Blog Tour Book Review | What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson

Hello my lovely readers! How are you? Once again I’ve left you for a good few weeks, work has been relentless and now I’m on Easter Holiday’s which I’m loving and hopefully will get my blogging mojo back. I’m starting off my return with the Blog Tour with The Write Reads of What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson and what a book!? Honestly I’m finding so many amazing books with these tours so let me get on the review the latest one. Before that here is a bit more about the book.

What Beauty There Is (What Beauty There Is, #1) by Cory Anderson
Published by Penguin on April 8, 2021
Genres: Thriller, Young Adult Fiction, Siblings
Amazon | Book Depository | Waterstones
Goodreads

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.

My Review

I went into this book completely nonchalant, from beginning to the end I was hooked. Simple as that to be fair. I think for me it was the Cory’s writing that really captured me. Before I get into the review further I must mention that there is some trigger warnings from the beginning – suicide, death, famine, drug, alcohol and physical abuse.

The book follows two brothers, Jack and Matty Lehlan. Jack has just found his mum dead, and they are barely living off a tin of peaches and logs in the fire. Now he has to protect his younger brother. Ever since his father went to prison for robbery, the drug money he stole is hidden and now Jack finds himself making a choice for them to survive. But in a cold, desolate and remote town, along the way he stumbles across Ava, the second voice to our story and there is more to her than meets the eye. Now their choices have put them in perilous danger, will they survive?

What Beauty There Is spans across only a few days, but they are long, gruelling, violent days for the boys. Each chapter is short, but they each pack an emotional and physical punch to the reader and the characters. As a reader you are invested and entangled in the characters and all you want to do is surround them with warmth and hugs. It’s just so hard to pull away. The relationship of the brothers itself is the beauty that I feel Cory has titled the book. Jack and Matty as siblings are probably the most precious and loving and emotional brothers that I’ve come across in a long time. The hardships, the brutality, the fight to do anything for Matty, even die, is both admirable and courageous but so heartbreaking. Jack will do anything to protect him.

Having Ava felt like someone on the outside looking in. She is so guarded and breakable at the touch, her own story makes her that way. I wished there was more time for Ava and Jack as they needed each other. They would just about to get somewhere and we’ve moved swiftly on. But saying that I really did love her perspective to begin each chapter of her story along with Jack’s and Matty’s.

Each chapter starts with a different perspective from our main character which is Jack. It’s later in the book that we realise that the other small perspective is in fact Ava who helps the boys survive. Cory’s writing is beautifully haunting, she creates such a chilling, dark, cold atmosphere that you can imagine it perfectly. Her writing has such a poetic quality to it, in the way she describes things to make the plot of the book so entrancing. You can’t help but read more, you’re totally absorbed into the thrill of the novel but also deeply emotionally connected to Jack, Matty and Ava.

I’m not sure if I’ve conveyed how much this book is beautifully written, sometimes it’s hard to articulate everything you feel in a book and that basically sums up What Beauty There Is. All I can say is that this book will tear you apart, so make sure you have those tissues handy but whatever you do, don’t miss out on this incredible YA novel from debut novelist Cory Anderson.

Thank you to Penguin and The Writes Read for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.