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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: 3.99 · 189,103 ratings · 24,570 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	All the Ugly and Wonderful Things 3.99 avg rating — 173,988 ratings — published 2016 — 25 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 — 13,246 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 3.81 avg rating — 1,036 ratings — published 2012 — 8 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 3.70 avg rating — 821 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 3.42 avg rating — 12 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
	Unser leichtfertiger Eid 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	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
	All die Finsternis inmitten der Sterne 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	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

Writing in a dark room

In the first writing class I took, my teacher generally praised my writing, but remarked with increasing concern that my stories seemed to take place in a “white room.” He said that my work was suffering from some White Room Syndrome adjacent problem. In particular, he thought it was strange that my stories would include all the other senses, except visual. I would tell readers about smells, sound

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Bryn is Currently Reading

Bryn Greenwood is currently reading

The Luminaries

by Eleanor Catton

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Bryn Greenwood finished reading Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson	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 on page 187 of 848 of The Luminaries: This book has a lot of words. 😂 The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton progress:	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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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

What two books will we be reading in May and June?

If Not For You by Debbie Macomber

2 votes 12.5%

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

2 votes 12.5%

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

2 votes 12.5%

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

1 vote 6.3%

The Dressmaker by Posie Graeme-Evans

1 vote 6.3%

The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower

1 vote 6.3%

Stars of Fortune by Nora Roberts

1 vote 6.3%

Persuation by Jane Austin

1 vote 6.3%

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

1 vote 6.3%

Atonement by Ian McEwan

1 vote 6.3%

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

1 vote 6.3%

Country Bride by Debbie Macomber

1 vote 6.3%

A Million Little Things by Susan Mallery

1 vote 6.3%

Skye O'Malley by Bertrice Small

0 votes 0.0%

The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow

0 votes 0.0%

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

0 votes 0.0%

16 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

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

tags: love

600 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

Bryn’s Year In Books

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Bryn Greenwood

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120 posts
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Writing in a dark room

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