A woman discovers her marriage is built on an illusion in this harrowing and ultimately inspiring memoir.“Be forewarned: You won’t sleep until you finish the last page.”—Caroline Leavitt, author of Cruel Beautiful WorldOne night. One email. Two realities…Before: Jen Waite has met the partner of her dreams. A handsome, loving man who becomes part of her family, evolving into her husband, her … becomes part of her family, evolving into her husband, her best friend, and the father of her infant daughter.
After: A disturbing email sparks suspicion, leading to an investigation of who this man really is and what was really happening in their marriage.
In alternating Before and After chapters, Waite obsessively analyzes her relationship, trying to find a single moment form the past five years that isn’t part of the long con of lies and manipulation. Instead, she finds more lies, infidelity, and betrayal than she could have imagined. With the pacing and twists of a psychological thriller, A Beautiful, Terrible Thing looks at how a fairy tale can become a nightmare and what happens when “it could never happen to me” actually does.
more
Slow and not that interesting.
She could have gotten the same points in the book by writing an article for vanity fair. She repeated themes. Plus she made her husband out to be the only one at fault.
Started out really good but about midway through- meh! It became extremely repetitive. I felt like entire sentences were repeated over and over and over!
A wonderful book that truly holds your interest. Nothing like a true-tragic drama that unfolds across the pages. Sad, inspirational, and well-written despite some negative comments by some readers. Really grips you throughout.
I really like this book because it just hit home for me. I went through the same thing as the author about 18 yrs ago. I recommend it to a friend who’s going through it this yr. I learned so much from the therapist point of view on the subject. I could not put this book down.
It was hard to set it down. The ending left me wishing for a couple more chapters.
Very informative. Real to life
Read this in short time. Good read. Very insightful, makes reader wonder about his/her own partner and if their relationship is genuine. Very thought provoking. I wonder what Jennifer will actually do with her life now. Wish i had support of family like she has.
I have not finished it yet but so far it’s good…in fact I have to go read right now to see what happens!
It ‘s hard to imagine the control this sociopath had over his wife. Informative about about this kind of person.
It was interesting. Definitely wanted to find out what happened.
I have been unable to read it
(Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this book)
I read A BEAUTIFUL, TERRIBLE Thing by author Jen Waite this week and needed to wait a couple of days before I could write my review. This is a powerful book about a subject many women live with and do not talk about.
The book is a memoir of Jen’s marriage and the betrayal of all she believed to be true about the love of her life. It reminded me so much of the Lacey Peterson story, but thankfully Jen is a survivor. As the book progresses you will read how the emotional turmoil and the lies by Marco towards Jen becomes heartbreaking.
The book begins as Jen is holding her three week old baby and checking her email. Wait…she finds a questionable email on the shared computer. As she reads, she can hardly breathe…it has to be a mistake!
The book is written in chapters of Before and After, which is very easy to understand the timeline of what is happening in their lives. I don’t post spoilers about the book, but I will say, once I started reading I did not want to stop. You just know what is happening is not going to turn out well. I applaud Jen for being proactive and not waiting around to ask the hard questions and to seek the truth from Marco. Even though it would be easier to accept his explanations and excuses, she refuses to avoid the truth.
When she knows the truth of Marcos lies and infidelities, Jen does have trouble letting go of the need to check up on his personal media and phone records. She has become a bit obsessed with keeping track of his lies and his double life. She is addicted to feeling that she needs to know what he is doing and also wanting him to acknowledge what he has done is very wrong. This is the story of a smart young woman with a new baby, a lying, cheating husband, and now finds herself in major debt. It is also the story of how this betrayal nearly sunk her emotionally but with help of her family and therapy she has been able to redirect the hurt and anger.
Jen includes some very informative research about Sociopaths, Psychopaths, and Pathological liars. There is some strong language.
A powerful book of facing a hard truth and surviving and then being able to start over.