2013

Reviews

[Colleen Estep · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book through Goodreads and this is the very best book I have read in a very long time. Cat McCarrey's debut novel will tear your heart apart. Glorianna was born into a affluent family to cold and uncaring parents, as a small child the abuse started, the fact that she even survives is amazing. The abuser was her mother's brother. At 14 she is pregnant and sent away to deliver and give the child up. Instead the baby dies before its birth and Glory is told she will never be able to have another child.
She meets Mickey at the local head shop and he is her only friend and at 16 becomes her lover. Mickey had returned from Vietnam with his own problems and one day when he is not there to open the shop, Glory finds him in their bathroom, with the needle still in his arm.
She spends years trying to just live ,then she meets Vince, a sick man and drug addict and he is able to take even that away from her. After many years of abuse from Vince, living in a homemade camper with no running water, they put the camper in a field by a river in New Mexico. She is beaten, raped and yet she survives. This is a story of a survivor and you'll find yourself wanting to reach out and help her. There is redemption for Glory in this little town and the people who reach out to her with loving care. The question is, will Glory be able to reach back? A very, very good read, Cat McCarrey tells a heartbreaking story, full of compassion and the incredible people who live in this small New Mexico town.
It makes you believe in hope and the goodness of people.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glory has been in a psychological, physical, sexual, and emotional abusive relationship with Vince for 7 years. She stays to protect someone she loves from harm threatened if she leaves him. They live in a battered camper patched by duct tape and ropes with no running water or electricity, hidden in the shadows of civilization where other abandoned and lost souls live. An emotionally wounded Vietnam vet lives in an old bus in the same woods, and Glory's fate becomes entangled with his and others in the small community in ways she cannot comprehend. She falls in love with a local bartender and begins to believe that her life can change. Tension escalates as Vince finds another lover and Glory makes a desperate plea for freedom with shocking consequences. I could not put this book down and was so intensely connected to Glory that she stayed on my mind all the time when not reading. She is so real that it like coming across a private hand written diary in the back room of a dusty bookstore. Each page is raw with emotion careening wildly between despair, fear, hope, betrayal of trust, and the quiet kindness of strangers. This author has created a novel that is so powerful it cannot be left as her debut and only published work. There has to be more and I will be waiting anxiously for more from this very talented author.

[Anne Flanagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of Glory Morgan who is victimized by an abusive and controlling man. If that sounds depressing, it is, but this book is SO much more. The author paints such a beautiful canvas of colorful, compassionate and interesting characters who enrich the main character’s life and shape the events that unfold. Many parts of this book are raw, but they are honest and filled with sensitivity, hope, love, and Glory’s unquenchable search for life’s purpose and meaning. This book has great pace – I couldn’t wait to continue where I’d left off the night before. The ending will leave you happy and satisfied; the impact of this story will stay with you for quite some time. I hope this author has more in store – such a heartfelt, well-written and powerful narrative set in an unforgettable New Mexico setting. I’ll be anxiously awaiting Cat McCarrey’s next offering!

[Shana M. Essig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gets 4.5 stars for sure. The end was so intense, I read through half a playoff football game!!! What!!!!

Doug is dreamy.

All girls wish they had the strength of the main character but no one wishes to go through what she did to bring herself to such courage and empowerment...and she doesn't even recognize her own self value.

This book takes you in and wraps you up.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glory Morgan, the main character in "Pretty from a Distance" pulls the reader into her story from the first page and keeps them till the end. As other people in her world are introduced and developed, I was fascinated to see what was going to happen next. The novel is rich with evocative details that transforms you into Glory's world throughout the book, and consistently keeps you interested in what will happen next.

Glory is a sympathetic character who has not had a easy life. After a few weeks in New Mexico, she develops new friends who grow to care about her and give her the courage and opportunity to make better choices in her life, choices she has never had before.

I would strongly recommend this book and cannot wait for the next novel by Cat McCarrey. This is a wonderful story and I think you will be surprised after reading it to find out that this is McCarrey's first novel. It is very well written and I give it a very high recommendation.

[Cindy Gold · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been flooding all over Boulder county these past few day, so it seems somehow fitting that I have just finished reading this novel. I've just gotten a real, but very small, dose of Glory's daily reality ... power outages, no hot water, trapped in the house. Glory, the shy and gentle narrator, travels the country in a rundown camper with no plumbing or electricity. Each day is a struggle to stay fed, warm, and clean. Glory has adapted to this lack of comforts that most of us take for granted. If only that was the only thing she had to adapt to.

Vince, her traveling companion, was once her boyfriend. Glory explains that she dated him for months before he set "free his inner psychopath.'" By then, it was too late. What happens next is a harrowing tale of virtual imprisonment. Glory is such a kind and generous soul that it is almost unbearable to read about her ordeal. I found myself reading this heart-wrenching narrative well into the night, praying for Glory's escape.

[Jay Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book deals with a young adolescent girl who is in a relationship with a young man who is both controlling and abusive.

As they travel across the Country living in squalor conditions, they end up in the Land of Enchantment both literally and figuratively. There lives are transformed.

I loved the backdrop in New Mexico, wide open western skies and yet an obscure State to many Americans. The town they end up in is sort of a cross between Roswell NM. and Santa Fe NM.

The story deals with eccentric characters, a subject that is dark at times,yet full of hope.

Reading the author's bio-i can't help but wonder if the 'novel' is somewhat autobiographical, but it really doesn't matter-because it's a good book either way.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so good I don't know where to begin. Cat has really knocked it out of the park with her debut novel. Her writing takes you right there and as I flipped the pages I became Glory and felt all that she was feeling. Glory is a very troubled woman with a dark past and feels that she deserves the abuse that is dished out to her. She feels she is not worthy of anyone's love. The people of the small town she was living in took her under their wing and tried to show her she was not worthless. The bartender, Doug, felt a connection with Glory and never gave up on her. He had the patience of a saint. Right from the beginning this book will grab you and not let go. I look forward to Cat McCarrey's next novel. She is an author to watch!

I received this book for an honest review.

[Lydie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book on a Goodreads giveaway.
Pretty from a distance is a moving tale full of great characters. It is well-written (despite a few grammatical errors throughout), at times poetic, but too long. Also, I thought the full-circle ending was a little too quaint for my liking.
The best part are the characters; they are well-developed, interesting and all unique. The story can meander rather slowly though I didn't mind because the interactions held my attention. Despite becoming frustrated with the female lead and her passive nature, I still understood her character and her decisions.
I feel like I've taken something with me from this novel, which is a good thing.

[K.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredibly written piece. I could actually smell the air in New Mexico through the detailed descriptions here. I can still smell it as I write this, in fact. This account begs to be dug into further with each word. The author has captured everything perfectly and the story comes full circle which makes this a perfectly well rounded read. I highly recommend it and am recommending it to someone I know who is recovering from experiencing similar things.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book on a goodreads giveaway, it was really good. It deals with domestic violence and trying not to give up hope of a better life.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is sad story. But is written so well. You won't want to put down. I have read this author before. A contender in the literary field for sure