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Bryn Greenwood

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.bryngreenwood.com

Twitter

bryngreenwood

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Suspense

Member Since

February 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/bryngreenwood

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BRYN GREENWOOD is the NYT bestselling author of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things and The Reckless Oath We Made. Her fifth novel is out now: NOBODY KNOWS YOU'RE HERE. She lives in northeast Kansas.

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Popular Answered Questions

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: 3.97 · 272,453 ratings · 34,150 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	All the Ugly and Wonderful Things 3.97 avg rating — 219,245 ratings — published 2016	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
	Nobody Knows You're Here 4.01 avg rating — 35,352 ratings — published 2025 — 3 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 3.98 avg rating — 15,532 ratings — published 2019 — 17 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 3.78 avg rating — 1,238 ratings — published 2012 — 9 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 3.66 avg rating — 1,066 ratings — published 2014	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 3.36 avg rating — 14 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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Bryn Greenwood's Blog

A novel-writing human fights fascism

My fifth novel, Nobody Knows You’re Here, is out today, available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. I wrote the first scenes for it without knowing that it would turn out to be a suspense/thriller novel. It’s my first attempt at the genre, and I spent a lot of time asking myself if it was in fact suspenseful or thrilling. I also spent an enormous amount of time reading all the materials I could

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Oxford Soju Club

by Jinwoo Park (Goodreads Author)

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Bryn Greenwood finished reading Canon by Paige Lewis (Goodreads Author)	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
1 hour, 48 min ago · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Canon by Paige Lewis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Canon by Paige Lewis <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Bryn Greenwood wants to read A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1) by Arkady Martine (Goodreads Author)	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
Aug 18, 2026 11:38AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Bryn Greenwood added a status update: To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the publication of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, I went back and made notes throughout the Kindle edition. So, if you're into that sorta thing ...
Aug 15, 2026 03:32PM · 50 likes · like · see status
Bryn Greenwood wants to read The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow (Goodreads Author)	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
Aug 11, 2026 08:32AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Bryn Greenwood wants to read The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa	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 is currently reading Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park (Goodreads Author)	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 has read The Fire Next Time; Nobody Knows My Name; No Name in the Street; The Devil FindsWork: Introduction by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series) by James Baldwin	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
James Baldwin always delivers. “The America of my experience has worshipped and nourished violence for as long as I have been on earth. The violence was being perpetrated mainly against black men … so it didn’t count. But if a society permits one por ...more
Aug 04, 2026 08:50AM · 9 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Fire Next Time; Nobody Knows My Name; No Name in the Street; The Devil FindsWork by James Baldwin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Fire Next Time; Nobody Knows My Name; No Name in the Street; The Devil FindsWork by James Baldwin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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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

122 likes

“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

55 likes

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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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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

46 likes

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

tags: love

623 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

10 likes