What Beauty There Is

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What Beauty There Is

Cory Anderson

An exhilarating, emotionally powerful and superbly written thriller that’s Winter’s Bone meets The Road

Winter. The sky is dark. It is cold enough to crack bones.

Jack Morton has nothing left. Except his younger brother, Matty, who he’d do anything for. Even die for. Now with their mother gone, and their funds quickly dwindling, Jack needs to make a choice: lose his brother to foster care, or find the drug money that sent his father to prison. He chooses the money.

Ava Bardem lives in isolation, a life of silence. For seventeen years her father has controlled her fate. He has taught her to love no one. Trust no one. Now Victor Bardem is stalking the same money as Jack. When he picks up Jack’s trail, Ava must make her own wrenching choice: remain silent or help the brothers survive.

Choices. They come at a price.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

(4 / 5) The beginning opens with a serious tragedy. The domino effect this tragedy had was truly heartbreaking. It had me wanting to sign up to be a foster parent to love all the kids! Then it turned into a thriller and stuff was happening left and right. People were dying, people were being chased, kids are involved… oh wow! It was intense. 

While the events were far-fetched and crazy, it was highly entertaining and addicting. I could not see what was happening next. It was too crazy! I think the fact that it was happening to teens made it all the more crazy. 

It was a wild ride, if you love thrillers, this is for you!

Thank you to Fierce Reads and Roaring Brook Press for this highly entertaining gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is out April 6, 2021.

Detailed Content Review

Language 

F***- 1

H***- 5

S***- 9

A**- 3

B****- 1

D***- 15

Bas****- 1

Religious Cursing

J****- 2

Chr***-

G**- 8

L***-

Derogatory terms etc-

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A mother is addicted to pain meds. She doesn’t shower or do much anymore other than sit. 

A man smokes.

Previously a father sat on the couch and snorted “crank” (meth).

A man pushes a syringe of liquid into his arm in front of his young daughter.

A woman smokes a joint. 

A woman is a meth addict. Her husband used to cook it but now occasionally sells it. 

A man asks a young man if he wants a joint?

A man finds meth remnants on a truck. 

A man smokes a cigarette. 

A man smokes a cigarette. 

A woman smokes a cigarette. 

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

*No LGBTQ+ aspects included*

A young woman takes off the clothes of a young man as he passes out from injuries. She patches him up. 

A young woman takes off her clothes and gets under the covers with a fully dressed young man. He spoons her without touching her. 

A father comes to his daughters room at night and sits in a chair. Something more? (no details, but it made me wonder)

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

A young man needs to find drug money from his father. His father is in jail for robbery. 

“A long scar jags across his forehead and down his cheek from the time my mother came at him with a knife. She paid for that. He’s (no) killer, but he’s something worse.” 

A young woman stabs a young man with a pencil for threatening her. 

A man holds a gun to another man. They go for a drive and only one comes back. He has blood on his boots. Murder is assumed. 

A father slams his teen son’s face into a table. His nose bled and his tooth went through his lip. 

A man shoots a man, killing him. He watches as he jerks and twitches then he’s still and blood spreads.  Later the police find his body and describe his head wound. 

A man stitched up his own face. His wife cut him with a knife. He “made her leave. She’s never coming back.”

A rival drug dealer tried to scalp a man with an axe. He only halfway succeeded and the scalped man doesn’t sell anymore. 

**SPOILER**A young man is shot and falls unconscious. He wakes to a cut on his head, and a swollen eye. He is kicked in the gut then ribs. A man holds an axe over him to kill him. Instead they take his clothes and tie him up and leave him in the snow. He drips blood from trying to get out of the ropes. 

A young man attacks a man with a knife, stabbing. Shots are fired at him and he runs, one hitting him. 

A young woman stitches up a young man as he passes out from pain. 

A man shoots a dog with a rifle and shoots the hat off a man’s head. 

An officer is shot and killed when he attempts to check a truck bed. 

“The vehicle struck (him) from chest to knee with a crack; the world exploded into a thousand pieces. (He) traveled through the air, away from the truck, turning over as he went. He landed forty feet into the intersection….(His) head was open, and pink stuff had spilled out onto the snow. His arm and a leg were bent at terrible angles.” 

**SPOILER**A man forces his way in a door where a young boy is. He ties him up and duct tapes his mouth. He put the boy in a metal box in his truck. 

Shots are fired at a young man and young woman. They are chased in a car. 

A man shoots a man. Blood sprays the wall and drips. He shoots another man, blood covering the snow. He tells a young man to run then shoots at him. 

A young man cleans a wound and superglued it shut. 

A man knocks out a young woman.

A young woman stabs a man in the neck with a knife. 

A man shoots at a young woman as she runs from him. 

Potentially Intense Themes

**SPOILER** A young man finds his mother hanged. He tries to lift her but she’s limp. He cuts her down and holds her and cries. Then places her lovingly on the bed. He doesn’t tell his younger brother she’s dead and later drags her body down the stairs and digs a grave outside for her.

Dad in prison.

A mother and son talking, “You just don’t get it. You think your love is strong enough to make me quit. But it isn’t. I don’t care. I don’t care. Can’t you see? I have a new family.” 

“You mean the pills.” 

“I mean the pills.” 

“You have to try, Mom. You’re hurting yourself.” She shook her head. “You’re going to die.” 

“Oh yes, I am. And I hope for it. With all my heart.”

A wolf stalks a young man. 

A young girl goes hunting with her father. When he kills a deer, she feels something black wanting to swallow her. 

A young woman uses books and whiskey to start a house on fire. 

A young woman has been killed. No details other than finding her body. 

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.